Name: Toreador
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Blanco tequila; 22.5 ml Apricot liqueur; 22.5 ml Lime juice; 5 ml Sugar syrup (2:1); 2 drop Saline solution 4:1

Toreador
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Photographed in an Urban Bar Plain Retro Coupette 15cl

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Patrón Silver blanco tequila
³⁄₄ oz	Luxardo Apricot Albicocca Liqueur
³⁄₄ oz	Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₆ oz	Monin Pure Cane Syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2:1 rich syrup)
2 drop	Saline solution 4:1 (20g sea salt to 80g water)

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
Prepare garnish of lime wedge.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
Garnish with lime wedge on rim.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Apricot liqueur replaces triple sec in what otherwise follows a broadly classic Margarita recipe. As with my preferred Margarita recipe, my previous recipe was based on reposado tequila with half bar spoon of agave syrup, but a Toreador better suits the clean fresh notes of a blanco tequila with a spoon of sugar syrup.

I updated this recipe in January 2025. The Previous recipe: 50ml (1⅔oz) reposado tequila, 25ml (5/6oz) apricot brandy liqueur, 25ml (5/6oz) lime juice, 2.5ml (½ barspoon) agave syrup and 4 drop margarita bitters.

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History:

This variation on the Margarita was first published in William J. "Billy" Tarling's 1937 Café Royal Bar Book.

TOREADOR.
½ Tequila.
¼ Apricot Brandy.
¼ Fresh Lime or Lemon Juice.
Shake.
W. J. Tarling, Café Royal Bar Book, 1937

As well as this Margarita riff, Tarling also lists another cocktail called a Picador, which is identical to the modern-day Margarita. When considering the origins of the Margarita, it's worth remembering that Tarling's book was published 16 years before the first written reference to a cocktail named Margarita.

Nutrition:

One serving of Toreador contains 167 calories

Alcohol content:

1.3 standard drinks
19.15% alc./vol. (19.15° proof)
18.2 grams of pure alcohol

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Sally Morgan

7th March at 19:42

Like the blanco tequila in this and the apricot brandy makes a subtle change from orange based liqueurs

Egg McKenzie

25th January at 20:51

yes good thannks

Egg McKenzie

25th January at 20:52

did one with 25ml tequila 25ml mezcal which was also good but as simon says you don't need that much mezcal it actually overpowered the apricot declioicsuucoous still though wtf

Dávid Ugróczi

17th April 2024 at 21:02

It's nice and tart upfront, earthy and honey-like after. I had no margarita bitters so I used a dash of angostura instead. Great drink.

Kane McErvale

27th October 2022 at 08:01

Black Pearl in Melbourne adds a dash of mezcal to this drink. It’s a delicious addition.

Simon Difford

27th October 2022 at 19:15

Great call. I tried adding a good slug and a smaller measure of mezcal along with reducing tequila to leave space for mezcal. However, I preferred my longstanding recipe with just 2.5ml mezcal to act like dashes of bitters. That drove me to add Margarita bitters - thanks! That's not to say that 1/2 a spoon of mezcal wasn't a welcome and delicious addition.

John Hinojos

25th August 2021 at 01:26

I like the subtle difference between this and the traditional Margarita. Did in a traditional 2-1-1 formula, but could have used a little sweetener as our Apricot Liqueur is not very sweet.

Arild Anda

23rd April 2021 at 21:12

Inspired by the quite booze-heavy margarita recipe of the IBA, I tried those proportions for the toreador cocktail (10-4-2 in parts that is, not ounces...). I found that very, very good. A great drink that can be tweaked and improvised upon. My favourite is still with mezcal rather than tequila. The quite fruity and only moderately
“peated” Siete Misterios Doba-Yej is just lovely for this cocktail. Haven’t found your bitters in my home market but a floral bitters added should be perfect.