Nobody knows for certain who invented the margarita. This episode goes through a fight over credit that has lasted about 90 years. The drink follows the pattern of the older daisy family of cocktails, and margarita is simply Spanish for daisy. A tequila daisy was reported in Tijuana in 1936, and the Picador appeared in the 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book. We also look at the glamorous claims: Carlos Herrera and dancer Marjorie King, Jose Cuervo’s story of showgirl Rita de la Rosa, Hussong’s Cantina and Margarita Henkel, and Dallas socialite Margarita Sames’ 1948 Acapulco party, a date undercut by Cuervo’s 1945 margarita ads.

Historians tend to trust Francisco Pancho Morales, a bartender in Juarez who later spent 25 years as a milkman. We explain how the drink changed with Albert Hernandez Sr.’s blender in 1947 and Mariano Martinez’s soft serve margarita machine in Dallas in 1971, including the science of freezing point depression. We finish with the IBA 10-4-3 ratio, why a salt rim tones down bitterness, and variations from the Cadillac margarita to spicy, veggie and beer versions.

• How the daisy cocktail family and the Picador point to the margarita’s origins
• Why the glamorous invention myths don’t hold up
• Francisco Pancho Morales and the most credible claim
• The blender and the soft serve machine that created the frozen margarita
• Taste science behind salt, citrus and endless margarita variations