Updated Jul 30, 2026 - News
Margarita is the best drink in Texas
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The people have spoken.
Why it matters: Axios Texas readers have crowned the margarita as the best drink in the Lone Star State.
- And it wasn't close. Margarita won each of its four matchups in our best drink bracket by wide margins.
The intrigue: The margarita's origins are murky. One version has it invented by Francisco "Pancho" Morales in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in 1942 — just across the Rio Grande from El Paso.
- Bartenders in Tijuana, Mexico, and Los Angeles also claimed to have invented the drink.
Yes, but: Texas played an undisputed role in the development of the frozen margarita as we know it today.
- Dallas restaurateur Mariano Martinez adapted a soft serve ice cream machine in the 1970s to create the world's first known frozen margarita machine.
- The machine is now on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.