20 Fun Recipes For One-Of-A-Kind Margaritas

Margaritas are one of the most popular cocktails of all time. The traditional recipe includes a mix of tequila, triple sec, and lime juice shaken over ice and served in a glass with a salt rim. Nowadays, there are so many variations of the humble margarita that stretch that original definition. Whether it's fruity or spicy, there is a margarita for nearly every person regardless of their palate. 

Margaritas are also one of the easiest cocktails to recreate at home. If you're bored of shaking up plain lime margaritas, we have plenty of recipe inspiration for easy riffs. A few of our recipes might not even technically be margaritas as is, but with a few quick swaps, they become a close relative to the humble original drink. 

We rounded up 20 recipes for one-of-a-kind margaritas to make drinking at home more exciting. Save these for your next Taco Tuesday or cocktail hour celebration to treat yourself and your drinking buddies to something special. 

A Cadillac Margarita is the mysterious-sounding sophisticated version of the tequila staple that sounds more intimidating than it really is. The recipe swaps mild blanco tequila for slightly spicier reposado, which can add a hint of smoke depending on the bottle you use. The Mexican restaurant classic is truly marked by a creamy shot of Grand Marnier that adds a bright hit of orange citrus alongside the usual lime flavor. The rest of the recipe keeps it simple with tequila and Grand Marnier shaken with lime juice and agave, and it's one drink that's best served with a salt rim. 

Recipe: Classic Cadillac Margarita Cocktail

A tequila sunrise is not a margarita at its core, but it's a close relative worth exploring if you get sick of the original version. The usual version of a tequila sunrise is a mix of blanco tequila and orange juice. Grenadine is a key ingredient for dramatic effect to make it resemble the "sunrise" in the cocktail's name. If you're missing the lime hit from a margarita, the recipe tastes even better with a squeeze of fresh lime juice added into the cocktail shaker.

Recipe: Classic Tequila Sunrise

Mexico City native and restauranteur Chef Richard Sandoval shared a must-try recipe for a Flor De Muertos Margarita that's perfect for Dia De Los Muertos celebrations and beyond. The floral and fruity cocktail starts with Patrón Silver Tequila and homemade sour mix, which we will elaborate on later in the list. The recipe truly stands out for including marigold flowers, thyme, and passionfruit puree. It's a refreshing drink that tastes like the essence of the tropics that is almost too easy to try and make at home.  

Recipe: Chef Richard Sandoval's Flor De Muertos Margarita

Mangonadas are the sweet and spicy Mexican treat that also make for great margaritas if you add a bit of tequila. The blended drink layers sweetened mango and lime puree and chamoy chile sauce with a spicy rim infused with lime zest. To make it a margarita, you just add a few shots of your favorite tequila, blanco is a good neutral base, into the blender with the mango. 

Recipe: Sweet And Spicy Mangonada

Our margarita mocktail has all of the bright flavors you love from a frozen margarita without the booze. The recipe uses both fresh limes and limeade (or lime cordial) alongside orange extract and grapefruit juice for a layered citrus flavor. The honey can also be exchanged for agave nectar if that's more your thing, and the resulting cocktail contains so much depth of flavor that you won't even miss the alcohol. 

Recipe: Margarita Mocktail

We can hear the critics already pointing out that ranch water isn't a margarita. It is far less sweet than your run-of-the-mill marg and is much lighter thanks to a healthy splash of Topo Chico mineral water. However, ranch water is a close enough cousin to make it a fun swap for the average bar margarita. Topo Chico is mixed with fresh lime juice and blanco tequila for this endlessly drinkable cocktail that will quench your thirst on even the hottest of days. 

Recipe: Classic Ranch Water

Jingle Juice is a big-batch cocktail that shouldn't be limited to just winter holiday celebrations. It's also easily customizable, which is why if you swap tequila for vodka, it's basically a festive margarita for a crowd. The recipe, with the aforementioned liquor sub, includes sparkling rosé, sparkling cider, Cointreau, orange juice, and lemon juice. To make it feel more margarita-like, you can also swap lemons for limes. The punch is filled with frozen cranberries, orange slices, and mint leaves to make it more inviting as if the boozy punch wasn't already calling your name. 

Recipe: Jingle Juice

Palomas should be just as popular of a bar order as margaritas because they're extremely similar, but a little more unique and fruity. A paloma is marked by the inclusion of grapefruit juice, but our recipe includes a bit of chili powder and salt on the rim for a hint of savory spice. We also recommend blanco tequila, but reposado also makes for a great pairing to tart grapefruit and lime juice. The splash of sparkling water helps to mellow out all of those flavors to keep this drink light and crisp. 

Recipe: Classic Paloma Cocktail

Whenever you're drinking a frozen margarita, it feels like you're on vacation. Our frozen strawberry margarita recipe is great to keep on rotation whenever you need to feel like it's summer regardless of the weather outside. Frozen or fresh strawberries are a must, and we like to add frozen limeade concentrate to the blender to make the drink resemble a liquified popsicle. A little blanco tequila and triple sec are thrown in with plenty of ice, and it's up to the drink maker whether or not they want to add a tiny umbrella to the finished product for even more beach vibes. 

Recipe: Frozen Strawberry Margarita 

For those who can't get enough of spicy food, a spicy margarita should be their go-to cocktail. Our recipe gets it heat from fresh jalapenos. You can opt to remove the seeds, but keeping them in will make the drink that much spicier. Blanco tequila is a great neutral in this drink that's already bursting with flavors, as well as triple sec, lime juice, and a little agave for sweetness. The drink itself has enough heat to not need a chili-salt rim, but that is ultimately up to personal taste preference. 

Recipe: Refreshing Spicy Margarita 

Coconut and tequila are a match made in heaven, so adding a shot of the spirit to our Refreshing Coconut Cream Mocktail recipe is a no-brainer. The blended drink includes pineapple juice, coconut milk, coconut cream, and brown sugar, so a shot of blanco tequila definitely won't hurt. The drink also can be brightened up with a bit of lime juice, but the pineapple will add plenty of acidities to compliment the sweet coconut to not make the citrus totally necessary. 

Recipe: Refreshing Coconut Cream Mocktail

We have plenty of variations of frozen margaritas that are like boozy treats in a glass, and this classic is a perfect blank slate. The traditional recipe includes blanco tequila, triple sec, lime juice, and agave blended with ice and complete with a salt rim. To mix it up, you can easily add any fruit to the blender such as peaches, blackberries, mangos, and more. It's a recipe worth bookmarking for one of those days you just need to make fun vacation drinks at home at a moment's notice. 

Recipe: Frozen Margarita Cocktail

Watermelon lemonade is one of the most summer-inspired drinks we can think of, so you can take it up a notch by adding tequila to turn it into a defacto margarita. Fresh watermelon is a must. Our recipe uses lemon juice to get that traditional lemonade flavor, but you can also add a splash of lime juice to make it resemble a margarita even more. The fresh mint also adds a nice herbal element to the drink and makes for the perfect garnish for this inventive cocktail. 

Recipe: Homemade Watermelon Lemonade

A Frozen Blue Hawaiian cocktail typically features white rum as its main spirit, but if you swap the classic out for tequila, it almost makes it a frozen blue margarita. The recipe also includes blue Curaçao, frozen pineapple, and coconut cream so it's extremely inspired by tropical flavors, and a squeeze of lime juice into the blender would most likely brighten the drink up even more. 

Recipe: Frozen Blue Hawaiian Cocktail

Another recipe worth bookmarking is our staple margarita cocktail that can also serve as a base for more inventive riffs on the classic. Blanco tequila, lime juice, triple sec, and agave are shaken with ice and strained into a salt-rimmed glass. It's a recipe that's just asking you to add your own personal twist, such as muddling in fresh produce like berries or cucumbers into the shaker or adding a spicy Tajin rim on each cocktail glass before serving. 

Recipe: Classic Margarita Cocktail

Hibiscus margaritas are a delicious floral riff on the tequila cocktail, and our Copycat Starbuck Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher recipe makes for a great margarita variation. The recipe is the real deal with homemade hibiscus simple syrup, fresh blackberries, and white grape juice. To make it a marg, sub the grape juice for fresh lime juice and add a shot of blanco tequila. It might be a bit of a labor of love, but you won't be disappointed with the results. 

Recipe: Copycat Very Berry Hibiscus Starbucks Refresher

As you might expect from the name, rum runners usually feature rum as the spirit of choice. A simple swap with tequila can make a classic rum runner recipe into an interesting fruity take on a margarita. A shot of blanco tequila is shaken with blackberry liqueur, banana liqueur, pineapple juice, lime juice, and grenadine. It's a drink that won't taste like your average margarita, but it might become your new tiki drink of choice. 

Recipe: Tropical Rum Runner Cocktail

A few of the aforementioned recipes might call for sour mix, which is always better when it's homemade versus store-bought. It's not hard to make your own sweet and sour margarita mix at home with a little time, and the effort will pay off in the resulting cocktails. It's essentially just fresh lemon and lime juice boiled down with water and sugar, and it stays fresh in the fridge for up to two weeks for all of the margarita needs in your foreseeable future. 

Recipe: Sweet And Sour Margarita Mix

Moscow Mules are one of the most popular vodka-based cocktails at bars, but the Mexican Mule is its underrated tequila counterpart. A Mexican Mule is literally the same recipe but swapping out vodka for blanco tequila. The liquor is mixed with ginger beer and fresh lime juice, often in a copper mug, for a zesty cocktail that you can easily drink all night long. 

Recipe: Classic Moscow Mule

The Baja Blast Freeze is one of the most ubiquitous drinks on Taco Bell's menu, and it's even better when you add tequila. We have a DIY recipe for the freeze that mixes regular Mountain Dew with Powerade Berry Blast, and it can simply become a margarita with a few shots of blanco tequila. Mountain Dew also sells Baja Blast cans at times, which can make this recipe even easier to recreate at home. 

Recipe: Copycat Taco Bell Baja Blast Freeze