Ingredients
Salt, for rimming the glass (optional)
Ice
1 1/2 ounces tequila (blanco, 100 percent agave)
1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 ounce Cointreau (not Triple Sec)
Instructions
If using salt, place in a shallow dish. Moisten the rim of a rocks glass with a dampened paper towel, then dip in salt.
Fill the glass with ice; add tequila, lime juice, and Cointreau; and stir a few times until chilled. Serve immediately.
First: A Margarita is a cocktail. Do you serve your martinis with ice in them?
Measure your ingredients, in whatever proportions suit your taste, into a shaker. Add ice, then shake. (No shaker? A water glass. Ice, stir stir stir.) Strain out the ice while pouring into the glass. (Best if the glass was first iced in the freezer. Detail.)
But the big nono:
Do not EVER dip the rim in salt. The salt will drip into the drink. That is one ugly taste. It's supposed to be available to be licked off the rim by the drinker, in whatever quantity the drinker prefers, BEFORE taking a sip.
Instead: Moisten the outside edge of the glass with the remains of the lime, hold it sideways over the sink, and sprinkle salt on the outside edge while rotating it. Then upright, pour from the shaker/glass through whatever you got that will hold the ice back.