Which Margarita Has More Booze?

The one that you make at home.

Whichever you put more alcohol into.

Typically, the only difference between a frozen margarita and one on the rocks is that the frozen has been blended. But they still have the same amount of tequila and triple sec (usually 1 shot of tequila and 2/3 shot of triple sec).

If we're talking about a bar/restaurant, then the amount of alcohol in a drink is regulated and consistent.

That said, if the total volume of ice and water is consistent, then 10ml of the liquid portion of a drink on the rocks will have more alcohol than 10ml of the liquid/ice mixture in a blended margarita, at least until the ice cubes melt.

Far more importantly, a margarita on the rocks is a superior drink. :-)

I'm a dude that owns a cocktail shaker but I've never worked at a bar in any capacity.

This one doesn't seem to have a concrete answer because there's a big bouncing blue billion ways to make a margarita.

The IBA recipe for a margarita calls for 50mL blanco tequila, 20mL triple sec, 15mL lime juice. Shake with ice, and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass, with an optional half-salted rim. I'm not much of a margarita guy but I've personally never seen one served up, they're usually served on the rocks. Or "frozen."

If you were to ask me to make you a frozen margarita, I'd try to talk you out of it, and then I'd probably dump everything I'd put in the shaker in my food blender, possibly also with the rocks I'd have served it over, ground it until it stopped grunching and then poured it in the glass, and I bet you wouldn't enjoy it much.

I'm basically going to jump over "buy a jug of tequila mix from the grocery store and just add tequila." I don't know what's in that and I don't really care.

I cannot find a recipe for a single frozen margarita; most recipes are for making batches of 4 cocktails at a time or so, often adding simple syrup or agave nectar, dosing the liquid ingredients in terms of cups rather than ounces or milliliters. These recipes I'm reading are intended for amateurs to make at home in a blender. A nicer cocktail bar will likely do something like that, rev up a blender for you. A lot of places will have a slushy machine with batches made by the gallon. What they load it with? depends on the establishment. Might be off the shelf margarita mix and tequila, might be whatever mix they get from Applebee's corporate, might be their own in-house "Joe's Signature Recipe" whatever...

BOIL IT DOWN, FISTFUCKER

If you're in the kind of place where you order a frozen margarita and the bartender makes it in a blender for you, I think you're going to get the same amount of booze either way, approximately equivalent to 1.5 to 2 shots of tequila*. The variables are how quickly you're going to drink it, and how much water you're going to swallow alongside. If served up, you'll likely drink it faster and with the least accompanying water. On the rocks will slow you down slightly and a little more water will melt into the drink while you've got it; most people will finish the drink before the ice completely melts and not eat the remaining ice. A frozen margarita will have ~ as much ice as a margarita on the rocks but you're going to swallow it all(I say swallow because do you eat or drink ice/liquid slush?)

In an establishment that has a margarita slushy machine, they'll obviously serve you a goblet of...whatever that is. I imagine it will be dosed so that the serving you get will have about the amount of booze in it will have. If you ordered a margarita up or on the rocks, are they going to measure tequila, triple sec and lime juice, or give you tequila and their margarita mix...? Go to enough bars and the answer will average out to "yes."

I think the bottom line is going to be, "drinks" are mostly dosed for about the same amount of alcohol. The amount of water, sugar etc. and how fast it is consumed is what makes any practical difference. I see people talking about which is more "watered down." Imagine this: You take two shots of tequila, then one shot of water. OR, you take two shots of tequila, then two shots of water. In which scenario did you drink the most tequila?

*I'm in the US, I define a "shot" as 1.5 ounces or ~45mL, and both Tequila and triple sec vary in ABV, figure typical spirits or liqueurs are ~40% ABV of 80 proof, give or take the metric system.

They have the same amount, but on the rocks is stronger because it's less diluted.

Are you consuming the ice?

if you're getting it as a mixed drink at a professional establishment, it should be the same amount of tequila. watered down or not with the ice, it should be the same alcohol

Lots of the frozen margaritas are made with cheap wine, not tequila.

You can easily make your own margaritas using tequila and a flavor mix. You can choose to add 1 shot or several.

The proportion of alcohol depends of how much ice has melted watering down the drink, and that will depend on how cold was the ice to begin with. I would guess that frozen has the opportunity to melt more ice because of more surface area.

Iced is always "stronger".

Once the ice fully melts, it's the same amount of alcohol in liquid. But until that happens the liquid is higher alcohol.

Frozen also tends to get drunken slower to avoid brain freeze.

So if pacing go frozen, if trying to get wasted drink ice as fast as possible

I feel like this could really pivot on the glasses/containers involved. You’d need to know the volume of ice that fits in each before blending/serving and then reverse engineer the amount of “alcohol” (more like liquid generally, but with the assumption of same liquid concentration that doesn’t matter) that fit in the serving vessel at the end. But I’m Bobby Tables, not Bobby Mather.