The makings of a Margarita

Today, the fifth of May, marks the improbable victory of the Mexican army over larger French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

Outside the state of Puebla, in the rest of Mexico, the day is all but ignored, but here in the United States it has become a huge celebration of Mexican culture. Today, millions of Americans, regardless of their ethnic heritage, will make a point to dine on Mexican food, though the truth is there really is no one traditional food for Cinco de Mayo.

But there is, perhaps, one obligatory beverage -- the margarita. More than 2 million of them will be festively downed today. Obviously, we are indebted to the cocktail's creator, but no one knows for sure who that was.

Though the first documented reference to a drink called a margarita was in the December 1953 issue of Esquire Magazine, no doubt people had been imbibing the concoction long before that. In fact, the earliest known recipe for a mixture containing the ingredients of a classic margarita was published in 1937, in, of all places, a book of cocktail recipes put out by the Bartenders Guild of the United Kingdom. However, the libation was not called a margarita but a picador, and the recipe did not specify that it be served in a salt-rimmed glass. So, technically, perhaps, the Brits can't lay claim to having invented the first real margarita.

But plenty of others have. Possibly the most famous claimant was Margaret "Margarita" Sames, a Dallas socialite who is said to have created the potion, after considerable experimentation, in 1948 at a Christmas party in Acapulco. A tequila lover who knew that the liquor is traditionally taken with a lick of salt, it was supposedly her idea to salt the rim of the cocktail glass. Over the years her brainchild became a hit with her friends who called it simply "the drink" until Margarita's husband gave her cocktail glasses with her name etched on them and "the drink" was renamed in her honor. Thanks to her well-connected friends in the hotel industry, among them the Hiltons, the margarita's fame spread to this country.

Arturo Higuera makes a Margarita at El Acapulco in Cape Girardeau. (TOM HARTE)

Even though Sames once appeared on "The Today Show" as an authority on the margarita, there are others who maintain they beat her to the punch, so to speak. One of these was Francisco "Pancho" Morales, a bartender in Juarez, Mexico. Allegedly he devised the first margarita six years before Sames began her experiments, inventing it on the spur of the moment. Supposedly a customer asked Morales for a magnolia, but he couldn't remember what was in one except for Cointreau, so he made the rest up and christened the concoction after a different flower, the daisy, which in Spanish is a margarita.

Then there's the tale of Carlos Herrera, another Mexican bartender who declared he invented the cocktail earlier than anyone, in 1938, when a showgirl named Marjorie King asked him to make a drink with tequila. He obliged and named the new creation after her, translating Marjorie to margarita.

Other stories about the discovery of the margarita abound, including one that argues it was concocted as a wedding present for a bride named Margarita, and another that it was devised for Rita Hayworth. Can you guess what her full name was?

We'll probably never know the real truth behind the invention of the margarita, but on this day of all days it's fun to contemplate its origins, especially if you happen to have one in your hand.

Classic Margarita

Myriad variations on the margarita exist, but it's hard to beat this unadulterated version adapted from a recipe of the International Bartenders Association.

Seven parts tequila

Four parts Cointreau

Three parts lime juice

Coarse salt

Rub the rim of a cocktail glass with a lime slice, then dip in coarse salt to evenly coat. Mix tequila, Cointreau and lime juice together over ice, then pour into glass. Garnish with a lime slice if desired.

Tom Harte's book, "Stirring Words," is available at local bookstores. A Harte Appetite airs Fridays 8:49 a.m. on KRCU, 90.9 FM. Contact Tom at news@semissourian.com or at the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, MO 63702-0699.