The Frozen Margarita Is 50!
If this isn’t a sign of better things to come in 2021, then I don’t know what is. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the invention of the Frozen Margarita and, of course, the machine that made it all possible.
It happened in Dallas, Texas. That’s where restaurateur Mariano Martinez says customers at his original Mariano’s location on Greenville Avenue were complaining that the margaritas were inconsistent, watery, and not cold enough. It was a problem.
Then, one day, Martinez was buying a cup of coffee at a 7-Eleven store. He noticed a girl pouring a Slurpee for herself. It was his eureka moment. Martinez bought a soft-serve ice cream machine, tinkered with it, and made the first frozen margarita on May 11th, 1971. The rest is beverage and party history.
Believe it or not, the World’s First Frozen Margarita Machine was inducted into the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. in 2005. Five years later, it was named one of the “Top Ten Inventions” from the National Museum of American History’s Collection. According to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, that original machine is currently on loan to the Smithsonian.
Arina P Habich/Shutterstock
