Prepare Your Cocktail Glass

• On a dish or cutting board, pour and flatten a pile of coarse salt like sea salt or Kosher salt. Don’t use table salt, as it will clump up and make your drink very salty.
• Cut a lime in half. Reserve one half for the margarita and cut the remaining half into two wedges. Run a lime wedge along the entire rim of the glass. Be sure it’s wet enough so the salt can stick.
• Invert your glass and press into the salt so it sticks to the rim.
• Place the salted glass upright into the refrigerator to chill as you mix up your margarita.

Make the Simple Syrup

• Pour the sugar into a deep sauce pan.
• Pour the water over the sugar.
• Place sugar mixture on the stove and set the heat to medium-high.
• Use a wooden spoon to stir the mixture constantly so the sugar dissolves faster.
• Once the sugar completely dissolves, remove from the heat.
• Pour the syrup into a container. You should end up with about one cup of natural syrup. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the syrup for the margarita. Cover and store the rest for another use. The syrup will keep for up to three days.

Make the Margarita

• Add ice cubes to a cocktail shaker. If you have big pieces, you can bang them on a hard surface to break them up a bit, but you do want to keep the pieces on the larger side. Ice that’s too small will quickly melt and water down your drink.
• Squeeze the juice from 1 ½ limes into a small cup or bowl and remove any seeds. Pour the fresh lime juice into the shaker.
• Next add the sweetener, tequila and triple sec.
• Place the top back on your shaker and shake vigorously for about 20 seconds to combine.

Serve Your Margarita

• Remove the chilled cocktail glass from the refrigerator.
• Carefully pour the contents of the shaker into the glass, including the ice.
• Garnish with a slice of lime.