Classic margarita with a dried lime wheel.
A margarita is a sour, and a good sour is just maths. Two parts tequila, one part lime, a little under one part orange liqueur. Get the ratio right, shake it properly cold, and you don't need a slushie machine or a litre of bottled mix to make the best margarita you've had all year.
The lime wheel on the rim is the photograph everyone takes. A fresh slice wilts on the salt and slides off into the drink. A dried lime wheel sits crisp on the rim, holds the salt beside it, and reads as lime long after a fresh slice would have gone translucent and sad.
What you'll need
- 50ml blanco tequila
- 25ml fresh lime juice
- 20ml triple sec (Cointreau)
- Flaky salt, for the rim
- 1 dried lime wheel
- Ice, to shake
How to make it
- Run a fresh lime wedge around half the rim of a chilled coupe, then dip that half in flaky salt. Half a rim means the drinker chooses each sip.
- In a shaker, combine the tequila, lime juice, and triple sec. Fill with ice.
- Shake hard for 10 seconds, until the shaker is frosted and your hand is cold.
- Double-strain into the prepared glass so no ice shards get through.
- Perch a dried lime wheel on the salted rim, or float it on the surface. Either way it stays sharp.
Why dried beats fresh here
Fresh lime does the heavy lifting inside the glass, where you want its juice. On the rim, though, a fresh slice is a liability: it goes soft, it bleeds water into the salt, and it never photographs the way you hoped. A dried lime wheel keeps its colour and structure, holds its place on the rim, and finishes the drink looking deliberate rather than improvised.
Squeeze the fresh lime for the sour. Reach for the dried wheel for the garnish. Two different jobs, two different limes.
Use the Lime jar, about 25 wheels, a margarita night in a jar.