THE MAYA MARGARITA

MAYA MARGARITA
This tequila based drink is properly served shaken with crushed ice or on the rocks. True maragaritas  contain only : agave nectar, key lime juice and 100% blue agave tequila. Never is a margarita blended into a "frozen margarita". Frequently served with salt on the rim of the glass. Some bartenders specializing in tequila have the opinion that salt hides the flavor of bad Margaritas made with inferior tequilas. Our bartenders only coat half the glass so that you can still taste the complex agave flavors without them being obscured by salt.

ORGANIC AGAVE NECTAR
Agave syrup (also called agave nectar) is a natural sweetener produced in Mexico, from several species of the agave plant. Agave syrup is sweeter than honey, though less viscous. Agave syrup is produced in the Mexican State of Jalisco.

FRESH LIME JUICE
Fresh squeezed lime juice is the key ingredient. The most common lime in the U.S. is the thick-skinned Persian lime. However, margaritas in Mexico are generally made with Mexican limes (Key limes). At Maya, we chose to use the best local Kalamansi available for our margaritas. This native fruit is the closer in flavor to the Key Lime than the Persian lime.

FRUIT MARGARITAS
Orange-flavored liqueurs and fresh fruit juices are sometimes used in drinks that some establishments refer to as FRUIT MARGARITAS. Often, when sweeter fruit juices or freshly puréed fruits are added to the margarita, the amount of orange-flavored liqueur is often reduced. At Maya we serve only TRUE MARGARITAS.    

ORIGIN OF THE MARGARITA
There are many stories about who invented the margarita and why. The following are perhaps the most commonly repeated tales of the creator of the margarita cocktail:

SAMMY CRUZ, 1948
According to the promotional flyer for the legendary Balinese Room in Galveston, Texas, head bartender Santos Cruz created the Margarita for singer Peggy (Margaret) Lee in 1948.

BARMAN "WILLIE" FROM MEXICO CITY, 1934
Marguerite Hemery lived in the Rio Grande Valley since the 1930s and went to a restaurant in Matamoros called Los Dos Republicas. She was a friend of the owner and, as the story goes, his bartender composed a special drink for her.

DANNY NEGRETE, 1936
According to Salvador Negrete, the son of Daniel Negrete, the family story goes that Daniel opened a bar at the Garci Crispo hotel with his brother, David. The day before David's marriage, Daniel presented the margarita as a wedding present to Margarita, his sister-in-law. The drink was not blended and was served with hand-crushed ice.

ENRIQUE BASTATE GUTIERREZ, EARLY 1940’s
Gutierrez, who lived in Tijuana, Mexico, boasted to have created the Margarita as homage to actress Rita Hayworth, whose real name was Margarita Cansino. Other versions of the story claim the Margarita was indeed named after the actress, but in the 1930s, before she adopted her screen name. As a teenager, Margarita Cansino worked as a dancer at the Foreign Club, in Tijuana, where she supposedly inspired a bartender.

MARGARET SAMES, DECEMBER 1948
Sames, who created the drink at her Acapulco bar, gave the reason of being "close with a lot of famous hotel and restaurant people" in introducing the margarita. Sames used two parts tequila and one part lime juice for her margarita and sweetened it with simple syrup. Knowing that most people drank tequila preceded by a lick of salt, she chose to garnish her cocktail with a rim of coarse salt. In 1982 she appeared on NBC's Today show demonstrating the proper way to make a margarita. Shaken and served over crushed ice.