How to Drink Margarita

- This is How to Drink, the show about making cocktails,
and how to drink them. I'm Greg, and I have never
been a professional bartender. I've never even had a job in a bar. I don't worry too much about
precision and technique, because at the end of the day, if the drink you like is in the glass, you did it right.

Let's get going. (Joyful, jaunty music) How to Drink is back.  I'm back in the saddle again  Some things are the same, some things are a little different. That's all right, everybody's
a little different.

Life moves on, man, whatevs. Welcome back to the smooth
and more filling flavor of How to Drink for season five. You're amazing, I feel amazing, let's make some drinks. That's enough of an intro, it's boring.

Nobody wants to hear about it. Let's make a cocktail. Today we're gonna make a margarita. Know why we're making a margarita? We're gonna make a margarita
because of Cinco de Mayo.

Not because of Cinco de Mayo, we're gonna make a margarita
in time for Cinco de Mayo. And I thought about putting
on a really offensive costume, but I realized that that would
be really offensive, so no. I love margaritas, we
haven't done one on the show. I don't know why.

I make mine extremely simple, I don't mess with orange
juice or sugar or anything. It's just lime and curacao and tequila. It's really stripped down, actually, when you make it right, I think. But to do that, I think you
should use a better tequila.

I would definitely use a
100% agave reposado tequila. I like Fortazela. Oh no, Fortaleza, I like Fortaleza. You know, but, other
tequilas are fine as well.

I just would, you know, middle shelf? Middle shelf, not bottom
shelf, middle shelf. You don't need like top
shelf, but middle shelf. To do that, I'm gonna need a shaker. This is a shaken drink.

And I'm going to need a lime. I'm gonna cut this lime in half. So, it's one ounce of lime
juice, one ounce of lime juice. (Joyful, jaunty music) (lime juice pours) We're gonna use one ounce of curacao.

(Curacao pours) (cork squeaks) Ooh. Mmmhmm. And two ounces of tequila. (Tequila pours) I have saved the hull of the
lime that we juiced before, and just the outside, I'm going to kind of
moisten with lime juice.

Now, why am I doing just the outside? Because when you rim a glass, you don't wanna rim the
inside of the glass. You don't wanna add salt
to the cocktail liquid, just to where the outside is. So, that's well done. I'm not very good at rimming glasses.

Some of you are probably
better at this than I am. I don't actually make, I'm not a professional, and so I make the drinks I make at home, and I don't actually in my home bar do much rimmed cocktails. Nonetheless, that's the glass we're
gonna put this margarita in. Eh, it's okay.

You can probably do a
better job than that. I'm going to put some ice in my shaker. Here I'm gonna throw in
one cube whole like that, and then the other one I'm gonna crack. Why am I gonna do that? Well, (smacks) come on baby.

(Ice chips fall) I'm doing that because Dave
Arnold did this really fun study a number of years ago, trying to prove that the kind
of ice you used didn't matter, and he proved himself wrong, and he found out that the
best way to set up your shaker was with one big heavy object that displaces a lot of liquid, and around it some, what
he calls agitator cubes, but smaller cubes to provide the dilution. (Liquid pours) (smacks) (ice shakes) (smacks) Just a quick shake. And I'm ready to pour. (Joyful, jaunty music) I'm gonna garnish this with
a lime wheel, keep it easy.

(Slices) If you look at this, you're gonna see that there are cells and, you know, the natural wedges there, and then there's a center. You wanna make sure you cut
not quite to the center. Like that, and that way
it'll stand upright, instead of sinking and
falling all the way across. I made a margarita, I made it.

Let's see how it is. (Sips) Oh yeah, okay, ooh yeah. Mmmm. I needed this.

This is a hell of a damn drink. Salted margaritas stumble on something that people in the cooking world have known for a number of years, which is that salt is a flavor enhancer. Dave Arnold, for example, advocates for making saline solution, and he uses saline solution and salt as an ingredient
in a lot of drinks. This drink is fantastic,
the salt is a part of it.

You don't need to salt the rim. Some people only do a 50/50, so you have an option on a
sip, or they do a lighter salt. The drink is citrusy and bright and fresh and you can really
taste the tequila still. A lot of times the margarita
recipe involves orange juice, or simple syrup, and just a lot of ingredients
that shouldn't be necessary if you're using a quality tequila.

And if you're using a quality tequila, you should let it come
out in front, you know. History of the margarita
is a little bit murky. David Wondrich holds that it is a evolution of a tequila daisy that kind of comes out of a hotel, I forget the name of
off the top of my head, but that's okay you can
tell me in the comments, from Tijuana during prohibition. I think he's probably right,
I've heard some other stories.

I won't misquote them now, because I don't have them memorized. I don't really care. It's a damn good drink. I will be enjoying them all summer long, as we approach the warmer months.

Got a little bit on my mustache there. I don't know what else
to say about a margarita. You've probably had a margarita. This is a good margarita,
and I like this recipe.

It's very easy, I never forget the recipe. Two, one, one, only three ingredients and the salt, and they're taste phenomenal. Oh my god, it's good. What's a good time for a margarita? Sunset, how about with dinner? For me, actually, it's like a dinner drink because some cocktails
are like dessert drinks, some cocktails are before dinner drinks, some cocktails are day drinking drinks, breakfast cocktails.

I like a margarita at dinner because it doesn't conflict
with the flavors for me, 'cause it's like a palette cleanser, kind of like the ginger
that goes with sushi. Oh yeah, I'm being told I
was supposed to say beach. I was supposed to say I like
a margarita at the beach. I don't go to the beach, I live in an edit suite.

There's no window, only darkness. Cheers! So this is How to Drink, the show about making cocktails
and how to drink them, and it's season five, so thank you for watching. And I'm gonna see you guys next week with another drink on How to Drink. Oh, by the way, happy,
happy Cinco de Mayo.

Hey, who knows the history on that one? 'Cause Cinco de Mayo, a lot of people think, a lot of guys think that
Cinco de Mayo was when Spain, no when Mexico got free from
Spain, but that's not true. Cinco de Mayo is when Mexico
got free from Napoleon. That's right, yeah, they
got free from France. It's actually, I think it's not kind
of a big deal in Mexico.

Like Mexican independence
day is another day. I don't know it, but that's
when they got free from Spain. That's a big day. That's, you know, Napoleon,
tiny man, Bonaparte.

You ever read the Aubrey
and Maturin novels? They take place during
the Napoleonic wars. It's about Captain Aubrey
and his doctor, Maturin. They made one of them into a movie, Master and Commander: The
.Far Side of the World Great movie, it's about sailing. This is How to Drink, the show about making cocktails
and how to drink them.

It's season five, we're back. Hey, why don't you check
out my Instagram @how2drink or my twitter, also @how2drink, or my blog at thisishowtodrink.Com If you want any of the
stuff I use on the show, you can buy it there at
thisishowtodrink.Com/gear and when you do that, I get
a cut of it and that's nice. You know, to help me make the show. There's a Patreon that I have, and I'm gonna provide a link to.

And you guys are the best, the best fans. I'm gonna finish this cocktail. Ah. (Joyful, jaunty music) You traitorous lime!.