The Best Margarita

Well, I didn’t have the ultimate margarita whilst in Santa Fe, but I had some pretty good ones.  Which for me means:

1. Tart, rather than sweet.
2. No sweet-n-sour mix (see #1).
3. Rocks, no salt (I just don’ get the salt thing, and drinking a margarita slushee may beat a lot of things in life, but not drinking an actual margarita).

The biggest problem one has in Santa Fe, in fact, is that there are too many margaritas — at a decent restaurant, there can be a half dozen to a dozen or more, discernible largely by price, escalating to more sophisticated tequilas or agaves, and more fancy orange liqueurs.

I found the best tactic was to go for the third level margarita — assuming the lowest level is from the margarita machine/sour mix, and the second level is beginning to use “real” ingredients, but without going too much into the “1927 Huaxopotl Platinum Tequila (unfiltered)” kind of schtick (I save that for wine).

Top award for the week goes to La Casa Sena — a marvelous margarita over lunch.

Honorable mention to The Old House (sloe gin added a more sophisticated sweetness, plus a nice color) and the Coyote Cantina (not sophsticated, but strong). 

I actually didn’t drink bad margarita the whole trip, so pour yourselves another one, Amaya, Garduno’s, and, yes, even you, Chef Jimmy.

Cheers!

(My home recipe, btw, is 3-1-2 — 3 parts tequila, 1 part orange liqueur, 2 parts lime juice.  That mixes something nice and strong, not to mention tart enough to make your eyes water; we often muddle in a bit of powdered sugar for the n00bs.)