In 1971, Mariano Martinez, a restaurateur from Dallas, adjusted a soft-serve ice cream machine to blend ingredients for frozen margaritas. The inventor simplified the recipe of the popular cocktail, boosted demand for the hardly known Mexican tequila in the United States and increased the popularity of Texas-Mexican cuisine. At the same time, Martinez never patented the invention. Instead of fame, he dreamed of his own successful business. Read more about one of the most famous alcoholic drinks and its frozen version at i-houston.
Who and when did invent the classic margarita?
This cocktail consists of tequila, lime or lemon juice, citrus liqueur and ice. There are many theories regarding its origin, so the history of this drink is wrapped in mystery. According to one version, the owner of a Mexican restaurant, Carlos Herrera, mixed this cocktail for the first time in 1938 for dancer Marjorie King. Since the dancer only agreed to drink tequila, Herrera added lime juice and salt to it.
Another version says that the cocktail was created in 1938 by one of the bartenders in honor of Rita de la Rosa, who was a Mexican artist. It is also rumored that Texas socialite Margaret Sames (also known as Margarita) mixed this drink at a home party in Mexico in 1948. Or, perhaps it was named after New York actress Rita Hayworth (real name Margarita Cansino) in the 1940s. Some think that the cocktail was created in 1942 by Francisco Morales, an American of Mexican descent.
The cocktail Historian David Wondrich, in his book “Imbibe,” suggested that the margarita originated from the then-popular Tequila Daisy cocktail. It was a mixture of tequila, orange liqueur, lime juice and a little sparkling water. Whatever the case, the longevity and popularity of the cocktail is undeniable.
Frozen version
In 1944, Mariano Martinez was born in the Texas city of Dallas. Spanish was his mother tongue, but he learned English to study in school. At 9, he left school and became an assistant at his father’s Mexican restaurant. The majority of clients were English and did not know anything about tequila. They would show up with a souvenir bottle that was brought by their friends from vacation in Mexico and ask what to do with it. Although liquor was not allowed in Texas restaurants back then, Mariano’s father would occasionally whip a frozen margarita in a blender for his visitors.
At the age of 21, Mariano passed the GED tests, which are equivalent to a high school diploma. He then received a degree in business from Dallas College El Centro. In 1970, an amendment to the state constitution lifted the prohibition on drinking alcoholic beverages in cities and counties. A year later, Martinez opened his first restaurant, Mariano’s Mexican Cuisine, in Dallas.
In his establishment, Mariano used his father’s recipe for preparing margarita. He also tried to make friends in the entertainment industry to promote his restaurant, where fajitas (grilled meat), salsa sauce and other delicacies of Tex-Mex cuisine were served. Customers of the restaurant often expressed their dissatisfaction with watered-down margaritas. This happened because the staff couldn’t keep up with the orders.
In fact, Albert Hernandez Sr. was the author of serving frozen margaritas, not Mariano’s father. In 1947, in the California district of La Jolla, he started adding crushed ice and mixed ingredients in a blender. Martinez decided to make this process easier and created a special apparatus for frozen cocktails.
Once, Mariano visited a 7-Eleven store and saw Slurpee slushies there. He made a decision to devise a similar machine that could mix and freeze margaritas in advance and serve them when needed. Although sellers of frozen beverages were initially skeptical, Martinez proved them wrong.
Together with his friend Frank Adams, Mariano experimented with an old soft-serve ice cream machine until they got the perfect frozen margarita. That’s how the world’s first apparatus for the frozen cocktail appeared in 1971. With this invention, the process of making these cocktails in food establishments changed across the country and beyond.
The Texas heat increased the drink’s popularity. Over time, various models of the frozen cocktail machine began to appear on the market. It became an integral piece of equipment in bars. Interestingly, frozen margaritas helped the restaurant industry survive the difficult year of 2020. Many cafes sold cocktails to go to stay afloat during the pandemic caused by the coronavirus.
How is a frozen margarita made?
Frozen margaritas are served as an ice slush, similar to other frozen tropical drinks like Piña Colada. The ingredients are processed with ice in a special apparatus. The rotating wheel inside the cooled horizontal cylinder whips up the mixture to keep it from freezing. This produces a thick, semi-frozen slush.