"Margarita mix" - what's the point? (whiskey, tequila, tastes)

[kletter1mann]

Let's begin with my homemade margarita recipe:

1. Salt rim or martini glass and stick it in the freezer.
2. Combine in a suitable vessel:

• shot of fresh lime juice,
• shot of Gran Gala, triple sec or similar liqueur (IMO Gran Gala provides an excellent balance of sweetness, orange, depth and cost effectiveness)
• 2-3 shots of tequila (this makes a big difference, duh, but name your favorite)

3. Pour into shaker, shake well, pour into frozen glass
4. Enjoy, repeat as necessary

So, last week I did a kind of margarita tour in a distant city - just ordering margaritas any chance I got, and that was a lot. The norm was the same booze but typically with "our own margarita mix."

So here's my question: What on earth is the point of "margarita mix"? If they're using the booze that they always brag about on the bar menu, then all that's needed is lime juice. Same thing applies to whiskey sours. All you need is lemon juice and simple syrup or even just bar sugar. The result will be far, far better than any "sour mix." My suspicion is that they just put tequila into the mix and that's it. Help me out with this.

[BATCAT]

For use in the home: An appeal to laziness.

For use at bars: An appeal to places who need to sling cheap drinks at maximum speed.

[Seafood Junky]

We have a Mexican restaurant that offers 'skinny' margarita. Fresh squeezed (they squeeze to order), agave, tequila.
They often apologize that happy hour does not apply to 'skinny'. We say, no problemo, we pay for the better quality. Mix usually tastes terrible.

[ScarletG]

Originally Posted by BATCAT

For use in the home: An appeal to laziness.

For use at bars: An appeal to places who need to sling cheap drinks at maximum speed.

You pretty much nailed it.

[kletter1mann]

No doubt you folks are right. But what a joke. All they'd have to do is pay somebody to squeeze a bunch of limes. With a decent juicer you could do a couple gallons in 30 minutes. Of course that would be more expensive than just using mix - and then they can skip the triple sec too (despite the claims that it's there), cause the mix is always so oversweet anyhow.

Being too lazy to squeeze a few limes at home is outside the scope of my imagination. I'm going to squeeze some right now and begin the evening.....

[ScarletG]

Originally Posted by kletter1mann

No doubt you folks are right. But what a joke. All they'd have to do is pay somebody to squeeze a bunch of limes. With a decent juicer you could do a couple gallons in 30 minutes. Of course that would be more expensive than just using mix - and then they can skip the triple sec too (despite the claims that it's there), cause the mix is always so oversweet anyhow.

Being too lazy to squeeze a few limes at home is outside the scope of my imagination. I'm going to squeeze some right now and begin the evening.....

Ah....not everyone has the same priorities....and I can't imagine a dive bar paying someone to squeeze limes for the few times a week someone may order a margarita.

Have you ever worked in a bar? How about you make your drinks the way you like them....and leave other people to make drinks they way they want? No joke.

[Old Gringo]

Nearly all Margarita mixes are horrid concoctions loaded with that poisonous high fructose corn syrup.

An exception is Sauza - not always easy to find, though.

[kletter1mann]

Originally Posted by ScarletG

Ah....not everyone has the same priorities....and I can't imagine a dive bar paying someone to squeeze limes for the few times a week someone may order a margarita.

Have you ever worked in a bar? How about you make your drinks the way you like them....and leave other people to make drinks they way they want? No joke.

The joke, my friend, is your post. What a spectacularly uninformative response.

Who complained about what they pour in dive bars? Of course they'd use mix. They're dives. I'm talking about real restaurants where they perform such exotic feats as dicing fresh cilantro. And what difference does working in a bar make anyway? You're saying that we should expect crap cause it's actually takes some sense of standards and a modicum of human effort to do better? Anyway, there are good and bad bars. The place down the street does their margaritas pretty much as I do at home, cause it's not a dive. Your experience seems to have been in the dives from the sound of it.

[shooting4life]

Camping

Take a water cooler like you see construction crews using. Poor 3 liters of margarita mix, handle of tequila and 500ml of tipple sec. Poor in ice and a bit of salt. Mix.

Margaritas on tap all afternoon.


When drinking quality tequila I'll just drink it up and warm, easier to appreciate the subtleties this way.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by kletter1mann

Who complained about what they pour in dive bars? Of course they'd use mix. They're dives.

Uh ... you did.

Get over yourself. If you don't like the way an establishment prepares margaritas, don't buy them there. A second grader could figure that out.