The non-alcoholic Margarita

A classic margarita is roughly two parts tequila, one part lime and three-quarters of a part orange liqueur, often with a touch of agave syrup, shaken and served with salt. Each part has a job:

• Tequila brings agave's green, peppery flavor and, with the alcohol, heat and weight. It's the reason the drink tastes grown-up.
• Lime brings sourness. Always fresh. Bottled lime juice tastes flat and slightly bitter, and in a zero-proof drink there's nothing to hide it behind.
• Orange liqueur brings sweetness, orange-peel aroma and body. Cointreau is 40% alcohol, so it also adds warmth.
• Salt brightens the lime and softens bitterness. In a non-alcoholic margarita it does more work than usual.

A zero-proof margarita has to rebuild all of that without the alcohol. In practice:

• Use an agave spirit alternative, not more juice. It's the single change that turns a lime mocktail into a margarita.
• Put heat back in. Alcohol burns a little. Many agave alternatives use pepper or chili to stand in for it, and a slice of jalapeño does the same job.
• Watch the sugar. Without alcohol, sweetness reads louder. Start with a quarter-ounce of agave syrup and adjust up.
• Salt the drink as well as the rim. A pinch in the shaker gives the body a lift and makes the lime taste juicier.
• Shake hard, serve over fresh ice. Non-alcoholic drinks dilute quickly, so strain onto new ice rather than the shaker ice.

There's now a proper shelf of canned non-alcoholic margaritas, and most are built on a brand's own agave spirit. They split into still and sparkling.

• Spiritless Margarita is the still one: Spiritless's Jalisco 55 agave spirit with fresh lime juice, cane sugar and salt, made for pouring over ice. Tart and salty rather than sweet. It's the closest to a margarita you'd shake yourself.
• Pentire Margarita is lean and zingy: Pentire's coastal botanicals with lime, agave, sea salt and a dash of chili. The least sweet of the group.
• Lyre's Margarita is lightly sparkling, built on Lyre's Agave Blanco and Orange Sec: lime, orange, earthy agave and a pinch of salt.
• Free Spirits Margarita is also lightly sparkling, with lime and tangerine over roasted agave and a peppery, faintly oaky finish.
• Ritual Margarita is sparkling too, made on Ritual's agave alternative, so it keeps the brand's peppery bite.

Pour any of them over ice in a salt-rimmed glass with a lime wedge. Curious Elixirs No. 2 is the outlier: a spicy pineapple margarita crossed with a ginger Dark 'n' Stormy, sweet-hot and tart.

Margarita mixes

Bottled mixes are alcohol-free already, since they're made to have tequila added. Most are lime and sugar, and without tequila they taste sweet and one-note. Two are better than that:

• Tres Agaves Organic Classic Lime Margarita Mix is real lime juice sweetened only with organic agave nectar. The brand's own margarita is three parts mix to two parts spirit, shaken; use a zero-proof tequila in the spirit slot.
• Jack Rudy Margarita Mix is modeled on the Tommy's margarita: fresh lime and agave with a touch of cane sugar, lighter and less sweet than most.

Add a pinch of salt and an extra squeeze of fresh lime to either.

The tequila

This is the swap that decides the drink, and the question people ask most: what's the best non-alcoholic tequila for a margarita? It depends on the style you like. Think of it the way you'd think of real tequila: bright blanco, rounder reposado, or smoky mezcal.

Blanco-style: bright, green and peppery. These make the classic lime margarita.

• Almave Blanco is our first pick. It's distilled from Los Altos blue agave by a tequila master distiller, and it tastes fresh, green and vegetal, with a little minerality and spice. It's the cleanest agave flavor on our list and the least sweet, so it lets the lime and orange shine.
• Lyre's Agave Blanco is bright citrus, roasted agave and peppery spice. It's a straightforward, reliable margarita base and easy to find.
• Ritual Agave Spirit Alternative has agave, lime and a hint of smoke with a strong peppery warmth. It's built to mix one-for-one, and our house recipe uses it. It's the most citrusy of the blancos.
• Trejo's Tequila Alternative is citrus and sweet roasted agave with a warm, peppery finish. Made to mix, not sip.
• Seedlip Notas de Agave is prickly pear, lime and agave with vanilla, damiana and peppercorn. Lighter and greener than the smoky alternatives, it suits a spritzy margarita topped with soda.
• Aplós Arise isn't a tequila alternative as such. It's a bright, herbal spirit alternative with agave, lemon verbena and black pepper, plus adaptogens. It makes a lighter, more herbal margarita.

Reposado-style: oak, vanilla and a bigger burn. These make a rounder, richer margarita.

• Free Spirits The Spirit of Tequila is made with real blue agave and modeled on a reposado: warm oak and vanilla, light smoke and a capsaicin kick for heat.
• ISH Mexican Agave is also reposado-style, warm agave and oak with a real bit of burn.
• Almave Ámbar is the amber expression: caramel, vanilla, brown sugar and toasted wood. It's better in a stirred agave drink than a margarita, but a half-measure with Almave Blanco makes a lovely, rounder margarita.

Mezcal-style: smoke. For a smoky margarita, split the measure half blanco, half mezcal, or go all in.

• Monday Mezcal has a floral, peppery nose, then citrus, apple, roasted agave and real smoke and heat.
• Abstinence Cape Agave is agave, African sage, arabica bean, mesquite smoke and fresh jalapeño: smoky, savory and a little hot. It's our pick for a spicy margarita.
• Fluère Smoked Agave (hickory smoke, honey, pear and black pepper) and Tomonotomo Tobalá (wild agave with chili, hibiscus and smoked pineapple) are more complex, and worth trying if you like mezcal neat.

The orange liqueur (the Cointreau slot)

A non-alcoholic triple sec used to be the hardest part to find. Most people skipped it and added more agave syrup, which loses the orange-peel perfume that makes a margarita a margarita. There are now two good options.

• Lyre's Orange Sec is the closest Cointreau substitute. It's a dry orange liqueur alternative with sweet and bitter orange and a fair amount of body. It already carries some sweetness, so you can cut the agave syrup back or skip it.
• Dhos Orange is a sugar-free triple sec stand-in: orange peel and bitter orange, dry and bright. Because it's unsweetened, keep a quarter-ounce of agave syrup in the recipe to replace the sugar real triple sec would bring.
• Seedlip Grove 42 is the workaround if you have it already: three oranges, lemongrass and ginger, zesty and dry. More botanical than a triple sec, but three-quarters of an ounce plus a little agave syrup does the job.

The lime, sweetener and salt

• Lime: fresh, always. One ounce per drink, from about one juicy lime.
• Sweetener: agave syrup is the natural match. Make your own by stirring equal parts agave nectar and warm water. Start with a quarter-ounce; less with Lyre's Orange Sec, more with Dhos. Rose's Simple Syrup works if that's what you have. Rose's Sweetened Lime Juice, the original lime cordial, sweetens and sours at once when fresh limes are short, but use it alongside fresh lime, not instead of it.
• Salt: coarse salt on half the rim so each sip is optional, plus a pinch in the shaker. For a spicy margarita, use chili salt or Tajín.
• Bitters (optional): a few drops of All The Bitter Orange Cardamom Bitters add orange-peel aroma, and Seasn Light Cocktail Bitters adds lime peel, grapefruit peel and a salty edge. Both are alcohol-free and both are made for margaritas.

This is the one we make most. Ritual brings the agave and the pepper, Dhos brings the orange, and fresh lime does the rest.

For a cleaner, greener margarita, swap the Ritual for Almave Blanco. If it tastes thin, add a second pinch of salt before you reach for more sugar; it usually fixes it.

The non-alcoholic spicy margarita

Heat is the easiest way to replace the missing burn of alcohol, which is why the spicy margarita works so well without tequila. Abstinence Cape Agave already has jalapeño and mesquite smoke in it; a slice of fresh jalapeño in the shaker takes it further.

The frozen margarita

A virgin margarita frozen in the blender needs more sugar and more lime than the shaken version, because cold numbs both. Lyre's Orange Sec brings body as well as orange, which helps the texture. Taste after the first blend and adjust.

The main margarita ingredients and shortcuts, compared. Ratings are a rough average of reviews from around the web; see each bottle's page for the sources.

Once you have an agave spirit and fresh limes, several drinks are a small step away.

• Paloma is the margarita's easier cousin: agave spirit, lime and grapefruit soda in a tall glass. It's the one to make for a crowd.
• Tommy's margarita drops the orange liqueur entirely and uses agave syrup only. Use a little more agave spirit and a touch more syrup.
• Ranch Water is agave spirit, lime and sparkling mineral water. Low sugar, very dry. Casamara Club Onda, a dry amaro soda of sage, lemon peel and sea salt, adds a bitter, herbal edge in place of the water.
• Mezcal margarita: split the base half Almave Blanco, half Monday Mezcal.
• Daiquiri is the margarita's rum-based relative: spirit, lime and sugar, no orange. If you like your margarita tart and clean, it's the next one to learn.
• Cosmopolitan uses the same orange-liqueur swap with cranberry and a vodka stand-in.

The margarita is one of the most common zero-proof cocktails on bar menus, but many bars still make it from a mix. Dedicated alcohol-free bars usually use a proper agave spirit alternative. A few worth the trip: