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.
Mexico was where the Batanga was born.
Owner of the La Capilla pub in Tequila, Mexico, Don Javier Delgado Corona developed the beverage either in 1961 or possibly earlier. Delgado grew up in Tequila, within the Mexican state of Jalisco. The city of Tequila named this spirit because the area started making alcohol from blue Weber agave as least in the 17th century. Having spent almost 60 years behind the bar, Delgado passed away in February 2020 at 96.
He made the original batanga by rimming a tall glass with salt, squeezing the juice of ½ of a big lime into it, adding some ice, filling the glass around halfway with blanco tequila (other sources mention Altos Plata tequila), then topping off the glass with Mexican Coke. Delgado’s technique was to then swirl the cocktail with the same knife he had cut the lime with.
Today, there are many variants aplenty. Some recipes call for a different kind of cola, or even Pepsi, but they don’t specify which one. Others want more lime juice or less tequila. Some advise rimming the glass with a salt and citrus zest mixture, using just key limes, or adding a bit of salt straight into the glass. To keep faithful to the original, however, follow the above guidelines and be careful to mix the drink with a knife using Mexican Coke.