Classic Frozen Margarita
The OG. Tequila, lime, triple sec — calibrated to slush.
The world's most-ordered cocktail, dialed in for the Ninja Slushi. Bright lime acidity, a salt rim, and that perfect slushed texture.
Bench-tested by the Will It Slush? team · Last revised July 18, 2026
Ingredients
Scale the batch — amounts update live in your units.
- Blanco Tequila235 ml
- Triple Sec120 ml
- Fresh Lime Juice175 ml
- 2:1 Simple Syrup90 ml
- Water355 ml
- Sugar (to taste)17.4 g
Method
- 1.Combine all ingredients in your Ninja Slushi.
- 2.Run on Frozen Marg mode for 45–60 minutes.
- 3.Serve in salt-rimmed glasses with a lime wheel.
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Notes from our testing
Cut the tequila to 4 oz per batch and replace the missing volume with water, not more mix.
A shaken margarita is roughly 20% ABV in the glass once the ice melts into it. Pour that straight into a Slushi and nothing happens for an hour, then it thickens into a cold soup and never scrapes. The chamber sits a few degrees below zero and 20% alcohol drops the freezing point far past that. The whole job here is getting a drink that still tastes like a margarita down to a number the machine can actually freeze.
The version we settled on runs about 11% ABV and 12 Brix. That means 4 oz of 40% blanco tequila, 2 oz of triple sec, 4 oz of fresh lime, a little simple syrup, and the rest water. The water is the part people skip and it is the part that makes it work — you are not diluting the drink, you are replacing the melted ice that a shaker would have given you.
Lime is where the batch goes wrong more often than tequila. Bottled lime juice is usually sweetened and preserved, and it pushes the Brix up two or three points without you noticing, which shoves the mix out of the window on the sugar side instead of the alcohol side. Fresh limes, or Nellie & Joe's if you must, and check the label for added sugar.
Salt goes on the glass, never in the chamber. Salt is a freezing point depressant too, and a tablespoon in a 64 oz batch is enough to keep the whole thing slushy in the wrong way — soft, wet, and refusing to hold a swirl.