Ina Garten's Unconventional Advice For A Tastier Margarita

Picture it: You're sipping a frozen margarita on a hot summer day. The sun is winding down, lightning bugs freckle the woods, and you're sitting out on a patio, enjoying a salt-rimmed glass of this quintessentially citrus cocktail. The perfect margarita can conjure more than just a good time. It can also create a standstill moment in your day, unfurling its bright, citrus flavor with each sip. And Ina Garten, the television personality and cook behind the hit Food Network series "Barefoot Contessa," knows this very well.

In an episode of her Food Network series, Garten gave a few unconventional pointers to perfecting the staple cocktail. Garten starts her recipe in a standard fashion, by juicing several limes. However, she also adds, as an accent, the juice of one lemon. This unusual ingredient adds a small but noticeable twist to her recipe. Garten also suggests using inexpensive blanco tequila in her margarita recipe, rather than "better" (pricier) variations of tequila.

These two variations may seem — depending on how puritanical your views on margaritas are — to be heretical. After all, limes are the star of this cocktail, and a lower-quality tequila may not seem like the best choice for an optimum margarita. However, there is no need to doubt the Barefoot Contessa, as both of these adjustments serve to brighten up the already vibrant drink.

But how do these two twists on the margarita add up to a better one? Let's start, as Ina Garten does, with the lemon. Now, Garten's recipe still calls for a good amount of limes (about five), but she also adds the juice of one lemon to the mix. On "Barefoot Contessa," Garten notes that this gives her margaritas "much more depth of flavor." This might be because lemons have a sweeter edge while limes tend to be bitter. For this reason, adding a bit of lemon juice to your lime base can help to mellow the lime juice's bitterness — and add just a hint of bright, lemony flavor. And if you really want to kick up the sweetness, try using a Meyer lemon rather than a standard lemon, as Meyers have a wonderfully distinct flowery taste.

Like the added lemon, using blanco tequila helps brighten your margarita. This is because clear tequila isn't aged. The shorter aging time gives clear tequila a sharper, almost citrus taste that goes perfectly with cocktails like margaritas. Darker tequila, on the other hand, has a warmer flavor, which would be too heavy for a light cocktail. So, next time you make yourself a margarita, take Ina Garten's advice and keep your margarita on the sunny side.