Mexican Cocktails: Beyond Margaritas — The Mezcal Revolution and Cantina Culture

The margarita is Mexico's most famous cocktail export, but it tells only a fraction of the story. Mexico's drinking culture is ancient, diverse, and deeply tied to the land — to the specific agave plants that grow in Oaxaca's valleys, to the fermented pulque drunk in central Mexico for millennia, to the beer culture of Monterrey, to the cantinas of Mexico City where men gathered to drink, argue politics, and eat for most of the twentieth century. Understanding Mexican cocktails requires leaving the tourist resorts and walking into that wider world.

The Cantina Tradition

The Mexican cantina is one of the great drinking institutions of the Americas — a male-dominated, often rough-edged space where drinking was accompanied by free botanas (snacks) and the understanding that a man was entitled to drink in peace. Traditional cantinas admitted only men, displayed images of the Virgin of Guadalupe beside calendars of semi-nude models, and served tequila, mezcal, or beer with plates of chicharrón, tostadas, and grilled meats.

The cantina tradition has evolved dramatically. Mexico City's Colonia Roma and Condesa neighborhoods now host contemporary cantinas — Cantina El Centenario, La Coyoacana in Coyoacán — that maintain the aesthetic of the classic cantina (mosaic floors, wooden bars, taxidermied animals) while welcoming everyone and serving thoughtful drinks alongside the traditional botanas. The free food-with-drinks model persists, and it remains one of the most appealing features of Mexican bar culture.

Tequila and the Margarita

Tequila: Blanco to Añejo Decoded covers the production of Mexico's most famous spirit in depth, but the margarita deserves mention here as the cocktail that shaped global perceptions of Mexican drinking. The Margarita — tequila, triple sec or Cointreau, lime juice, and a salted rim — belongs to the Daisy template and has become one of the most ordered cocktails on the planet.

Its ubiquity has also led to its degradation. The mass-market margarita, made with cheap mixto tequila and bottled sour mix, bears little resemblance to a properly made version using 100% agave blanco tequila, fresh lime juice, and quality orange liqueur. The difference is revelatory — clean, bright, with the distinctive agave character of good tequila rather than the harsh, one-dimensional sweetness of the industrial version.

Mexican bartenders making margaritas seriously use the Shaking method with plenty of ice, producing a properly chilled and diluted drink. The salted rim, applied to only half the glass, allows the drinker to control how much salt they want with each sip — a detail that makes the difference between a seasoned drinker and a novice.

The Mezcal Movement

The mezcal revolution of the past two decades has been one of the most significant events in the global spirits industry. Mezcal — broadly, any agave spirit not made with blue Weber agave in the designated tequila region — had existed for centuries as a local, rural spirit, often primitive in production and rough in character. Its transformation into a global luxury category represents an extraordinary journey.

Mezcal: Smoke, Earth & Agave explores how the diversity of agave species (Espadín, Tobalá, Tobaziche, Madrecuixe, Tepeztate, and dozens more), the traditional pit-roasting that gives mezcal its signature smokiness, and the artisanal production methods of Oaxacan maestro mezcaleros created a category of unusual complexity and terroir expression.

What matters for cocktails is that mezcal's smokiness fundamentally changes the drinks it enters. A Margarita made with mezcal instead of tequila becomes a different drink — the smoke adds a dimension of savory depth that transforms the bright citrus combination. Mexico City's best contemporary bars — Limantour, Hanky Panky, Baltra Bar — treat mezcal as a primary cocktail spirit, building entire menu sections around its diversity.

The mezcal Negroni — espadín mezcal, Campari, sweet vermouth — has become a canonical modern cocktail, appearing on menus worldwide. The smoke cuts through the bitterness in a way that creates unexpected harmony.

The Paloma: Mexico's Favorite Cocktail

Ask a Mexican what they actually drink on a regular basis, and the answer is far more likely to be the Paloma than the margarita. The paloma — tequila, grapefruit soda (traditionally Squirt or Jarritos Toronja), lime juice, and a salt rim — is refreshing, low-effort, and utterly delicious in the hot Mexican climate.

The premium version uses fresh pink grapefruit juice and soda water rather than grapefruit soda, which is the approach taken by cocktail bars globally. But there is something honest and right about the original — the slight artificiality of the grapefruit soda providing a sweetness that balances the tequila beautifully, and the Squirt's carbonation remaining robust in a way that freshly mixed soda water often doesn't.

The paloma belongs to the Highball template and shares with the margarita the defining principle of Mexican cocktails: agave spirit plus citrus, balanced and refreshing. It is one of the most underappreciated great drinks in the world outside of Mexico.

The Michelada: A Cocktail Philosophy Unto Itself

The michelada is unlike any drink in any other cocktail culture — a savory beer cocktail that incorporates lime juice, various hot sauces, Worcestershire sauce, Maggi seasoning, and/or Clamato (clam-tomato juice) into cold Mexican lager, served in a glass with a salted and chili-rimmed lip.

There is no single definitive michelada recipe. Regional variations are dramatic: in Mexico City, a chelada (lime and salt with beer) is considered simpler and separate from a michelada (which adds the savory elements). In Guadalajara, the michelada is more tomato-forward. In Oaxaca, versions incorporate mezcal. Clamato versions, popular in northern Mexico and among Mexican communities in the United States, are intensely savory and practically a meal.

The michelada challenges cocktail orthodoxy. It is not sweet. It is not particularly complex in technique — Building it in a glass requires no special skill. But it achieves something that very few cocktails do: it is genuinely thirst-quenching in a tropical heat in a way that no spirit-forward cocktail can be, while still delivering flavor complexity that beer alone cannot provide.

Oaxaca: The Spiritual Center of Mezcal Culture

Oaxaca has become a pilgrimage site for spirits enthusiasts worldwide, and its bar scene has developed accordingly. Bars like In Situ Mezcalería offer encyclopedic selections of mezcals from across the state, organized by agave variety, region, and production method. The staff are encyclopedic in their knowledge and evangelical in their enthusiasm.

The experience of drinking mezcal in Oaxaca is transformative precisely because context matters so much. Surrounded by the landscape where the agave grew — the Sierra Juárez mountains visible in the distance, the dry valley air, the food culture that makes mezcal's smokiness make complete sense — a spirit that might seem exotic and challenging in a Brooklyn bar becomes logical and inevitable.

Contemporary Mexican Cocktail Culture

Mexico City's contemporary cocktail scene has emerged as one of the most interesting in the world. Bars like Handshake Speakeasy (which has appeared on the World's 50 Best Bars list), Licorería Limantour, and Baltra Bar demonstrate a synthesis of Mexican ingredients and traditions with global technique that is genuinely innovative rather than derivative.

The use of indigenous Mexican ingredients — chapulines (grasshoppers), huitlacoche (corn fungus), chepiche (a Oaxacan herb), tepache (fermented pineapple drink) — in contemporary cocktail menus reflects a broader project of reclaiming and celebrating Mexican culinary heritage in drinking form.

Mexico's contribution to the global cocktail world is not just tequila and margaritas. It is an entire philosophy of drinking — rooted in the land, generous with food, connected to centuries of fermentation culture — that is only beginning to be understood and appreciated on its own terms.