A great goal for the summer.
with triple sec and lime juice—is forgiving for beginners but with enough room for experimentation that seasoned pros can add their own touches of flair.as long as you have a shaken drink with tequila, lime, and orange liqueur, you are safely in Margaritaville.¾ oz. orange liqueurCombine everything in a shaker, add ice, and shake vigorously for 15 seconds, strain into a coupe or rocks glass with ice. Salt rim optional. Garnish with a lime wheel.
But knowing how to adapt, whether to your environment or to the people you’re making drinks for, is one of the most important tools available to you as a drink-maker. There are a ton of levers to pull when deciding the ultimate fate of a drink so that you won’t be caught off guard if you’re with a group of people who love sweet drinks or who insist on using a bottle of mezcal they just discovered.
The taste of any given tequila is influenced by how much time it spent aging in oak barrels. Blanco tequila is bottled without spending any time in oak, Reposado tequila sees up to three months in oak barrels , and Añejo tequila is aged up to a year in barrel. All tequilas offer a base level of roasty vegetal notes, but blancos give a bright, sparkly sheen to cocktails, whereas reposados and anjeos add a layer of warmth and spice.
Additionally, feel free to replace a portion of the tequila with mezcal, the smoky agave spirit of which tequila is a specific subset. Start out by subbing out ½ oz. and feel it out from there. You can even get really wild and sub in non-agave spirits like gin or Bourbon.For a drier margarita, ditch the agave syrup; or, on the other end of the spectrum, make your drink sweeter by upping the agave syrup to ½ or even ¾ oz.