Name: Mezcal Margarita
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Mezcal; 22.5 ml Triple sec; 22.5 ml Lime juice; 5 ml Agave syrup; 2 drop Saline solution 4:1; 8 drop Margarita Bitters

Mezcal Margarita
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Photographed in an Everest Rocks Glass 12oz / 355ml

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Del Maguey Vida Clásico Mezcal
³⁄₄ oz	Cointreau triple sec liqueur
³⁄₄ oz	Lime juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₆ oz	Agave syrup
2 drop	Saline solution 4:1 (20g sea salt to 80g water)
8 drop	Difford's Margarita Bitters optional

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill an Old-fashioned glass.
Prepare garnish of lime wedge.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into ice-filled glass.
Garnish with lime wedge.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Cocktail of the day:

21st October 2025 is National Mezcal Day

Review:

A smokin' Margarita. Depending on your palate, you may want to vary the amount of agave syrup – from 2.5ml or even no agave syrup for dry palates to as much as 7.5ml for sweeter palates.

View readers' comments

AKA: Mezcalita

Variant:

Served straight-up in a coupe.
Margarita on-the-rocks (Difford's recipe)
Improved Trashy Margarita
Margarita (straight-up)
Margarita (frozen)
50:50 Margarita
Mezcal Margarita

History:

Margarita cocktail history

Nutrition:

One serving of Mezcal Margarita contains 163 calories

Alcohol content:

1.5 standard drinks
21.59% alc./vol. (21.59° proof)
20.6 grams of pure alcohol

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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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Showing 10 of 18 comments for Mezcal Margarita.
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John Hinojos

18th January at 03:34

Finding the correct Mezcal was critical for us. We have found other Mezcals a bit like drinking liquid smoke. Finally found a reposado Mezcal which is flavourful and with just hints of smoke.
This was a wonderful cocktail. Margarita Bitters always seems to soften and blend the tastes. Highest rating.

Cassandra Adams

25th November 2024 at 10:02

Personally I find the sweetness from the triple sec enough, and so omitted the agave syrup. However, I tried to bring in the agave flavour by reducing the mezcal to half of that recommended and making it up with Almave non-alcoholic blue agave spirit. Could perhaps amend this to 3:1 in favour of mezcal next time, but I really enjoyed the result.

Gabrielle14

29th June 2024 at 23:49

Subbed lime for yuzu juice and turned out great!

Mark

17th May 2024 at 13:28

Way better than the classic margarita IMHO, smokiness adds an extra layer of complexity.

Grey Goose

2nd September 2023 at 16:23

Very nice and refreshing. Used 2.5ml of honey instead of agave syrup and rimmed glass with tajin salt. Didn't have margarita bitters so used agnostura bitters instead which went nicely with the cointreau. May add a bit of soda next time to make it last longer as the drink finished too quickly!

Rick Stark

4th May 2023 at 13:53

GREAT Margarita.

Kimberly Hynd

21st March 2023 at 15:16

Wow!
This is a beautiful cocktail. The mezcal is perfectly balanced with the other flavors, delicious and smokey with nothing overpowered.

Jens Pönisch

4th March 2023 at 23:34

Delicious, the thickness of the agave syrup rounds this margarita experience similar to the breakfast margarita, but less fruity and sweet. The hint of salt and bitter hits the buds. This is a very well rounded recipe, perfectly balanced with no overly dominant factor. If you feel a classic margarita is too acidious for you today, this one may be just right.

Kevin Haynes

2nd September 2022 at 21:41

Oh my gosh! I have just realized I have wasted many years of my life by not having mezcal or this version of a margarita before. The smokiness of the mezcal plays perfectly with the other flavors. I don't have Bob's bitters, so I did a combination of a few drops of the various bitters I did have on hand. I'm not sure if they changed the flavor profile that much or not, but wow, this is suddenly one of my top drinks. It might even beat out my cherished Last Word or Daiquiri! (lime for the win!)