What about the Frozen Margarita?

A lot of bad things happened to the Margarita after its inception. Cheap ingredients are commonly swapped in for anything of substance, let alone quality. Pre-processed sour mix from plastic bottles, bottom shelf mixto tequila and orange juice is thrown in rather than a 100-percent agave tequila and a dash of orange liqueur that respects the spirit. Few things have done more harm to the modern Marg than the frozen Margarita.

The frozen Margarita has a concrete origin story. Every frozen Marg has its roots in Dallas, Texas. In 1971, Mariano Martinez opened Mariano’s Hacienda in East Dallas. The change hit Martinez while he was at a 7-Eleven pouring a refreshing slushy drink from the very popular Slurpee machine to beat the Texas summer heat.

Martinez and his friend, Frank Adams, purchased an old soft-serve ice cream machine and adjusted its settings until it could churn out the perfect frozen Margarita. It was an instant success and popularity soared. Mariano’s is still open today, but to see the original frozen Margarita machine visit the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. No surprise the frozen Marg was top item when Chili’s Grill and Bar first opened in Dallas, Texas in 1975.

Countless cheap versions of the Margarita are everywhere, but none has had quite as large an impact on spreading mediocre Margs as any chain restaurants frozen Margarita.

Drink up me hearties, Yo Ho! Snake