If you have ever wanted to enjoy the cool refreshing taste of margaritas in your own home bar, the time has come. The Margarator is a new appliance that is light and portable, runs on AC or DC, and allows you to make your own margaritas just about anywhere. Camping trips? No problem. Home bar? Fits under the bar. R.V.? Just plug it in. So the only question is, do you like margaritas enough to justify buying this new appliance?
Margaritas have a long history going back to as early as 1934. The first machine-made frozen margarita mix was invented by chemist John Hogan in 1971 in the Dallas, Texas region. Mr. Hogan is widely recognized as the inventor of the frozen margarita machine. His secret was the application of pure cane sugar to sweeten up the drink for mass consumption. The IBA Official list of Cocktails standard recipe for a margarita is 7:4:3 (7 parts tequila, 4 parts Triple Sec, 3 parts fresh lime or lemon juice). This drink is usually served over ice or mixed in with shaved ice, which is more common.
Priced from $60 to $130, home appliance margarators come in many variations on the same theme. Makers include many little known names (as far as kitchen appliances go): Helman Group, Empire Engineering, Blendtec, Breville, Cecilware, Daiquiri Whacker, Hamilton Beach, On The Edge Marketing, Saniserv, Sensio, Tailgator, and Waring. Some better known brands also have margarators on the market: like Kitchen-Aid, Cuisinart, Margaritaville, Nostalgia Electrics, Oster, and Viking. Restaurant grade machines are likely to cost upwards of $400, so this new appliance brings a new availability to the realm of margarita machines.
Nostalgia Electronics is the maker of such wonderful machines as the cotton candy machine, popcorn machine, milkshake machine, and many more. From them, we see in the realm of home margarita machines the MOS-400 Margarita Oasis™ Frozen Drink Machine ($109), the MMA-600 Margarita Mania Margarita, Smoothie, Daiquiri & Frozen Drink Maker ($112.00), and the HSM-590 Margarator Machine ($99.99, the original margarator). Nostalgia Electrics also makes kegerators, both full size and mini-kegerators. Nostalgia Electrics even provides us with recipes for their device:
Basic Margarita
2 to 2 ½ C tequila
An entire 1 ¾ liter bottle margarita mix
Strawberry Margarita 1 ½ C tequila
1 L margarita mix
16 oz quartered strawberries (fresh or frozen)
Salt
Strawberry Mango Margarita
1 ½ C tequila
2 C margarita mix
3 C mango juice
16 oz quartered strawberries (fresh or frozen)
While margarators of all brands are available through many outlets, the new website margarators.com is a great site to see all that margarators have to offer. From small home or travel appliances to machines industrial restaurant applications, margarators.com has it all. One nice aspect of the site is the article section, providing different viewpoints on the margarator phenomenon.
If you are a margarita fan, it is sure that you will want a margarator. The question is, which one will be the best for you? For travel purposes, Nostalgia Electrics Margarators are the clear choice. These units are relatively compact and easy to power from car or home. If you are looking for a more serious margarator, you may want to take a look at Margaritaville’s Tahiti Frozen Concoction Maker DM3000. This unit is pricey (about $600), and takes up some counter space, but for a big party, its all you’ll really need. This unit blends and ices 3 gallons of margaritas at a time, in three different pitchers. This unit allows the most flexibility for serving different types of drinks that I have seen.
