Episode 120: Margarita Time With Caroline Pardilla

For decades, the Margarita has reigned as a champion of the cocktail world. For this episode, we explore the many facets of this classic drink and the way it’s inspiring bartenders around the world with Margarita Time author (and Imbibe digital content editor) Caroline Pardilla.

Read the Transcript

Paul Clarke 

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Radio Imbibe by Imbibe magazine. I’m Paul Clarke, Imbibe’s editor in chief. And for decades now, stretching back into the late 20th century, one cocktail that was completely absent from the formative years of mixology has managed to hold on to the title of the most popular cocktail in America year after year after year. 

The Margarita had a lot of playing catch-up to do, in some ways. Unlike spirits like gin or whiskey, tequila was largely unheard of in the U.S. until after the Second World War, and drinks like the Martini and the Manhattan had several decades worth of a head start at that point. But through some combination of freshness and fun and just downright deliciousness, the Margarita rose to the challenge. 

As with these other landmark cocktails, the Margarita is both a recipe and a starting point for tinkering. And as of this March, there’s a brand-new book that looks both at the Margarita’s classic character, as well as digs into many of the directions bartenders have taken this cocktail in recent years. Margarita Time is the first book from longtime Los Angeles-based drinks writer Caroline Pardilla, who, as luck would have it, is also Imbibe’s digital content editor. If you’ve stopped by our website at Imbibemagazine.com to look up a recipe or read an article, then you’re no doubt familiar with her work. So for this episode, we’re celebrating the Margarita and the debut of Margarita Time with this conversation with Caroline Pardilla, my colleague and first-time author. 

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Paul Clarke

Caroline, welcome to Radio Imbibe.

Caroline Pardilla 

Thank you, Paul. 

Paul Clarke 

And this is a little odd because, you know, you and I work together at Imbibe. You work as our digital editor and have for several years now. And so we’re accustomed to talking to each other in editorial meetings and things of that nature. But I’m having you on the podcast for a totally different reason, and that is because your very first book is just coming out now Margarita Time! Congratulations, first off, on having a book come out. 

Caroline Pardilla

Thank you so much. Really excited. 

Paul Clarke

And, you know, I guess, you know, the initial question, obviously, whenever any new book comes out is you look at it and say, why? Why this? Why did you settle on this? What was it about this topic? So for you, why the Margarita when you were looking to write your first book, figuring out the direction and the subject matter? What was it about the Margarita that kind of appealed to you as the topic on which you landed and for which you would spend the next number of months putting this together? 

Caroline Pardilla

The Margarita—actually, my go-to drinks are like the Manhattan and the martini, like I like stirred, spirit forward cocktails. But I’m you know, I live in L.A., so Margarita’s always on my periphery. Ten Speed Press actually approached me like, Hey, would you be interested in writing a Margarita book? You know, I’ve always been wanting to write a book, but I never really actively pursued it. Like I didn’t get an agent or anything like that. But then they came to me and I’m like, I love Ten Speed Press that’s on my vision board.

And even though, like, I’ve never written a book before, I will say yes, you know, like I told them, I’m not a drink creator, so obviously I’m not going to create recipes, but I know a lot of bartenders. So I figure like a Margarita book that celebrates the Margarita and how it’s evolved in the hands of today’s bartenders. 

Paul Clarke 

Right. And in a way, it’s kind of surprising you start thinking about the Margarita is the most popular cocktail that’s still ordered today. You see that thrown about sometimes. And we’ve had single cocktail focused books on the Martini and on the Manhattan and on the Negroni in the past. But I can’t recall another Margarita-focused book within the last 20 years. And so this seems to be coming at a good time as people are continuing to explore classic cocktails and kind of reinvent them and touch upon them in their own places.

And to establish some background for you, you’ve been with Imbibe for several years now, but it’s not your first time working with cocktails or with bars and bartenders. So for folks who are just familiar with you from our website, lay out some of the background. How long have you been working with spirits and cocktails and how did that help kind of lay some of the groundwork for the relationships you have and the knowledge you have about bars and cocktails and bartenders? 

Caroline Pardilla 

So I actually started blogging and it wasn’t for cocktails, it was just fun things to do in L.A. in 2005. And other blogs that I saw were basically like stream of consciousness diaries. I wanted something like, Oh, this is a fun thing to do in L.A., because I really loved living here. And also, I had a day job as a copy editor. So this was kind of like my outlet, my creative outlet. Then my blog got a couple of awards, and then I got asked to write for, like L.A. Weekly, and then I was the drinks editor for L.A. magazine. I had only started writing for like Liquor.com and Eater. So that was like my side hustle. That was really fun.

Then I got laid off in 2020, then I was like, okay, I have to do this full time now. I didn’t want to be a copy editor again. And then I was able to get that job at Imbibe, it was like a dream come true. It made everything make sense. Like I did all this blogging about cocktails, and now I get to do it, actually have a job that covers that. But so through all those years, like about 20 years, I was able to get to know bartenders and, you know, reaching out for articles and everything. So for this book, I, you know, I had an idea of who to tap. I wanted to focus on drink creators who were well-respected and trusted and who had their own take on the Margarita. 

Paul Clarke

So on that note, it’s Margarita time. Now, the Margarita is one thing, if you want to be a stickler about it. The Margarita is tequila, lime juice, and triple sec, and that’s it. But the Margarita is also many things and has been for a long time. So let’s talk about how you came to terms with being flexible to some degree with what a Margarita is in order to collect dozens of recipes that all kind of revolve around that core concept. 

Caroline Pardilla

I kept the core concept of the Margarita in my mind when I was looking for recipes. But I did allow for like minor additions and swaps. I know that a lot of Margarita purists like, would be like pooh poohing this, like Ivan Vazquez at Madre. He was saying, like, if it has ginger and pineapple, then you’re distracting from the classic Margarita. I just wanted to show how fluid the Margarita is and how it’s inspired, or maybe tangentially inspired bartenders like Vincenzo Marinella, who created the Rhode Island Red. He’s like, that is not inspired by the Margarita, that’s not a Margarita, it’s actually inspired by California summers. And I’m like, but it has the bones of the Margarita. It has like the tequila, fruit liqueur, and agave.

And then there was another Christian Suzuki Orellana, he has a spicy Margarita in the book, and it’s like it has basil eau de vie and genever and lychee liqueur. And but I felt like those elements together, that would stand in for the orange liqueur. Then Josh Harris at Trick Dog was like, Yeah, the Baby Turtle is like, even though been on the menu since the bar’s opening, it doesn’t count as a Margarita. But again, I was just like the elements of it was like, it’s Margarita adjacent and it’s so good and beloved, and I just wanted to showcase that. 

Paul Clarke

Right. And as you explore in it, were there particular aspects like, where did you draw the boundaries? What counted as a Margarita, and what was straying too far from the concept? Where did you draw the lines when you’re deciding the drinks to include in the book? 

Caroline Pardilla 

Yeah, I drew the line at like, if it didn’t have agave spirits, then it wasn’t a Margarita. But then there’s like the Jägerita, and then they’re like the nonalcoholic ones. And I drew the boundaries where I didn’t want it to have too many ingredients. Right? And then it totally, completely changed the format of it is like, yeah, you can top it with like ginger ale or whatever, as long as it has the bones of that Margarita, I guess I was just more open about it. But if it had like a different spirit altogether, that was like, okay, that’s definitely where I drew the line. 

Paul Clarke

So when you started assembling recipes, which ones were particularly close to the original, that classic version of tequila, lime and triple sec, but still carved out their own identity or started to explore the parameters a little bit? And then how did some bartenders start building from that core, maybe adding additional ingredients to it, but still remained pretty close to that recognizable Margarita format? 

Caroline Pardilla 

So for sure, I’m going to point out Chef José Andrés’ Salt Air Margarita, which is basically a Margarita and then he, instead of rimming the glass with salt, he adds this salt-air foam and it really kicked off or it popularized the whole molecular mixology back in the day. And it stands out on its own. He has that Margarita at all his restaurants, and I feel like it’s an iconic take on it.

And then there’s John deBary’s Italian Margarita, which is based on the Olive Garden Italian Margarita, which you would think like Italian Margarita doesn’t go well together, but he uses amaretto liqueur as they do at Olive Garden, and he makes it more like sophisticated take on it, in that he dials back the sweetness of the amaretto and like ups the citrus. So it’s more balanced. You recognize the Margaritaness of it, but instead of like, the orange liqueur, you have amaretto liqueur for that nice, nutty flavor. 

Paul Clarke

At a certain point, the Margarita starts to stray out of its lane and into the path of other cocktails. Let’s talk about the mash-up chapter a little bit with some of the examples from that, because I thought this was really interesting.

Caroline Pardilla

Yeah, that was really fun, like to see all these different combinations of cocktails come together in one delicious drink. Like we have the Sí Punch by Max Reis of Mirate, which was in the Imbibe 75. Basically he takes the elements of a Tí Punch but he switches out the rhum agricole for blanco tequila and then he sweetens it with Naranja miel syrup and then just like a little twist of lime disc. So it’s just like it has like the tiny little elements of the Margarita, you could recognize that, but it’s in this new format. And also Daniel Eun in Hong Kong, he was in Hong Kong at the time, but now he’s in Korea. He, like did his own take with a New York Sour by just topping it with red wine. 

Paul Clarke 

Even if we’re being sticklers somewhat about what constitutes a Margarita, we’re going to talk about some different explorations, some different ingredients that people have incorporated into it. But the Margarita landscape has long included room for other kinds of adventure. So, for example, the blended Margarita has been around for decades and decades, and I think we’re all accustomed to accepting that as as a normal version of the cocktail. But then you also have versions that have been around for years and years that include strawberries or watermelon or other kinds of fruit. When you take those into account, when you think about frozen drinks, when you think about fruity drinks, and with searching for recipes that fleshed out these angles, what kinds of kind of interesting directions did you find that people were doing with these kinds of formats? 

Caroline Pardilla 

So one of them I happened to come across was the Boogie Nights from Thai Diner in New York. And it’s basically a frozen dragon fruit Margarita where he adds this colorful dragon fruit puree into the glass. And so when it’s taken into the dining room, everybody wants to know more about that drink, cause it’s like this really beautiful, colorful drink. But he also spritzes it with green Chartreuse, which I thought was really interesting. And then the strawberry Margarita. I couldn’t just have a plain strawberry Margarita. I wanted something a little bit crafty, so I found Trevor Easter and Britta Currie at Butterscotch Den in Sacramento, they had their super strawberry Margarita, which includes mezcal, but it also has like a rose aperitif, and they make their own strawberry super sauce, so it’s extra berry licious. 

Paul Clarke 

When you look at Margaritas, we’re talking about fruits coming into them and that makes total sense because fruit is delicious and it goes great in a Margarita. But then you also found a number of recipes that incorporated vegetables, or Margaritas that had a spicy component, and, you know, spicy Margaritas are increasingly prevalent. But you also see people looking at that as a source where they can kind of tinker with the approach to the spiciness or bring in different flavors in that way. Were there versions that you came across and you thought, that is not going to work at all, but then somehow they managed to make it land? And were there ones, especially with the vegetables, that where you thought, this is really, really tasty? I never thought this would be something that would wind up in my book about Margaritas. But man, it’s good. 

Caroline Pardilla

Yeah, for sure. Like, I mean, first all the drink creators here, like, I trust them. They’re all, like, some of the best. But there was this red onion Margarita that when I first tasted it on this cocktail tasting when they were launching the menu. I’m like, What is that? You know? But so Abigail Smith, it was for Big Bar and she’s always doing like culinary touches to her cocktails. And with red onion I was, for me, that’s something that as a raw ingredient, it’s just too hot. So I didn’t know what she was going to do with it, but she actually cooked it down, salted it, so it adds like this umami flavor note to the cocktail. And then she has like little bit of pineapple elements in it, but it just like, makes for really like it’s perfect for L.A. It’s a perfect patio, tropical Margarita, with this unexpected red onion running through it.

Then so another unexpected cocktail, which I thought was like not going to be good, was the Jägerita, which is basically a Jägermeister Margarita. It sounds like a dare, but it’s actually I think it’s created by David Cordova, who is a respected drink creator. And Jeffrey Morgenthaler called it one of the best drinks he’s ever had in his life. And that was something that I was like, okay, I have to try this. I’m very skeptical. And I mixed it and it was actually damn good. So yeah, that was another thing. I was like, you know, you have to be open minded and, and also trust. So those were the ones that stood out to me being surprising. 

Paul Clarke 

Now, you put all of this together. The book is out now. It has dozens of different approaches to the Margarita. Is there anything that you learned about the Margarita that you didn’t know before, in the course of putting this book together? 

Caroline Pardilla 

Oh, my God. I learned so many different ways how to make a classic Margarita even better. Like I was reading about how you squeeze lime juice, and then you let it sit for, like, 4 hours because it gives it, like, a nice bite and then sprinkling salt in or using saline solution. Just like there’s all these different ways to just improve, even just the classic Margarita that you wouldn’t have thought about. And also, like in the book, I actually, that’s why I asked a bunch of the drink creators for their own specs for how they like to make it for themselves because it’s just really interesting to see how they personalized it and how they enjoyed it for themselves and for the friends.

Paul Clarke 

Caroline, thanks so much for sharing all of this information on your new book with us and see around. 

Caroline Pardilla 

See ya, thank you. 

[music]

Paul Clarke

Margarita Time is published by Ten Speed Press and is now available from an online or brick and mortar retailer near you. And you can find Caroline Pardilla on Instagram @CarolineonCocktails and on the web at CarolinePardilla.com. We’ve got those links for you in this episode’s notes. 

And that’s it for this episode. Be sure to subscribe to Radio Imbibe on your favorite podcast app to keep up with all our future episodes. We’ve got plenty of articles and recipes for you online at our website imbibemagazine.com. Keep up with us day to day on Instagram, Pinterest, Threads, and Facebook. And if you’re not already a subscriber to the print and or digital issues of Imbibe, then here’s your opportunity to come on board. Just follow the link in this episode’s notes and we’ll be happy to help you out. 

I’m Paul Clarke. This is Radio Imbibe. Catch you next time.