Ranch Waters Are The Go-To Cocktails When Margaritas Are Too Much Effort

If you find margaritas too tedious to make, try pivoting to ranch water, a tequila drink that also uses lime but is less sweet, easier to make, and more bracing than a margarita.

At its simplest, a ranch water consists of good tequila, a splash of lime juice, and sparkling water (the standard is Topo Chico, a delicious sparkling mineral water from Mexico).

Ranch 616 in Austin, Texas and the Gage Hotel in Marathon, Texas — both of which claim to have invented the drink — use orange liqueur, but most ranch waters use lime now.

You can always make the drink more lime forward, or stronger or weaker by adjusting the amount of soda to suit your personal tastes. You can stir or shake the drink to mix it.

Note that ranch water is more alcohol-forward than a margarita, so it's crucial to use a good tequila with a flavor profile you like, be it unaged blanco or ultra-aged Extra Añejo.

The Gage Hotel uses blanco, whereas Ranch 616 uses a more complex reposado. If you opt for blanco, go for a better bottle because ranch water does suffer from using cheap tequila.