Margarita Recipe

Basically, this is the concoction that created the Americanos' taste for tequila in the 1960's. Before this, tequila (which is technically a brandy) was best known in Central America and Mexico. Tax records in the Mexican town of Tequila note that 3 barrels of "mezcal wine" had been shipped to Texas in 1873, and American troop in pursuit of Pancho Villa had brought some back in 1916. Still, folks north of the border had not quite taken to the taste of tequila. Even when there was a shortage of gin during World War II, the gringo interest in tequila proved to be nothing more than a flirtation.

Then California college students discovered the Margarita, and the rest (as they say) is history. As for the creation of the drink itself, several bars and bartenders have staked a claim. The Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana boasts of its origin around 1930, as does Bertita's bar in Tasca, Mexico. Later claims have been insisted upon not only by the Garci Crespo Hotel in Puebla, Mexico, around 1936 (where the bartender says he named the drink for his girlfriend), but also by a couple from San Antonio, Texas, who spent many an hour wasting away during the 1950's at the bar of the Flamingo Hotel in Acapulco, where they owned a home. (Her name, of course, was Margarita.) And not to be denied a piece of the legend is an LA restaurant called The Tale of the Cock, where they claim to have created this recipe first during the Eisenhower Administration.

But the most documented story comes from Danny Herrera, who owned Rancho La Gloria between Rosarito Beach and Tijuana. In the late 1940's, a showgirl named Marjorie King stopped there often, and she had a drinking "problem" of sorts: she was allergic to every form of booze except tequila, which she needed mixed. Among the many tequila experiments that Danny Herrera tried was a concoction consisting of 3 parts white tequila, 2 parts Cointreau, and 1 part fresh lemon juice. These he shook together in a container of shaved ice, then served up in a short stemmed glass rimmed with lemon juice and salt. This she liked, and so he gave the drink the Spanish name for Marjorie: Margarita.

Carlos Herrera, known locally as the man who topped a tequila concoction with salt and called it a margarita, has died. He was 90.

Herrera died Monday at Grossmont Hospital. He had moved to San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico, five years ago. His daughter, Gloria Amezcua, said he died of natural causes.

Herrera's relatives say he invented the drink at Rancho La Gloria, a restaurant he opened in 1935 at his home south of Tijuana.

He told friends that it was sometime in 1938 or '39 that he decided to mix a jigger of white tequila with lemon juice, shaved ice, triple sec and - the crowning touch - salt.

Local legend has it that one of his customers was a showgirl and sometime actress who called herself Marjorie King. She was allergic to all hard liquor except tequila, and she didn't like to drink that straight.

That reputedly set Herrera to experimenting, and he named the result "margarita" after the actress, the legend goes.

It is amazing how widely used this recipe is. People all over the map have latched on to this recipe as their favorite, and here is why: It is easy to make, and it is great every time.

This margarita mix was perfected in Seattle, Washington based on vast margarita consumption in Tucson AZ during the 1980s. Nearly every person who has tried this recipe has enjoyed it. Even folks who "hate tequila and hate margaritas" wind up liking this recipe and making their own margaritas.