Drink up on National Margarita Day

By Maria Martinez
Blog Content Contributor

If there’s one thing Texans know how to do best, it’s how to drink a good Margarita. National Margarita Day is celebrated on February 22; I want to start a petition to make it an official federal holiday and have the day off.

Margaritas are the most common Tequila based cocktail in the United States. Statistics from the Beverage Information & Insights Group report an average of 185,000 Margaritas are consumed by Americans every hour!

There are many theories of who, how and when the first Margarita was invented. One of the earliest stories is that Mexican restaurant owner, Carlos “Danny” Herrera, created the first margarita in 1938 at his restaurant Rancho La Gloria, halfway between Tijuana and Rosarito, Mexico. He created this delicious drink for aspiring actress Marjorie King, who was allergic to all hard alcohol, other than tequila. Since she was a little picky and didn’t like to drink it straight; Herrera supposedly solve the problem by adding salt and lime and creating the world’s first Margarita. 

However, according to The Complete Book of Spirits, Jose Cuervo was the first importer of this drink in the United States. He advertised it with the tagline, “Margarita: it’s more than a girl’s name,” in 1945. On a side note, this summer I went to Tequila, Mexico, the flagship distillery of Cuervo, and I tried the best Margarita in the world. I want to go back.  

This drink has developed into so many different flavors and varieties, from pomegranate to strawberry, raspberry, ginger-pineapple, cucumber mint, green tea, and chocolate. But thankfully, we will always have it in its classic form—tequila, lime juice and Cointreau or Triple Sec, served in a glass with a salted rim. 

If you don’t know where to celebrate National Margarita Day, don’t worry! Here in San Marcos we have really cool places to go enjoy ourselves.

• Grin’s: Monday to Friday, from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m., Grin’s has 99 cents Margaritas!! You read that right, I am not kidding with you. Grab your friends and have some Ritas.

• Chimy’s Cerveceria: Their happy hour is from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. They have different flavors, and they all are delicious! They haven’t announced their #NationalMargaritaDay special, but they typically do a $1 off every Margarita.

• Zelicks: They will throw a party from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., this Wednesday. Zelicks will have a number of hand crafted Margaritas on special, for you to try: The Jalapeno Cucumber Marg– Tequila, Cointreau, Agave & Lime, Sangria Margarita– House Frozen Marg with Sangria, Skinny Margarita – Lime, Agave, Soda & Tequila, Beer Rita – House Frozen Mango with Blue Moon and Cilantro Peach– Rocks Marg with Cilantro and Peach Puree.

• Casa Maria: This is one of the best Mexican restaurants here in San Marcos; I love it. They have their famous house Ritas, you can choose if you want it frozen or on the rocks.

Remember Tequila is known as T’Kill’Ya! Drink responsibly. Please if you go out and celebrate and had one too many Margaritas, call an Uber or Lyft to take you home.  

Cheers!

Featured Image by Marlene Núñez.