How to Improve Your At-Home Margaritas

Summary

Podcast Summary: All Of It – "How to Improve Your At-Home Margaritas"

Host: Alison Stewart
Guest: Caroline Pardilla, Digital Content Editor for Imbibe Magazine
Release Date: April 11, 2025

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Introduction to Margarita Time

In this episode of All Of It, host Alison Stewart welcomes Caroline Pardilla to discuss her new cookbook, Margarita Time: 60+ Tequila and Mezcal Cocktails Served Up Over and Blended. The conversation centers around crafting the perfect margarita at home, exploring various recipes, techniques, and personal anecdotes from listeners.

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Understanding Margaritas and Their Origins

Caroline Pardilla delves into the rich history of margaritas, highlighting the multiple origin stories that coexist. She references interviews with cocktail historian David Wonderich, who suggests that the margarita evolved from the Daisy cocktail during Prohibition when tequila became more accessible in Mexico.

[04:05] Caroline Pardilla: "During the prohibition, bartenders would make the Daisy cocktail using tequila because it was available in Mexico. That's when the margarita really took off, around the 50s and 60s."

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The Cocktail Renaissance and Margarita Makeover

Pardilla explains how the early 2000s cocktail renaissance breathed new life into classic drinks, including margaritas. Previously, margaritas were often made with low-quality ingredients, but the resurgence emphasized fresh juices and high-quality spirits.

[05:26] Caroline Pardilla: "The cocktail renaissance pushed fresh juices and high-quality spirits, which really glowed up margaritas that were previously associated with bad tastes."

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Listener Engagement and Favorite Margarita Styles

Alison encourages listeners to share their favorite margarita styles and local spots. Caroline emphasizes that the type of margarita one prefers can reflect personal tastes and preferences in tequila.

[03:06] Caroline Pardilla: "If somebody's really into the Tommy's margarita, they are focused on the taste of tequila. On the other hand, those who prefer frozen strawberry margaritas might not enjoy tequila as much or are celebrating."

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Choosing the Right Tequila

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on selecting the perfect tequila for margaritas. Pardilla recommends using 100% pure agave tequilas and suggests resources like Tequila Matchmaker to find highly-rated options.

[09:55] Caroline Pardilla: "The perfect tequila is the one you love. Look for bottles that say 100% pure agave and avoid those with added sugars."

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Common Mistakes in Margarita Preparation

Pardilla outlines frequent errors people make when making margaritas at home, such as over-salting the rim and using bottled lime juice instead of fresh.

[13:23] Caroline Pardilla: "People often cover the entire glass with salt, making the cocktail too salty. Also, using bottled lime juice can ruin the flavor and waste good tequila."

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Spice and Innovation in Margaritas

The conversation shifts to creative variations, including spicy margaritas. Pardilla discusses methods like adding jalapeño slices or using spicy tinctures to enhance the drink.

[24:09] Caroline Pardilla: "You can add jalapeño peppers directly into the shaker or use spicy tinctures like scrappy bitters for an extra kick."

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Listener Stories and Tips

Multiple callers share their unique margarita recipes and experiences:

• Charlene from Queens creates a cucumber-lime-mint margarita with cilantro, emphasizing a refreshing green summer drink.

  [07:08] Caller Charlene: "We made a juice with cucumber, lime, mint, and cilantro, adding Cointreau and tequila. It's so refreshing and green like spring."

• Martin from the Bronx offers a simple method using frozen sorbet as a base for instant margaritas.

  [15:18] Martin: "We use frozen sorbet mixed with liquor directly in the glass—Instant margarita. It's been our go-to for 30 years."

• Ann from Santa Fe shares a heartwarming story about introducing margaritas to her 96-year-old mother, highlighting the timeless appeal of the classic margarita.

  [22:19] Caller Ann: "We made classic margaritas with Jose Cuervo Especial, and my mother loved them. Now, she has a margarita at every social occasion."

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Creative Margarita Recipes

Pardilla introduces innovative recipes from her cookbook, such as:

• Pod Racer Margarita: Incorporates snap peas for a unique twist.

  [07:54] Caroline Pardilla: "The Pod Racer includes snap peas, making it a great option for a refreshing spring cocktail."

• Red Onion Margarita: Features a salted red onion syrup and pineapple rum for an umami and tropical flavor profile.

  [07:54] Caroline Pardilla: "This margarita balances umami with tropical flavors, creating a perfect patio drink."

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Essential Equipment for Margarita Making

Highlighting that making quality margaritas at home is accessible, Pardilla notes that basic equipment like a shaker, juicer, or even a mason jar suffices.

[18:42] Caroline Pardilla: "You don't need specialized equipment. A milkshake bottle or mason jar works just fine. If you want, you can use a juicer for fresh lime juice."

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Enhancing Margarita Experience with Music

To complement the margarita-making experience, Pardilla curated a playlist featuring classic and upbeat songs, including "Tequila" by The Champs and "Sway" by Pink Martini, inspired by her late aunt's love for cha-cha music.

[26:57] Caroline Pardilla: "My playlist includes 'Tequila' by The Champs and 'Sway' by Pink Martini, perfect for shaking up your cocktails with some fun dance tunes."

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Conclusion and Final Tips

Alison wraps up the episode by reiterating the versatility and joy of making margaritas at home. Pardilla encourages experimentation with different fruits and spices to keep the experience exciting and personalized.

[26:21] Caroline Pardilla: "There are so many fruits you can add to margaritas—mango, strawberry, coconut. Be creative and have fun with it."

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Key Takeaways

• Quality Ingredients: Use 100% pure agave tequila and fresh lime juice for the best tasting margaritas.
• Balanced Flavors: Strive for a balance between sweet and acidic elements to enhance the overall flavor.
• Creative Variations: Experiment with different fruits and spices to create unique margarita experiences.
• Essential Equipment: Basic tools like a shaker or mason jar are sufficient for crafting excellent margaritas at home.
• Listener Engagement: Personal stories and tips from listeners add depth and variety to the margarita-making process.

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For those eager to enhance their margarita-making skills, Margarita Time by Caroline Pardilla offers a comprehensive guide with over 60 recipes, ensuring that enthusiasts can enjoy a perfect margarita tailored to their tastes.

Transcript

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[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. It's the end of a great week. If you missed any of our guests we had here in the show, you should go back and check them out. I don't want to play favorites, but you might not want to miss my conversation with artist Amy Sherrid. Her gorgeous portraits are now on display in a new exhibit at the Whitney. She joined us on Wednesday to talk about her life and her process. You should listen to the segment and then go see her work. Or maybe you want to go smaller and you want to check out artist Debbie Taylor Kerman's work at the Heath Gallery. You should listen to that conversation. Her Scottish accent, chef's kiss. Plus, if you're still catching up on the White Lotus, Carrie Coon joined us to talk about the season finale and she laid down some wisdom on us. That conversation is great as well. And we celebrated Poetry Month with poets Ricardo Montanado and Vincent Katz and you listeners called in to share their favorite poems. You can listen to all of it on our show page at wnyc.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Now let's get this hour started because while it's 1:00 here in New York, it's 5:00 somewhere. Margaritas anyone? The classic cocktail is easy to make at home so long as you have the right ingredients and a tequila that you love. Caroline Padilla is a digital content editor for Imbibe Magazine. She has written a new book with recipes and advice for making margaritas and su casa. It's called margarita time. 60 plus tequila and mezcal cocktails served up over and blended. She is here now to take your calls. Welcome to wnyc.

[Caroline Pardilla]

Thank you Alison.

[Alison Stewart]

Listeners, do you love a good margarita? Do you have a favorite flavor? Frozen on the rocks? Do you like them? Make them at home. 212-433-9621-2433. WNYC. Maybe you want to tell us your favorite place in your neighborhood to get a margarita. You can shout out your recommendations now. What is a margarita that you love compared to other cocktails? Do you enjoy it when the weather's warmer? Anytime? Call or text us right now. 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. Okay, I read in the book that you think you can tell a lot about a person by the type of margarita they like. What's an example of that?

[Caroline Pardilla]

Well, I, you know, like, if somebody's really into the Tommy's margarita, which is basically the margarita without the orange liqueur, they are really into tequila and like, the taste of tequila because they just want to focus. They want a cocktail that focuses on that flavor. So. And I found that, like, a lot of bartenders, like, that's their go to drink. So serious drinkers prefer Katami's. And then if you want to go frozen blended strawberry margarita, then, you know, you probably don't like the taste of tequila that much, or you're just, you know, you know, you're just celebrating. But yeah, so I just figure, like, it's not judging, it's just kind of like, oh, I just kind of like to get a read on people. Like, you know, I mean, I think I'm both now. Like, so who is it? Or a little bit of everything.

[Host/Caller]

But, yeah, there are a lot of stories out there how the margarita was created. To the best of your knowledge, what did you learn in your research for this book about the margarita origin story?

[Caroline Pardilla]

So a lot of classic cocktails, they have, they don't have, like, specific origin stories, but I felt like the margarita had a lot of specific origin stories. So many, like, a lot of people taking credit for it or if it's, like, associated with, like, a woman named Margarita. Like, there's a Texas socialite in the 50s who, she said she created it for her, like, fancy celebrity friends because they were out in Mexico drinking, and she wanted to have something to serve them by the pool. And then another one was like, create said it was created for Rita Hayworth when she was a performer in Mexico. So there are so many different origin stories. But then I interviewed cocktail historian David Wonderich. He was saying that they could actually all be right because during the prohibition, when everybody went to Mexico to drink or bartenders went down there to work, they would make the Daisy cocktail, which is a classic cocktail, but they would use tequila because that was what was available down there. And then that's when, like, the margarita really took off, like around the 50s and 60s from that. So, yeah, so everybody could be right.

[Host/Caller]

You write that margaritas, like, other cocktails, they took off during the cocktail renaissance in the early 2000s. Why was there a renaissance around the margarita?

[Caroline Pardilla]

Well, it actually was a renaissance around all the classic cocktails. But the margarita, I feel like it was in dire need of a makeover or, you know, a revisit because, like, back in the, what, 70s and 80s, they were making margaritas with really bad, like, you know, bottled line cordials and just bad ingredients, bad tequila, everything. So. And Then around the 80s was when the orange liqueur companies were actually promoting that their orange liqueur could hide the taste of tequila in your margarita. So ye. That was no good. But so the cocktail renaissance, it pushed fresh juices, fresh ingredients, high quality spirits, high quality ingredients, and it just really glowed up all these cocktails that were about to just be forgotten or associated with really bad taste, bad flavors. So it really needed that.

[Host/Caller]

My guest is Caroline Pardilla. She is a digital content editor for Imbibe magazine. We're speaking about her new cookbook, Margarita Time. Our call out to you is, do you love a good margarita? Do you have a favorite flavor? How do you make it at home? Or maybe you want to shout at your favorite place to get a margarita in our area? Call or text us now at 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. Let's talk to Charlene, who's calling in from Queens. Hi, Charlene.

[Caller]

Hi, how are you? Thanks for having me.

[Host/Caller]

Yeah, I want to hear about your margarita.

[Caller]

So, yeah, we love my margaritas. My husband and I drink them all year, and we feel like it's actually the perfect. Margaret, the perfect cocktail to put in some seasonal ingredients. So actually, this spring, we just made our own concoction where we create a juice with cucumber lime, mint, and we add in actually some cilantro, and then we add the Cointreau and tequila, and it's so refreshing and green like spring. And yeah, we. We love it.

[Host/Caller]

Love that.

[Caroline Pardilla]

Yes.

[Host/Caller]

Yeah, we actually got another one says cucumber margaritas are the best assist. That's how they spelled it.

[Caroline Pardilla]

It's refreshing.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah.

[Host/Caller]

What's a good example of a refreshing spring cocktail in your book?

[Caroline Pardilla]

Well, actually, there was one called, like, the Pod Racer, that it includes snap peas, so I feel like that would be a good one. But I also like the. The red onion margarita, which I guess is more for, like, I feel like it's more for warm weather. It's like you make a salted red onion syrup and it. And then she also adds a little bit of pineapple rum. So it's just this really tropical, like, beautiful, perfect patio pounder. And it has, like, this umami and then the tropical flavors, it's delicious. So I would recommend that one.

[Alison Stewart]

I did not expect snap peas and red onions to be discussed during our margarita segment.

[Caroline Pardilla]

Two different margaritas, I have to say.

[Alison Stewart]

But still, it's interesting.

[Caroline Pardilla]

Yeah, no, I mean, you can make, I mean, what's great about the margarita as a vehicle. It's like you can make anything into a margarita and it'll be delicious.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's talk to Kyle, who's calling in from Williamsburg. Hey, Kyle, thanks for taking the time to call. All of it. You're on the air.

[Caller]

Excellent. I just wanted to give a shout out to animal. It's at 307Meeker. So like right under the BQE. It used to be several different things over the course of last 20 years, but I think they make one of the best margaritas in the city. And it's definitely worth checking out. I like to go there with my gal pals all the time. Anyway, thanks. I gotta run.

[Alison Stewart]

Okay. Don't want to hold you up.

[Caroline Pardilla]

I want to know more about that, like why he's got to run.

[Alison Stewart]

We'll ask him next time.

[Caroline Pardilla]

Extra answer.

[Alison Stewart]

This says margaritas are lovely, but don't waste high end tequila with that much lime. Juice is good, not outstanding. Tequila will do. Save the high end tequila for two or three small ice cubes and savor them. All right, this brings us to the subject of tequila. How do we choose the right tequila for our margaritas?

[Caroline Pardilla]

So, yeah, in the book I said, you know, the, the perfect tequila is the one that's your favorite. But like, if you want some guidance, I highly recommend going on tequila matchmaker.com, which is a tequila database where they, the founders and members, like, they taste all the different tequilas and they rate them. So basically when you look on the scores, if it's higher than 85, then that bottle is excellent. Also when you go to the store, you're looking for bottles that say 100%, you know, pure agave. Because like if, if you, if it doesn't have that, then it has like, it's like a mix dough which is like 49% sugars that are added and that will not do your margarita any favors. So yeah, basically. And you want it made in Mexico. But yeah, basically I highly recommend looking on tequila matchmaker.com for the ratings and everything. They used to have a list of free additive free tequilas, but they had to take that off for legal reasons. But it was really helpful. So you want to also make sure there aren't additives in your tequila, we.

[Alison Stewart]

Got a text says, dandelion green flavored margarita is my favorite. Love that as well. Let's also talk to Teresa, who is bartender in Brooklyn.

[Host/Caller]

Hey, Theresa, thanks for calling in.

[Theresa]

Hi, how are you? Animal does make a great margarita, by the way.

[Caroline Pardilla]

But.

[Theresa]

My call is about a complaint and a gripe as a bartender, which I don't know when this trend started, but it is probably some housewives somewhere in, you know, of the. On the Bravo network. But the skinny margarita become like an epidemic of, like, grand proportions. First of all, it's like a variation of either like a skinny one or skinny spicy or a mezcal. And at a certain point, it's not even a margarita anymore if you're not putting those elements into the drink. Am I right? So just order a tequila soda and stop driving bartenders insane.

[Alison Stewart]

Thank you for your call.

[Host/Caller]

What's your take on it, Caroline?

[Caroline Pardilla]

So I feel like the skinny margarita is just the Tommy's margarita without, you know, it's the margarita without the orange liqueur. So it doesn't have as much sugar. But I hate that they call it skinny also. I'm like, oh, you mean a Tommy's. But like, you know, if, if, if people like, you know, they. They like what they like. So if it gets people to drink margaritas and tequila, then, you know, who am I to. To judge?

[Host/Caller]

Let's go. What's in a basic margarita?

[Caroline Pardilla]

So a traditional margarita is the tequila. So about like an ounce and a quarter. An ounce and a quarter. Ounce and 3/4 to 2 ounces of tequila and like a lime, like, so about an ounce of lime juice. And then I counted that with a three quarter or an ounce of orange liqueur. And then sometimes you can sweeten it if you want to with like, simple or agave syrup. And it's just based on, like, you know, it's a. It's a classic cocktail proportions where you're balancing the sweet with the. The acid. So a lot of classic cocktails are like that.

[Host/Caller]

What are some common mistakes that people make at home when they're preparing margaritas?

[Caroline Pardilla]

So I, I think people really like to, like, they just like that action of dipping their glass, like, you know, to salt the rim. And just like they just wet the whole glass and then they put. Put it in the. They stick it in this bowl of salt. And like, you don't want to do that because then you're covering the inside of the glass. I mean, you're having your salt. You're basically having a salty cocktail. Which you don't want. You just want the. The salt. The salt is just, like, a little bit there to like it. It mutes the tartness of the drink. It'll enhance the sweetness, so you don't want a salty cocktail. Also, people, they'll. They'll buy the bottled lime juice, like, because it's at the grocery store. You think, I'll just grab this and use this. But I. You would do your margarita like, a disservice. You're making it bad. And you're wasting your tequila by using that, like, bottle of lime juice. Like, just buy lime, cut it, squeeze it. Done.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's talk to Rita, who's calling in from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Hey, Rita, thank you so much for making the call.

[Theresa]

Well. Oh, listen, this is a wonderful conversation. I had moved here from New York, and I am in the land of margaritas in New Mexico. I'll tell you, my favorite margarita is the one I make at home. And I use a silver tequila. I don't like smoky. I use silver tequila, fresh lime juice, and Cointreau or whatever orange liqueur that you have around. I use equal parts of everything, and it's tart, it's refreshing, and sometimes I top it off with a little orange juice or even a little grapefruit juice, which is really tart. I really. I don't like the sweet. So the tart, refreshing, equal parts of everything. Oh, it's just divine.

[Alison Stewart]

Rita, thank you so much. I love hearing Rita describe that. My goodness.

[Caroline Pardilla]

I know. I'm like, oh, tell me more.

[Alison Stewart]

I know. Tell me more. Let's talk to Martin from the Bronx. Hi, Martin. Thanks for calling, all of it.

[Martin]

Oh, hi, Alison. I've called in before. Listen, from day one. Love you. Love you. I have a quick take on a frozen margarita. Went with a friend to a bar, like, 30 years ago. Spring, summertime was hot. We couldn't get into this very popular bar, and we wanted to have some frozen margaritas. I said, I have an idea. We were going back to his apartment, but first we stop off in a supermarket. And I don't know whether this is cheating to you or your guest. We bought a number of pints, raspberry, mango, maybe just a regular lemon, lime, frozen sorbet. Went back to his apartment. No fuss, no muss. You stick it directly into your glass. Toss in your liquor of choice. Tequila, rum, vodka, whatever. Boom. Instant margarita. It's fantastic. We've been using it for 30 years.

[Alison Stewart]

I love it. Boom. Is he right?

[Caroline Pardilla]

That's a great tip. The sorbet I've heard of sorbet, like adding sorbet to like a milkshake to like, you know, chocolate sorbet to milkshake to boost up the flavors. But yeah, that totally makes sense. A lime sorbet or these flavored sorbets to make a frozen margarita. I love it.

[Alison Stewart]

We will have more with Caroline Perdilla. She's a digital content editor for Imbibe magazine. We're talking about her new cookbook, Margarita Time. Give us a call if you love a good margarita, frozen or on on the rocks. Maybe your favorite place to get it in our area. 212433, WNYC 212-433-9692. We'll have more after a quick break. This is all of it on this.

[Caroline Pardilla]

Week'S on the Media, the CEO of.

[Martin]

Blue Sky, a competitor of Meta and.

[Caroline Pardilla]

X, shares her ideas of how to billionaire proof the Internet.

[Caller]

Zuckerberg has built a digital empire and we've helped him build that with our data and our time. And I want people to realize that we can build our own digital spaces. We can take that back.

[Caroline Pardilla]

Don't miss this week's on the Media from wnyc.

[Alison Stewart]

Find on the Media wherever you get your podcasts. You are listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is Caroline Pardilla. She's a digital content editor for Imbibe magazine. We're talking about her new cookbook, margarita time, 60 plus tequila and mezcal cocktails served up over and blended. And we are taking your calls. Let me read a couple of texts here. Charred pineapple is a great margarita topper. This one says, the Brookdale in Bloomfield, New Jersey, makes the best jalapeno margarita. And this one says my brother is a home mixologist. He makes a fabulous margarita with muddled seasonal summer fruits. Watermelon, strawberry, peach. He freezes fresh juice and lime juice in ice cube trays, adds a dash of Cointreau high quality silver tequila which he infuses with jalapeno. Each time is a new experience. Delicious, basic, the best. All right, there's a lot in that last text. First of all, let's start with equipment. What equipment do you need to make a good margarita?

[Caroline Pardilla]

I mean, surprisingly, you don't need, I mean, a lot people think you need like the, well, you, they think you need a shaker, but you can use like a milkshake, you know, the protein shake bottle or a mason jar or whatever. And you just need, yeah, that's actually I Guess that's all you really need. Oh, you need a juicer if you want. You can hand squeeze those, but you really can make a margarita anywhere.

[Alison Stewart]

You write in the book that acid is where margarita can really go south if you're not careful. Limes are the basic acid ingredient. Acid ingredient. What is it about acid that we need to be wary of?

[Caroline Pardilla]

So with the lime juice, you definitely do not want to use lime juice. That's like over a day old. There's a bartender who did a taste test of he like, tasted like the difference between a fresh squeeze a couple hours old and like 24 hour old lime juice. And the day old one was like, you know, hands down the worst. So you could easily ruin your margarita with that. It's just too acidic. It's just nasty. So, yeah, it's like if you don't want to waste your good tequila and then it's like cheat out with the lime.

[Host/Caller]

Yeah. What about the orange liqueur?

[Caroline Pardilla]

The orange liqueur. I, I mean, in this book, what's amazing is that everybody takes the lead from the Tommies. I mean, not everybody, but a lot of the, the bartenders do. They'll like, you know, they'll swap out the orange liqueur with like, you know, other, like the gentian liqueur or other things like that. But the orange liqueur is like in the traditional. It, like, you know, it, it brightens the um, the, um, the cocktail. It complements the lime, it. And Ivy Mix, who is a bartender in New York, she actually prefers Cointreau. She says that it pairs well with the agave and the tequila.

[Alison Stewart]

So.

[Host/Caller]

Yeah, we love Ivy Mix. Yeah, regular on the show.

[Caroline Pardilla]

I name dropped.

[Host/Caller]

Let's talk to Maria from Huntington. Hi, Maria, thanks for calling all of it. You're on the air.

[Caller]

Hi, thanks so much. My question is, margaritas are so popular right now and there are so many amazing flavors. But I cannot do tequila after an unfortunate incident in Mexico around 30 years ago. And I'm wondering if it's possible to swap in another alcohol, like rum, for example, if that always works.

[Caroline Pardilla]

I mean, that wouldn't be a margarita, then that would be like a daiquiri, which is fine. You know, daiquiris are good. But I would recommend, recommend like giving tequila. Like you have to taste good tequila, like go to like a really great tequila bar that has a nice selection and, you know, tastes a little bit because we. I actually talked to somebody else who had a bad experience with tequila and wouldn't drink it. And then she tasted that red onion margarita. And it changed her mind. She was like, okay, I'll, I'll give it another chance. So I'm just saying, unless you have like a gag reflex when you take taste or smell tequila, like just like taste something really, like a really high quality tequila, it doesn't even have to be expensive. I mean, there are some good high quality ones that are affordable.

[Host/Caller]

Yeah. Think about where you were 30 years ago, the decision you made. Come on, let's talk to Ann. Hey, Ann, thanks for calling, all of it.

[Caller]

Hi, Allison. Great to be on your show. I really love, I always listen. So margaritas are near and dear to my heart and especially to my, the heart of my 96 year old mother because I got her into them about five years ago when we were traveling in Charleston, South Carolina. It was Cinco de Mayo. We were supposed to go on a harbor cruise, but the weather was terrible, so they cancelled it. So we found ourselves downtown and we went into a hotel. There was a nice lounge there and we sat down and I. It was Cinco de Mayo. So I said, we have to have margaritas. My mother says she's never had one in her life and at this point she's like 91. So of course we had to have classic margaritas straight up with salt, made with Jose Cuervo Especial. And she loved it. And ever since then, at every social occasion, every time we go out to dinner, she has her margarita. And we all, we all love it.

[Host/Caller]

Love the call. Thank you so much for calling in. We got this text that says, what was the place under the BQE that was recommended twice for their margaritas? I want to let our listeners know we upload transcripts of these conversations on our website, so you can always go through and you can get the best recommendations that people are giving. That was called Animal, by the way, which was a place under the bqe. But for any information on this segment or any piece that you didn't quite hear, you can catch them in our transcripts. They go up a couple hours after the show. So that was a piece of information for you. My guest is Caroline Perdilla. We're talking about margaritas. Her new cookbook is Margarita Time. All right, Spicy margaritas. What kind of spices are we talking about?

[Caroline Pardilla]

I mean, you can do like, cut up like jalapeno peppers and put like a couple coins into the shaker and shake that up. Or I like to do this spicy tincture, which it's called scrappy bitters. And you just like do a Couple of dashes. You add that to your shaker, or you can go crazy and then do all of it and then do the spicy rim and put hot sauce and everything. Yeah, as crazy as you want.

[Host/Caller]

And we talked about this a little bit earlier. Are you pro or against salt on the rim?

[Caroline Pardilla]

It depends. I mean, I like that when the bartender gives you the option, like, so the only, like, suave half of the rim. So you can go back to it if you want. But yeah, generally, like, if the margarita is, like, balanced and, you know, and everything, I feel like I really don't need the salt. So. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

You also have something in the book called ranch water, a spin off of the margarita. What's ranch water?

[Caroline Pardilla]

Oh, you don't know Ranch water, so ranch water. Yeah. Okay. Ranch water actually is basically a margarita top top with a top of chico. So sparkling water. Yeah. And the guy who invented it, I think his kid, his name is Kevin Williamson. He. He just wanted to lengthen his margarita. Like, he wanted to sip on it more. So he just like, oh, I'll just grab this and top it. And. And it's just this refreshing. He made the margarita even more refreshing. So if that was possible. But yeah, so he, like, that's a favorite, you know, daytime drink or for brunch. And they were attributing it to, like, ranch hands because, like, it's so easy to make. You can just, like, you know, add the tequila to your topo chico bottle and put a lime wedge in there and, like, just swish it around and, you know, drink it.

[Alison Stewart]

I only got about 28 more minutes on the radio. I am so ready for margarita. It's not even funny.

[Caroline Pardilla]

It's funny than I am.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah, we got a message via Blue Sky. This margarita conversation is tempting me to make a guava margarita later. Haven't made one in a couple of years. What are some other fruits that we can add to margaritas? Should we get spicy?

[Caroline Pardilla]

Yeah, I mean, spicy mango is a. It's a good one. There's, like, you know, strawberry, coconut. There's so many things you can add, and I generally like, you know, you can add like, an ounce of. Whether it's, like, the juice or, like, some of the bartenders make a syrup out of the fruit. But, yeah, you know, go for it. I think a margarita with fruit would just make it even more beautiful and fun.

[Alison Stewart]

I understand for this book, you put together a playlist for making and enjoying margaritas. Who are some of your favorite artists or songs that you have on that list?

[Caroline Pardilla]

Oh, well, of course I have. Was it the Champs? I did Tequila. I didn't like that song for the longest time because of Pee Wee Herman. I mean, you know, it was associated with Pee Wee Herman, but then I listened to it, I'm like, yeah, this is perfect. But a lot of the songs in there are around, like from the 50s and 60s. My aunt. It was. It was inspired by my aunt who passed away last year and she was into cha cha music. So every time there was a party, she wanted to do the cha cha. So it has stuff like Sway by Pink Martini and. Yeah. And it has Tequila by the Champs. And I mean, it's just a fun, you know, I just imagine somebody with a shaker and just kind of like cha cha and shaking their cocktail up.

[Alison Stewart]

We have been talking about margaritas with Caroline Pardilla, digital content editor for Imbibe magazine. Thanks for being with us, Caroline.

[Caroline Pardilla]

Thank you so much. This was so fun.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's go out on Margaritaville. Wasting away again in Margaritaville Searching for my lost shaker Salt. Some people claim that there's a Walmart to play, But I know nobody's fault.

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