10 Great Mexican Cocktails

One of the most classic Mexican cocktails is the Paloma! This easy bubbly cocktail combines tequila with grapefruit to make a simple sour that’s sweet tart and refreshing. It’s perfect for happy hour drinks, or water it down and it could be a brunch drink too. The Paloma is traditionally made with grapefruit soda, but this recipe uses grapefruit juice and soda water. 

Ingredients: Tequila, grapefruit, lime, simple syrup, soda water

Variation: Mezcal Paloma

Of course, the margarita is the best known of all Mexican cocktails! Did you know the classic recipe has no added simple syrup? Here's the classic way to make it: with three ingredients and a salt rim. It's true perfection. Try all our margarita recipes (Mezcal, Skinny, Jalapeno, Mango, and more).

Ingredients: Tequila, Cointreau, lime juice

The Michelada is a spicy Mexican beer cocktail made with beer, tomato juice, lime juice and hot sauce. Consider it a sort of combination between a Bloody Mary and a beer margarita! The best part is the glass rim: a mix of Old Bay, chili powder and celery salt brings a salty, savory flair to the front end of this refreshing drink. The flavor is just right for lots of occasions, from summer afternoon drinks or a Mexican-themed brunch.

Ingredients: Mexican lager beer, lime juice, salsa juice, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce (like Cholula)

Want a refreshing beer cocktail that’s as irresistible as it is easy to mix up? Try a Chelada! The Chelada is another type of cervesa preparada: a beer cocktail or “prepared beer” in Spanish. A Chelada features Mexican lager with lime, versus the Michelada which is like a Bloody Mary made with beer. Top it off with a salty rim and it’s ideal for anytime: a laid back brunch, cocktails on the patio, or a dinner of shrimp tacos.

Ingredients: Mexican lager beer, lime juice

Here's a Mexican cocktail that's an after dinner drink: the Carajillo! This cocktail is popular in Spain and Latin America, but it’s probably most famous in Mexico where you’ll find it made with Licor 43. One sip and you’ll taste sweet vanilla, chocolate and citrus notes from the Licor and the bitter, rich notes of the coffee. It’s truly a match made in heaven! 

This Mexican cocktail is bold, it’s bubbly, and it’s ready to spice up your next gathering! It's not a traditional Mexican drink, but this tequila spin on the Moscow Mule is absolutely worth making (and might be even better than the classic). The way the bite of the tequila combines with spicy ginger and zingy lime makes it impossible not to immediately take another sip. Here’s how to make this classy spin on the classic.

Ingredients: Tequila, lime juice, ginger beer

Want to mix up your standard margarita repertoire? Try the Mexican martini! An American invention created in Texas, it takes the best of a classic martini and a classic margarita in the same glass! Like a good margarita, it’s seriously tangy, not too sweet and citrusy. Then it’s got a hint of dry vermouth like a martini, and it’s garnished with an olive.

And don’t forget that salt rim! It’s the perfect unique cocktail to impress a load of guests, or down as you inhale a basket of chips. 

Ingredients: Tequila, Cointreau, lime, dry vermouth

Here’s a variation on the classic Irish coffee, and it’s a stunner: Mexican Coffee! It's not traditional Mexican but a tequila-based spin on a classic, much like the Mexican mule or the Bloody Maria. Sure it’s basic, but it’s darn delicious. Mix two Mexican liqueurs into coffee — tequila and Kahlua — and you get an irresistibly delicious spin on spiked coffee. Top it with cinnamon, and it’s hard to beat.

Another non-traditional Mexican cocktail that's a spin on a classic. The Bloody Mary is a classic vodka cocktail, but swap out the liquor for tequila and you've got a Bloody Maria! This Mexican-style spin on the classic is absolutely worth trying: it's tangy, spicy, and perfectly seasoned. The tequila brings a bright nuance to the drink, where vodka can get lost.

Ingredients: Tequila, tomato juice, horseradish, lemon, Tabasco, Worcestershire, celery salt

Tex-Mex counts as Mexican cocktails too, right? Ranch Water is the unofficial drink of West Texas, essentially a tequila highball made with lime juice and Topo Chico. It’s like a bubbly, lighter version of the classic margarita, with all the tangy lime but less sweetness and booze. Could there be anything more refreshing? (We think not.)

Ingredients: Tequila, lime juice, Topo Chico (or other mineral water)