Featured in the November 1999 issue of Texas Monthly

Margaritas From the Kentucky Club, Juárez

salt (coarse if available)
1 ounce white tequila (Herradura is excellent)
1 ounce Controy (Mexican orange liqueur)
juice of 1 Mexican lime
ice

Moisten the rim of a cocktail glass with lime juice and invert in a saucer of salt. Shake tequila, liqueur, lime juice, and ice together and strain into the glass. Makes 1 margarita.

One of the many creation myths about the margarita is that it was invented in Juárez in 1942 by bartender Francisco Morales. He has been gone many years, but you can still have a perfect margarita there courtesy of Lorenzo Hernandez, who has been making them at the Kentucky Club, just across the international bridge on Avenida Juárez, for 53 years. As Hernandez will tell you, many different tequilas and orange liqueurs make excellent margaritas. But the single most important ingredient in a top-notch margarita is the juice of Mexican limes. True, Mexican limes are small and they have a lot of annoying seeds. But margaritas just don't taste right without them. (For that matter, neither does caldo de pollo, ceviche, pozole, or guacamole. Mexican limes are as essential to the Mexican kitchen as chiles, corn, and beans.)

You will, of course, be tempted to go the easy route and substitute ordinary big, green, egg-shaped limes (called Persian or Tahiti limes) for little, round Mexican limes. Do not succumb unless you have no recourse. Mexican limes, which are also known as Key limes, are tart and sweet and have many flavor nuances, whereas ordinary limes are mainly sour. So buy yourself a heavy-duty lime juicer and have at it. The difference is worth the trouble.
Patricia Sharpe

coarse salt
Herradura tequila
Controy