The mezcal margarita: the recipe and the four mistakes

The mezcal margarita is the cocktail most responsible for converting tequila drinkers to mezcal drinkers. The smoke replaces the orange liqueur as the second flavor; the citrus does what citrus does. Done right, the drink is unkillable. Done wrong, it tastes like a campfire cleaning product. The difference is four small decisions, none of them about the recipe itself.

The recipe is short. Two ounces of mezcal. One ounce of fresh lime juice. Three-quarters of an ounce of simple syrup or agave nectar (use simple if you can; agave nectar over-sweetens by about a quarter teaspoon and the math compounds). Salt rim on a chilled coupe or rocks glass. Shake with ice for ten seconds, strain. The cocktail is a sour at its core; the mezcal does the work the orange liqueur does in a classic margarita.

Mistake one is the bottle. A $35 mezcal in a margarita is correct. A $90 mezcal in a margarita is a waste – citrus eats the aromatic complexity that you paid the extra fifty-five dollars for. Banhez Espadín-Barril at $35, Del Maguey Vida Clásico at $38, or Mestiza Negra at $20-29 are the right tier. Within that tier, espadín bottlings are right; wild agaves are wrong (you'll lose what makes them wild).

Mistake two is the proof. 38-40% ABV mezcals don't make good cocktails because the citrus drowns them. You need 45%+ to push the smoke through the lime. This rules out most bargain-bin mezcals; it includes every bottle worth sipping anyway. If your mezcal margarita tastes flat, the proof is usually the problem.

Mistake three is the orange liqueur. Don't add it. The classic margarita is mezcal-lime-syrup; adding Cointreau or triple sec reverts toward a tequila margarita and erases what the mezcal is doing. If you want a third flavor, swap simple syrup for honey syrup (one part hot water, one part honey) – the floral notes complement smoke in a way the sterile triple-sec sweetness can't.

Mistake four is the salt. Recipes that call for tajín, chile-lime salt, or smoked salt are recipes adding noise. Plain kosher salt is what the cocktail wants – the smoke is already in the spirit, and any flavored salt fights it for territory on the rim. The exception: a half-and-half rim with worm salt (sal de gusano) on one side, plain salt on the other, is a legitimate Oaxacan move. Anything else is decoration.

The variant we drink most often is the Tommy's-style mezcal margarita, which substitutes agave nectar for the simple syrup and skips the orange liqueur entirely (Tommy's was already doing this with tequila in San Francisco in the early 90s). Two ounces mezcal, one ounce lime, half an ounce of agave nectar, no triple sec. Drier and more savory; we prefer it to the classic. The recipe at the top of this article is the more forgiving version for guests; this one is the version for regulars.

If you're making a single drink, shake hard with one big ice cube and strain into a coupe; salt half the rim. If you're making six, build a 6× batch in advance, refrigerate, shake portions to order. Lime juice goes off in two days. Pre-batched margaritas go off in three. Make for tonight, drink tonight.