Italian Margarita Recipe

Our Review of the Italian Margarita

I’ll be the first one to proclaim my love of the Margarita in all of its glory. The cocktail is basically perfect. It’s simple and easy to make and tastes wonderful.

So the question is, does adding a little bit of amaretto improve on a good thing?

I’ll cut to the chase here. I think the original Margarita is better, but that doesn’t mean that the Italian Margarita isn’t without merit. The Italian Margarita does taste good, it’s just not as good as the original.

Some people will think that amaretto and lime juice shouldn’t go together. Those people would be surprised though. Take the Amaretto Sour for instance. Of course that’s lemon juice and not lime, but it is citrus! Sure, it is a little unusual with Tequila, but again, you’d be surprised at how well it works. Where the Italian Margarita starts to go wrong though is that it gets a little bit sweet, at least to my taste. Sure, the recipe brings down the triple sec to compensate for the amaretto, but it still comes off as too sweet. A Margarita should be a drier cocktail, with any sugars added really just to compensate for the lime.

But hey, if you’re a person who likes a Margarita but would prefer something a little sweeter, perhaps an Italian Margarita is for you.

As I said, I liked the Italian Margarita, I just prefer the original. Riffs on classic cocktails can be a good thing and open drinkers up to something that really suits them. So just because the Italian Margarita wasn’t my favourite, it may be more geared to something you like.

To find out which cocktail is for you, do a side by side taste test. Make a Margarita then make and Italian Margarita. Best case scenario you love both of them then you have two cocktails! Worst case scenario you like one but really love the other, and you still have two cocktails! You really can’t lose.

6.5/10

• Review by Emily

Here’s some more cocktail recipes for you to try!

We’ve sorted all of our cocktail recipes into sections so that they’re easy to find by ingredient. Of course you can use our cocktail builder to find out what cocktail you can make with the ingredients you have, but you can also browse the sections below:

All Tequila cocktail recipes: whether you’re looking for the classic Margarita recipe or other uses for Tequila, you may find some of these recipes interesting. Have fun.