When: February 22
National Margarita Day on February 22 celebrates the cocktail that's become America's bestselling mixed drink — a tequila, lime, and triple sec combination with as many origin stories as variations.
At least seven people have claimed credit for inventing the margarita. The actual origin is genuinely unknown — which is fitting for a drink made from a spirit that was itself an accident.
Tequila begins with time. The blue agave plant must grow for 7 to 12 years before harvest — its core, the piña, roasted and fermented and distilled into a spirit that tastes like nothing else on earth. For most of the 20th century, "tequila" in America meant mixto — a blend of agave and cane sugar spirits, the cheap version that fueled questionable decisions and morning regrets. Real tequila, made from 100% blue agave, became a consumer standard only in the 1990s and 2000s. The margarita that made tequila America's drink was mostly built on the inferior version. The upgrade came later. The margarita's origin is genuinely unknown. At least seven people have claimed credit. The most often cited: Carlos "Danny" Herrera at his Tijuana restaurant in 1938, who made the drink for actress Marjorie King, allergic to all spirits except tequila. Also cited: Dallas socialite Margarita Sames at a 1948 Acapulco house party; bartender Don Carlos Orozco in Ensenada in 1941; a bartender named Santos...