With illustrations by W. Scott Koenig

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1940 to 1950

"It's just like a daisy, only in Spanish!"

Perhaps the most common origin story is that Carlos (Danny) Herrera of Tijuana’s Rancho La Gloria restaurant invented it for Ziegfeld showgirl Marjorie King because she said tequila was the only hard liquor she could abide. He mixed her tequila with lime juice and named the cocktail after her. Another version of the story is set not in Tijuana but in Ensenada’s Bar Andaluz with King cast as the owner.

The star of another popular story is Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth (whose real name was Margarita Casino) for whom the first Margarita was both mixed and named during a Tijuana gig at the Agua Caliente racetrack in the 1940s.

Hussong’s Cantina in Ensenada also claims the Margarita. In 1941, Hussong’s bartender Don Carlos Orozco supposedly mixed it for Margarita Henkel, daughter of the German Ambassador to Mexico. There are various versions of this same story set elsewhere.

The most likely story is that the Margarita was created as a variation of a pre-existing cocktail—the Brandy Daisy—with tequila replacing the brandy in the original. The English word daisy translates to Spanish as margarita and other than the liquor, the two recipes are nearly identical.

1950s to 1970s

"It's just like a real Margarita only frozen!"

Much like the origin of the Margarita itself, no one knows who first put a Margarita and ice in a blender. Most guesses place that origin squarely in the 1950s. But the story of when the Frozen Margarita became a thing is much clearer: 1971 in Dallas. Afraid of losing his bartender—or customers due to inconsistent Margaritas and inspired by the 7-Eleven Slurpee—Mariano Martinez created the first Frozen Margarita machine. Problems solved.

In 2005 the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC acquired Martinez’s original Frozen Margarita Machine. It remains in the Museum’s collection today.

Today

"It's just like a margarita but all grown up!"

The Margarita is the face that launched a thousand variations even if we don’t know whose face inspired the drink. Modern mixologists use different liquors (like smoky mezcal in the place of tequila), sweeteners (like agave syrup, fruit juices, or even grilled fruit), rim salts (perhaps including chiles), and create even more exotic variations.

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