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Frozen margarita

From WikiTacos, the taco encyclopedia · Drink
Also known as: Margarita frozen, Blended margarita

A frozen margarita is a margarita served as a slush, either blended with ice or churned in a frozen drink machine. The first machine built for the drink was assembled in 1971 by Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez from a used soft-serve ice cream machine, and the original is now held by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Contents
  1. Blended margaritas
  2. The Martinez machine
  3. Smithsonian
  4. Today
  5. Recipe
  6. Where to try it
  7. Reviews
  8. See also
  9. References

Blended margaritas

Margaritas were being made with crushed or blended ice well before the machine. Wikipedia's margarita article credits Albert Hernandez Sr. with first blending the drink in La Jolla, California, in 1947. By the time Mariano Martinez opened his restaurant, bartenders commonly made frozen margaritas to order in electric blenders, which was slow and gave inconsistent results.

The Martinez machine

Mariano Martinez was born in Dallas in 1944 and grew up working in his father's Mexican restaurant. In 1971 he opened Mariano's Mexican Cuisine in the Old Town shopping center in Dallas, serving his father's margarita recipe. Texas Monthly gives the opening date as May 7, 1971, and reports that the bar fell badly behind on frozen margaritas that first night, with drinks varying in taste and texture. VinePair adds that the blenders kept burning out and bartenders were not measuring.

According to Texas Monthly and VinePair, Martinez saw a Slurpee machine at a 7-Eleven the next morning and decided a premixed margarita could be dispensed the same way. The company behind the Slurpee declined to sell him a machine, and frozen drink manufacturers told him alcohol would not freeze properly. With a friend, Frank Adams, he bought a secondhand SaniServ soft-serve ice cream machine, upgraded its motor and compressor, and adjusted the recipe to suit it. Wikipedia and VinePair give the date he bought and converted the machine as May 11, 1971. Texas Monthly reports that he covered it in wood-grain contact paper so it would not look out of place in the dining room.

Later in 1971 Texas changed its law to allow liquor by the drink in restaurants, which Wikipedia notes helped the drink's sales. Martinez did not patent the machine, and commercial frozen drink machines soon became common bar equipment. Texas Monthly credits the invention with shaping how frozen cocktails such as piña coladas and daiquiris came to be served.

Smithsonian

Martinez retired the original machine in the early 2000s after more than three decades in use. Texas Monthly says he donated it in 2003; Wikipedia and VinePair give 2005 as the year the National Museum of American History acquired it. Texas Monthly reports that curator Rayna Green researched frozen drink machine patents and concluded it was the first frozen margarita machine. The machine was shown in the museum's exhibition FOOD: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000, which opened in November 2012.

Today

Frozen margaritas are a fixture of Tex-Mex restaurants and happy hours across the United States, often offered in fruit flavors such as strawberry or mango. At home they are usually made in a blender.

Recipe

Makes 2 drinks · Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 4 fl oz (120 ml) blanco tequila
  • 2 fl oz (60 ml) orange liqueur
  • 2 fl oz (60 ml) fresh lime juice
  • 1 fl oz (30 ml) simple syrup or agave syrup, to taste
  • 3 cups (about 400 g) ice cubes
  • Lime wedge and coarse salt for the rims

Steps

  1. Salt the rims of two chilled glasses using a lime wedge and coarse salt.
  2. Put the liquids in a blender first, then add the ice.
  3. Blend on high until completely smooth with no ice chunks, about 30 to 45 seconds.
  4. Taste and add a little more syrup if needed; frozen drinks taste less sweet than room-temperature ones.
  5. Pour into the glasses and serve right away with a lime wedge.

For a fruit version, replace about 1 cup of ice with frozen strawberries or mango chunks.

Where to try it

Reviews

Reviews and tips open at launch. Readers will be able to share where they found the best version of this and how they make it at home.

See also

References

  1. "Fifty Years Ago a Texan Changed Happy Hour Forever". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  2. "How a Souped-Up Soft Serve Machine Spawned 50 Glorious Years of Frozen Margs". VinePair. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  3. "Mariano Martinez (entrepreneur)". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  4. "Margarita machine". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
  5. "Margarita". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
Categories: Cocktails Dallas Drinks Frozen drinks Tequila cocktails Tex-Mex