Four ingredients. A shaker. Twelve seconds of effort. There is no faster cocktail than a margarita made well — and not many that get cut more corners. Most of the London margaritas you will meet are heavier on shortcuts than effort, which isn't the same thing. Here is how we shake ours at Frida Camden, the exact recipe we use, and the small decisions at every step.
The shortcuts most bars take
Before the recipe, the things to leave behind. None of these are crimes. They're just the reasons most margaritas in London taste flat, sweet, or chemically off — and the reasons ours doesn't.
Bottled lime juice. Preserved with sodium benzoate or potassium metabisulphite. Both round off the citrus edge and leave a slight chemical residue you can taste in a clean cocktail. Fresh-squeezed lime is brighter, slightly bitter at the rim, and fades within a few hours.
Pre-mixed sour mix. The yellow stuff in plastic jugs behind a lot of London bars. Lime, sugar, water, preservatives, food colouring. It works for high-volume venues. It is also the single biggest reason a margarita can taste like lemonade.
Mixto tequila. The legal definition of tequila allows up to 49% non-agave sugars in the bottle (a "mixto"). Mixtos are cheaper, hotter, and one-note. They have their use as shooters; they don't survive being shaken into a cocktail.
Frozen-machine slushie. Not a margarita. A different drink. Slushier, sweeter, lower in alcohol because the ice has already done most of the dilution. Beach-holiday legitimate, but not the same thing as what we shake.
Pre-batching. Some bars build twenty margaritas at the start of service and pour from a pitcher. Lime oxidises within the hour. The first guest gets a fresh drink; the seventh gets something flatter and softer.
The recipe
One drink, served on the rocks, with a half-rim of sea salt.
Ingredients
- 50 ml blanco tequila (100% blue agave — never mixto)
- 25 ml fresh lime juice (squeezed that day)
- 20 ml Cointreau — our default — or a quality dry triple sec as alternative
- 10 ml agave syrup
- Sea salt, for the rim (optional)
- Cubed ice for the shake; one large cube for the glass
- A lime wheel, to garnish
Method
- Salt the rim. Lime wedge round half the glass top, dip into sea salt, set aside.
- Build the shaker. Two-thirds of cubed ice, four ingredients on top.
- Shake for twelve seconds. Hard. Not a polite one.
- Strain over fresh ice. Single large cube, Hawthorne strainer.
- Garnish. Lime wheel on the rim. Water on the side.
The ratio — and why this exact spec
50/25/20/10 isn't the only way to build a margarita. It is the way we settled on after several years of small adjustments. A few notes on why.
50 ml of blanco tequila is the foundation; less and the lime bullies the spirit, more and the drink turns into a tequila slammer with citrus on the side. 25 ml of lime juice is the acid balance — roughly half the tequila by volume. Bigger limes will give you more juice; we go by weight, not by lime count, on a busy night. 20 ml of Cointreau sits below the lime, so the orange supports rather than leads. 10 ml of agave syrup is the small thing most home recipes leave out. It rounds the acid without sweetening the drink — you don't taste agave in the glass; you taste the absence of harshness.
The technique: shake, time, ice
The shaker. Boston shaker (a metal tin with a smaller tin or pint glass that sits inside it). Cobbler shakers — the three-piece kind with the built-in strainer — are slower to break the seal and harder to use one-handed. Boston shakers are what bars use because they're faster and easier to clean.
The ice. Cubed, not crushed. Crushed ice over-dilutes in seconds. Cubed ice gives you twelve seconds of cold and chip without watering down the spirit.
The shake. Hard. The point of a hard shake is twofold: it chills the drink fast (so total dilution stays low) and it bruises the ice slightly, releasing tiny shards that give the finished drink a thinner, brighter mouthfeel. A gentle shake produces a flatter, syrupier drink.
Twelve seconds. Not five (under-chilled, under-diluted). Not thirty (over-watered). Twelve is the number bars converge on for shaken citrus drinks.
"A margarita is four ingredients in twelve seconds. Done right, it doesn't need anything else."
The salt — and why we ask
Salt is optional. Half the room expects it, the other half won't drink with it. We ask before we shake.
Salt belongs at the lip of the glass, not in the drink. A salted rim works because each sip pulls a small amount of salt onto the tongue and sharpens the lime. Salt mixed into the drink does the opposite — it dulls. The technical move is half-rim only: salt on one side of the glass, none on the other. The drinker chooses which side to sip from. This saves a lot of sent-back drinks.
Use sea salt or kosher salt, not iodised table salt. Coarser salt sticks to the rim and tastes cleaner.
If you'd rather not shake
For at home: a margarita can be stirred. Pour the four ingredients over ice in a mixing glass, stir for fifteen seconds with a bar spoon, strain over fresh ice. The result is slightly less foamy and slightly cleaner — a different texture, not a worse drink. Bartenders call this the "stirred-down" version. It's particularly nice for sipping over a longer time.
For the shaker-shy: most modern home bars sell good Boston shakers for under twenty pounds. They are easier than they look once you've done two or three.
For the truly shake-averse: reserve a table. We'll shake yours.
The most common mistakes home cocktail-makers make
In rough order of how often we hear them: bottled lime juice (chemistry), too much sweetener (lollipop margarita), wrong tequila (mixto burn), under-shaking (warm and flat), pre-batching (oxidised lime). The fix for each is the same as the description: use fresh lime, measure the agave syrup carefully, buy 100% agave blanco tequila, shake for twelve seconds, build per-glass.
The other thing — and this comes up less often, but it matters — is the water glass. A good margarita is meant to drink fast and cold. A water glass on the side keeps you from racing through it. We bring one with every shake.
If you want the story behind ours
This piece is the recipe and the technique. The longer version — the four origin stories nobody can prove, the decisions we made about the tequila and the lime, why we picked Camden — is in our companion piece on the story behind Frida's house margarita. They are designed to be read together.
If you're new to the bar, our other recent writing covers what the rest of the night looks like — Cinco de Mayo at Frida, the guacamole we mash at the table, and our mezcal pour for guests who want the agave-spirit road trip.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use lemon juice instead of lime?
Lemon will work in a pinch, but the result is no longer a margarita — it's a different drink with a slightly more bitter, less floral acid profile. Lime is the structural ingredient because it pairs with agave-based spirits in a way lemon doesn't quite reach. If you're truly out of limes, we'd suggest waiting until tomorrow.
Can I batch margaritas for a party?
Short version: not really. Lime juice oxidises within an hour or two, even refrigerated, and the drink loses its bright top note. If you need to serve a crowd, the better move is to pre-mix the tequila, Cointreau and agave syrup (which keep), and shake the lime in fresh per glass. It's slower, but the drinks taste right.
Why a half-salt rim, not the full rim?
Because half the people who order a margarita don't want salt at all. A half-rim lets the same drink work for both — the drinker rotates the glass to either the salted or unsalted side. It's a small bar-tending convention that saves a lot of sent-back drinks. We always ask first; if you want the full rim, we'll do that too.
Is the agave syrup necessary?
Strictly, no — a margarita can be built without it (50/25/20 ratio). With agave syrup, the acid is rounded slightly and the drink is less aggressive on the first sip. Without it, you get a drier, sharper margarita that some drinkers prefer. We use 10 ml as our default; ask the bartender if you'd like it cut.
What's the difference between Cointreau and triple sec for this recipe?
Cointreau is a specific premium triple sec — drier, higher proof, more orange-peel character. A "triple sec" is the catch-all term for the same category, and ranges from cheap-and-sweet to dry-and-clean. Our default is Cointreau, but we keep a quality dry triple sec on the bar as well. Either makes a fine drink; the difference is small but real.
Save your table
Frida Camden, 40 Camden High Street, London NW1 0JH. Between Mornington Crescent and Camden Town tube. Open Sun–Thu 10:30–22:00 (last food orders 21:30), Fri–Sat 10:00–23:00 (last food orders 22:30). Book a table online or call us on +44 207 383 3733.
