One day, Danny Negrete, manager of the Crespo Hotel in Puebla, Mexico, created a drink for his girlfriend. She apparently had a passion for salt, and even seasoned her drinks. He allegedly combined tequila with orange liqueur, lime juice, and, well, salt. The drink was born. I'll bet you can guess the girlfriend's name.

Another Danny, this time Danny Herrera, owned a bar in Rancho La Gloria, Tijuana, Mexico. One of his customers was Marjorie King, a showgirl and silent screen star. Marjorie loved to drink, but was allergic to all alcohol except tequila. The obliging Danny number 2 wanted to satisfy his good customer, so he was forever inventing new drinks for her, all with tequila. One of these drinks was the margarita. Margarita is Spanish for Marjorie.

A female customer came into Tommy's Bar in Cuidad Juarez and asked Francisco "Pancho" Morales for a drink called a Magnolia. Not wanting to appear stupid (he didn't know what the drink contained except Cointreau), Seņor Morales devised the margarita and gave it to his unsuspecting customer. No word exists on whether she liked it. Pancho later moved to the US and worked as a milkman until his retirement in 1981.

Enrique Bastante Gutierez, former world cocktail champion, once served drinks to many of the great names of Hollywood in the 1940s. One of these film stars was the actress Rita Hayworth. According to Enrique, he concocted the cocktail for Ms. Hayworth and named it after her, whose real name was Margarita.....

Margarita Sames, an American socialite of the 1940s, was famous for giving lavish parties for friends at her place in Acapulco. She wanted to impress some of her more glamorous friends, and as the legend goes, she came up with the drink combination of tequila, cointreau, and lime juice.