Margarita Trivia
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45 free Margarita trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Nobody agrees on who invented the margarita, which makes it perfect quiz material. Was it a Tijuana bartender mixing for a dancer allergic to every spirit but tequila? A Juárez bar on the Fourth of July 1942? A Dallas socialite in Acapulco? This quiz walks through every claim, then covers the drink itself: the IBA ratio, why it is really a daisy, the salt rim, the Cadillac and Tommy's variations, the frozen margarita machine built from a soft-serve unit in 1971, and the Jimmy Buffett song that turned it into a lifestyle. Because a margarita is mostly tequila, the second half covers the spirit: the blue agave, the jimadores and their coa, Jalisco, blanco versus reposado versus añejo, the Cuervo licence of 1795, the truth about the worm, and the most expensive bottle ever sold. Easy questions ask what the three classic ingredients are; hard ones want the Esquire recipe date and the name of the Ensenada cantina that claims the drink. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the margarita, tequila, the liqueurs and the brands, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up. Made for Cinco de Mayo parties, National Margarita Day and bar trivia nights.
30 of 45 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In the official bartenders' recipe, how is a margarita mixed before it is strained into the glass?
Shaken with ice
Shaken with ice, then strained into a chilled cocktail glass: the International Bartenders Association's recipe never mentions the wide-rimmed margarita glass that most bars reach for.
Q 02What does the Spanish word 'margarita' mean in English?
Daisy
Daisy is the meaning, and one theory of the drink's name starts there: the 'daisy' was an older family of American sours, and a tequila daisy asked for in Spanish is a margarita.
Q 03What traditionally coats the rim of a margarita glass?
Salt
Salt is the classic rim: the earliest printed recipe, from 1953, has the drinker rub the glass with the rind of a lemon or lime and then 'spin in salt'.
Q 04Which actor co-founded Casamigos tequila, sold to Diageo in 2017 in a deal worth up to $1 billion?
George Clooney
George Clooney and his friend Rande Gerber first had the tequila made only for themselves and their guests; Casamigos, 'house of friends', went on public sale two years later.
Q 05Danny Herrera said he invented the margarita for a showgirl allergic to every other spirit at his restaurant near which border city?
Tijuana
Tijuana was the nearest city to Rancho La Gloria, where Herrera said he built the drink around tequila for Marjorie King and named it Margarita, which he took to be the Spanish for Marjorie.
Q 06Which Ensenada bar claims the margarita was created there in 1941 for a customer named Margarita Henkel?
Hussong's
Hussong's Cantina in Ensenada says bartender Don Carlos Orozco mixed the first margarita there in October 1941 and named it for regular Margarita Henkel, reputedly a German ambassador's daughter.
Q 07In which Mexican border city did Pancho Morales say he first mixed a margarita on July 4, 1942?
Juárez
Juárez was home to Tommy's Bar, where Morales said a woman asked for a drink he had never heard of; pretending to know it, he improvised with tequila.
Q 08Dallas socialite Margarita Sames said she invented the drink in 1948 at her holiday home in which resort?
Acapulco
Acapulco was where Sames threw lavish house parties; one guest in 1948 is said to have been Tommy Hilton, who took her drink back to the bars of his family's hotels.
Q 09Which singer supposedly had the drink named after her by Santos Cruz in Galveston in 1948?
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee is the singer in this version: bartender Santos Cruz at Galveston's Balinese Room is said to have named the drink for her in 1948, Margarita being the Spanish form of Margaret, the root of Peggy.
Q 10Which magazine published the first known margarita recipe as its 'Drink of the Month' in December 1953?
Esquire
Esquire's writer called the new arrival from Mexico 'lovely to look at, exciting and provocative', then gave a recipe of tequila, a dash of triple sec and the juice of half a lime or lemon.
Q 11Substituting Grand Marnier for triple sec makes which variation?
Cadillac margarita
Cadillac margarita is a name borrowed from the luxury car: it is the premium model, and many bartenders float the Grand Marnier on top of the finished drink rather than mix it in.
Q 12Tommy's margarita, an IBA new-era drink, replaces the triple sec with what?
Agave nectar
Agave nectar was Julio Bermejo's swap at Tommy's Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco: he felt triple sec drowned out the tequila, so he sweetened the drink with syrup from the same plant.
Q 13Mariano Martinez built his 'world's first frozen margarita machine' in 1971 after watching a dispenser in which store chain?
7-Eleven
Q 21In 2023, 'Margaritaville' was selected for preservation by which institution?
The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress added 'Margaritaville' to its National Recording Registry in 2023; the singer died that September, and the 46-year-old song climbed back into the Top 40.
Q 22Which British band released the 1983 single 'Marguerita Time'?
Status Quo
Status Quo took it to No. 3 in Britain, yet bassist Alan Lancaster disliked the song so much that he refused to fly back from Australia to appear on Top of the Pops, saying it advertised the band as 'a bunch of nerds'.
Q 23Tequila must be made from which variety of agave?
Blue agave
7-Eleven's Slurpee machine showed Martinez he could premix the drink and let bartenders pull a lever; his converted machine is now in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Q 14Which Mexican chili-lime seasoning, sold since 1985, is often used on the rim of a margarita glass?
Tajín
Tajín was created by Horacio Fernández to capture his grandmother's chili sauce in powdered form; he named it after El Tajín, the ancient ruined city he had visited in Veracruz.
Q 15Which cousin of the margarita tops tequila with grapefruit soda?
Paloma
Paloma is a young name among the classics: the drink had to wait for its mixer, and Squirt, its usual grapefruit soda in Mexico, was not invented until 1938, in Arizona.
Q 16Swap the tequila for vodka and a margarita becomes which drink?
A kamikaze
A kamikaze is equal parts vodka, triple sec and lime juice; add cranberry juice to that mix and it becomes a cosmopolitan.
Q 17What is a 'beergarita' or 'Coronarita'?
A beer bottle upended into a margarita
A Coronarita is a bottle of Corona (or another beer) upended into a large margarita so the beer slowly drains into the drink as it is sipped.
Q 18Which citrus are margaritas usually made with in Mexico, rather than Persian limes?
Key limes
Key limes are small, thin-skinned and tart; despite the Florida name, a 1926 hurricane wiped out that state's commercial groves, and growers replanted with Persian limes.
Q 19Whose 1977 song 'Margaritaville' helped make the drink famous?
Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett released 'Margaritaville' in 1977 on the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes; the song's name later went on a chain of restaurants and resorts.
Q 20'Margaritaville', its producer said, grew from its writer's bad day in which Florida island city?
Key West
Key West supplied the story, by his producer's account: the singer came into the studio describing a walk home from a bar there, a lost flip-flop and a beer-can top underfoot, already turning it into lyrics.
Blue agave is the only variety allowed in tequila, while mezcal may be made from dozens of others, espadín and the wild tobalá among them.
Q 24Tequila production is centred in which Mexican state?
Jalisco
Jalisco gave the spirit its name: it is called after the town of Tequila, whose surrounding agave fields and old distilleries became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006.
Q 25What is the name for the workers who harvest agave?
Jimadores
Jimadores judge by eye when each plant is ripe, since an agave cut too early spoils the spirit; the skill is traditionally handed down from father to son.
Q 26What is the harvested heart of the agave plant called?
The piña
The piña is named for the pineapple it resembles once its leaves are cut away; the hearts are then slowly baked to break their complex carbohydrates down into sugars that can ferment.
Q 27What is the special knife used to trim the agave leaves called?
A coa
A coa is the long-handled tool with a sharp, rounded blade that harvesters use to slice away agave leaves; the tahona, by contrast, is a stone wheel for crushing cooked agave hearts.
Q 28What is unaged tequila called?
Blanco
Blanco, also sold as silver or plata, goes into the bottle unaged; the 'gold' tequila beside it on the shelf is usually the same clear spirit with caramel colouring added, not an older one.
Q 29Which tequila label term guarantees at least a year of ageing in oak barrels?
Añejo
Añejo means at least a year in oak; reposado needs only two months, and a 2006 revision of the rules added a further class above both that must wait three years.
Q 30Tequila made with as little as 51% agave sugar goes by what name?
Mixto
Mixto is a trade word you will not find on a label: any bottle that does not say '100% agave' is one by default.