A margarita is three ingredients: tequila, lime, orange liqueur. The rest is proportion. Below are five variations that stay within that framework but push it to very different places — each tested, each balanced, each written so a beginner can nail them on the first pour.

1. The classic (get this right first)

2 oz blanco tequila · 1 oz fresh lime juice · ½ oz orange liqueur (Cointreau or Grand Marnier) · pinch of salt.

Shake hard with ice, strain into a salt-rimmed rocks glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wheel. The proportions are 4:2:1 — this is the spine of every margarita that follows.

2. The spicy mango

2 oz blanco tequila · ¾ oz lime · ½ oz orange liqueur · 1 oz fresh mango purée · 2 thin jalapeño slices · pinch of salt.

Muddle the jalapeño in the shaker, add everything else, shake, double-strain. Garnish with a mango slice and one jalapeño ring. The capsaicin cuts the mango's sweetness so the drink never tips cloying.

3. The smoky mezcal

1.5 oz mezcal (espadín is a good starter) · ½ oz blanco tequila · 1 oz lime · ½ oz agave syrup · pinch of salt.

Mezcal does the heavy lifting; the half-ounce of blanco softens the smoke so it's present, not dominating. Rim the glass with half salt, half Tajín for a sulphur-smoke-acid triangle that drinks like a cocktail three times its price.

4. The cucumber-basil

2 oz blanco tequila · 1 oz lime · ½ oz simple syrup · 3 cucumber slices · 4 basil leaves · pinch of salt.

Muddle cucumber + basil, shake with ice, strain. Crisp, garden- fresh, drinks deceptively easy — which is to say, dangerously. Best for afternoons where you want to still talk coherently at dinner.

5. The paloma-margarita hybrid

2 oz blanco tequila · ¾ oz lime · ¼ oz agave syrup · top with 2 oz fresh grapefruit juice · pinch of salt.

Build in a salt-rimmed highball over ice, stir gently. Bitter-sour from grapefruit balances lime; tequila stays clear in the middle. Closer to a paloma than a margarita but scratches the same itch with less sweetness.

Rules that apply to all five

1. Fresh lime juice. Bottled lime is a different ingredient and a worse one.
2. Shake, don't stir — citrus needs agitation and dilution to balance; a stirred margarita drinks hot and flat.
3. Rocks, not blender — unless you're specifically making a frozen margarita, ice chunks preserve the drink's shape across the time you'll drink it.
4. Salt on half the rim only — you get to choose, sip by sip, whether this sip is salted.

A well-made margarita is embarrassingly simple. An imbalanced one is the drink of a sugared adolescence. Dial in the classic first, then play.