The Tommy's Margarita: Why It's Having a Moment

Tommy's Margarita stripped the classic Margarita down to its essentials and emerged with something better. Created by Julio Bermejo at Tommy's Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco in the 1990s, the drink replaces orange liqueur with agave nectar, letting the tequila speak without the sweet distraction of triple sec or Cointreau.

The recipe is austere: two ounces of 100 percent agave tequila, one ounce of fresh lime juice, and half an ounce of agave nectar. Shaken with ice, strained into a rocks glass over fresh ice. No salt rim unless you want one. The simplicity means every ingredient has to be good. Cheap tequila and bottled lime juice will not hide behind a sugar-bomb orange liqueur here.

If your agave nectar drops to the bottom of the shaker in a lump, thin it. Stir it one to one with warm water, keep it in a squeezy bottle in the fridge, and it integrates on contact. Increase the pour slightly to cover the water. It keeps for a month cold and doubles as the sweetener for a daiquiri or a whisky sour.

Bermejo's creation reflected a deep commitment to agave spirits. He was championing 100 percent agave tequila when most American bars still poured mixto garbage. The Tommy's Margarita was designed as a delivery system for great tequila, and it works because agave nectar shares a flavor profile with the spirit it accompanies. The syrup and the spirit speak the same language.

Buying the tequila is the whole job. Turn the bottle over and look for the NOM number and the words 100 per cent de agave. Then cross-check it on Tequila Matchmaker, the app that runs an additive-free verification programme, because a lot of suspiciously smooth blancos got that way from added glycerin and syrup. Tapatio, Arette and Ocho all pass and all come in under about £45.

Lime juice has a shelf life measured in hours. Squeeze it the same day, ideally within four, because past that it loses its top notes and turns flat and faintly bitter. One lime yields about 30ml, so buy six for a round of four. Roll them hard on the counter first. Bottled lime is the fastest way to make this drink taste like an airport.

Bartenders worldwide now default to the Tommy's template over the classic Margarita for precisely this reason. It is cleaner, less sweet, and puts the tequila center stage. High-end bars riff on it with different agave nectars, mezcal substitutions, and infused salts, but the original formula remains hard to improve upon.

For home bartenders, the Tommy's Margarita is the best possible introduction to making cocktails with quality spirits. It teaches the fundamental balance of strong, sour, and sweet with only three ingredients. Once you have a bottle of good blanco tequila, a bag of limes, and a bottle of agave nectar, you are never more than two minutes from an excellent drink.

Tommy's itself is still there, out on Geary Boulevard in the Richmond, a long way from the bars that made the drink famous. It is a family Mexican restaurant with a tequila list running into the hundreds and a dining room that looks nothing like a cocktail bar. Sit at the bar rather than a table.

https://www.tommysmexican.com