5 Ingredients or Fewer

Count to 4 (Basic) Margarita

Name: Count to 4 (Basic) Margarita
Prep time: 10 min
Yield: Serves 2 (if you're nice and share)
Cuisine: Drinks
Ingredients: 1 ounce Cointreau; 2 teaspoons simple syrup; 3 ounces añejo tequila; 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 2 limes); coarse sea salt; additional lime wedges for garnish

by: Lindsay-Jean Hard

September 18, 2015

4 Ratings

Photo by Ty Mecham

Test Kitchen-Approved

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Author Notes

I love this margarita and its riffability so much that I included two different variations of it in my cookbook, Cooking with Scraps. I've since updated it to be a bit less sweet, but truly, you can leave out the simple syrup altogether (or use more, you do you!). —Lindsay-Jean Hard

Prep time 10 minutes
Serves 2 (if you're nice and share)

Ingredients

1 ounce Cointreau
2 teaspoons simple syrup
3 ounces añejo tequila
4 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
coarse sea salt
additional lime wedges for garnish

In This Recipe

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Directions

Add first four ingredients to a shaker, add ice, and shake until chilled.
Put the salt in a small dish, rub the rims of two glasses with the juiced lime halves, rim them with salt, add ice to each, pour in the shaken margaritas, garnish with limes, and enjoy.

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Lindsay-Jean Hard
Carole Kenney
Carolyn

I like esoteric facts about vegetables and think ambling through a farmers market is a great way to start the day. My first cookbook, available now, is called Cooking with Scraps.

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3 Reviews

Carole K. April 17, 2020

This sounds good. I've experimented with margaritas myself, and prefer the flavor of Triple Sec in place of Cointreau.

Carolyn April 17, 2020

What is "gold tequila"? Sorry to be a snob, but I don't think there really is such a thing. There's blanco, reposado and anejo. Jose Cuervo makes Cuervo Gold, but according to Wikipedia that's: "a blend of reposado and younger tequilas of at least 51% agave, with caramel coloring added to the finished product to give it the gold color, also known as joven tequila." Good tequila is always 100% agave. Bad tequila makes a bad margarita. Just sayin'. And Cuervo does make some really good tequila! Cuervo Gold isn't one of them. (And, wow!, that's a lot of sugar.)

Author Comment

Lindsay-Jean H. April 18, 2020

I tend to use anejo, use whatever you like. I now often use less than 2 teaspoons per drink, though I don't think it makes it overly sweet as written. If you do, dial it back. To each their own!