How LA is shaking up the margarita

It’s hard to remember, but there was a time when you ordered a margarita it would come frozen and blended like a slushie. Often accompanied by a jaunty umbrella.

The margarita had first gained popularity in its classic form in the '50s and '60s but by the time the '70s and '80s came around, it was subjected to bottled juices, low-quality tequila and other indignities.

It wasn't until the early 2000s, when bartenders began to experiment once more with fresh ingredients and quality spirits, that the margarita became once again drink worth seeking out.

“Because of the cocktail  renaissance, with all the fresh fruit and all these new techniques, something with a basic formula such as the margarita is just so easy to play with,” says L.A. writer Caroline Pardilla, author of the new book Margarita Time : 60+ Tequila & Mezcal Cocktails, Served Up, Over & Blended 

Today, you'll see bartenders competing with each other to dream up modern, creative, boundary-pushing margarita variations, especially in L.A.

Los Angeles vibes

"Margarita Time" includes plenty of recipes for the home bartender.

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Ten Speed Press

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For Pardilla, who's covered the cocktail scene in L.A. for 20 years, the drink represents the city. You can find a margarita anywhere.

“If there are limes, tequila, or orange liqueur, that place can make you a margarita,” she says.

The cocktail is even offered on draft at All Seasons Brewing on La Brea.

Pardilla proclaims it L.A's unofficial cocktail. Her reasoning? Vibes.

"It’s a cocktail that speaks to our chill and relaxed attitude," Pardilla says.

Add to that the weather, quality ingredients, abundant produce available year-round and "great Mexican food," and it seems like a slam dunk.

Plus, as the cherry on top (or the salt on the rim), she says, Angelenos are not afraid to experiment. “We’re always trying something new."

Her book includes many such creations, including a red onion margarita and a Black Forest margarita.

Hang Loose Brah from Christine Wiseman

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Leela Cyd

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Part history, part how-to-guide and part recipes, the book looks at margaritas past and present. The drink goes back to Prohibition, when Americans would drive across the U.S.-Mexico border to sample a similar drink that wasn't necessarily made with tequila. Other origin stories she mentions include the Ziegfeld follies and an improvising bartender.

Weird, wacky and wonderful

Since we are, indeed, up to try new things, we asked Pardilla to highlight some of the most creative margarita options currently on offer in L.A. This is what she pointed to:

• Red Zeppelin from Big Bar in Los Feliz, served by bartender Abigail Smith. It's a red onion margarita made with reposado tequila, pineapple rum, lime juice and salted red onion syrup. "It provides a savory and complex flavor," Pardilla says. (Recipe in the book).
  
• A Bond Far Greater at Here's Looking at You in Koreatown. Every season, bartender Daniel Rubenstein presents new riffs on the classics, but Pardilla says the springtime margarita is a "must order." Made with red beet-infused blanco tequila, peanut and borage leaf syrup, fresh lime juice, orange liqueur and fire tincture, it takes you on a roller coaster ride of flavors, from bright citrus to heat to a nutty finish.
  
• Clarified margarita from bartender Max Reis at Mirate in Los Feliz. Reis has made a name for himself with unconventional cocktail-making techniques. Here, his clarified margarita uses a lime cordial, filtered using a centrifuge, which requires separating the solids from the lime juice. According to Pardilla, this method provides more subtle and nuanced flavors and lets the tequila’s natural properties shine through.(Recipe in the book is centifruge-free!)

Taking the party to your living room

If you started upping your home cocktail game during the pandemic, Pardilla hopes her book will guide you to greater heights — at least for margaritas.

 ”A lot of people are more comfortable making cocktails at home, following bartenders on social media, and watching cocktail videos," Pardilla says. "I thought the margarita is a cocktail that everybody knows and loves, so how about trying different versions of it?”