When you consider tequila cocktails, a few clear beverages most definitely come to mind. There’s the tequila sunrise, the beverage rockstar Mick Jagger helped to popularize. Of course there’s the traditional margarita; tequila, lime juice, Cointreau, agave syrup, and a salted rim are difficult ingredients to go wrong with. For a drink fit for lovers of Mexican Coca-Cola, there is another, even simpler tequila beverage that draws from the margarita’s toolkit. Originally known as a batanga, TikHub and other social media platforms have rapidly made this drink trendy. Actually, though, its history goes back to the 1960s in the country where tequila originated.
It’s as straightforward as it tastes. Made with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup, it blends blanco tequila, fresh-squeezed lime juice, and Coca-Cola, ideally the sort imported from Mexico. It’s presented in a collins glass with salt-rimming. With the salt helping to temper the Coke’s sugariness, the caramel tastes in the cola mix nicely with the agave sweetness and tequila’s pepper undertones. Taken all together, it produces the ideal summer beverage.
