Margarita

Like all cocktail legends, the margarita’s origin is disputed and no single story is confirmed. The drink's formula is essentially a tequila sour + liqueur, which makes it likely to have grown out of the “daisy” cocktail format (a spirit, citrus and liqueur), and “Margarita” is also the Spanish for daisy. Difford's Guide cites an article from 1936 written by the editor (James Graham) of a local newspaper telling the story of a certain Mr. Madden, an Irishman who ran a bar out of Tijuana, Mexico. According to that account, Madden said that the "Tequila Daisy" was a product of a rather fortuitous mistake, wherein he grabbed the wrong bottle in mixing a drink and thus made the concoction. A near-identical drink called the Picador appeared in Harry Craddock’s 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. Several bartenders also claim the invention within the mid-century time period, among them Carlos “Danny” Herrera, also in Tijuana in the late 1930s, and Margarita Sames at an Acapulco party in 1948. The earliest printed recipes under the name "margarita" appear in the early 1950s, including an Esquire feature in 1953.

What we do know is that tequila label Jose Cuervo was marketed by its US distributor in the mid 1950s, with advertisements pushing tequila-based cocktails, most commonly the margarita. It became a mass-market staple in the 1970s. Mariano Martinez, a Dallas restaurateur, introduced a frozen margarita machine in 1971, reportedly inspired by a soft-serve dispenser, and Jimmy Buffett’s 1977 song “Margaritaville” cemented the drink in pop culture. The cocktail-revival era later brought a return to fresh-lime, tequila-forward versions like the Tommy’s, and gave birth to countless variants including spicy and mezcal-based formulations.