Home Margarita Making Costs Vary From State To State

If you’re celebrating Cinco de Mayo by sipping a homemade margarita, you’ll be paying nearly a dollar more if you live in Alabama than if you live in Arizona.

A recently released study by House Method mapped out the cost of making a margarita in every state. Arizona was the cheapest state for a margarita at $2.01 per cocktail, while Alabama was the most expensive at $3.00, and a full state breakdown can be found here. 

“Our team at House Method put this together by finding the prices of margarita ingredients at popular retailers for up to 10 zip codes in each state,” says Kalina MacKay, at House Method. “

The researchers selected 10 zip codes to determine how available online alcohol pricing was for each state, and then researchers used those zip codes to discover what the local pricing for the individual margarita ingredients were in grocery stores, state ABC liquor stores and state retail liquor prices, she says.

“We calculated the overall cost for each state by averaging the price of each ingredient and multiplying that by the percentage of the product that would be used to make one margarita,” MacKay says.

House Method took a recipe from Food.com to use as the basis for their calculations, and that recipe called for four ounces of margarita mix, 2 ounces of tequila, 1 ounce of triple sec, a lime wedge, coarse salt and ice. “Just like the cost of alcohol, some of these ingredients varied in price,” MacKay says. 

The average cost of the margarita was determined by calculating the percentage of each ingredient used in the margarita recipe, and multiplying that by the cost of every ingredient in each state, adding the costs together to find the total cost.

The cost of margarita mix was fairly steady from state to state, with the exception of Alaska, whose average cost of Jose Cuervo Margarita Mix was $8.73 ($1.03 per drink made), she says.

The cost of a lime varied the most from state to state. Hawaii had the most expensive lime at $0.64 ($.0.11 per drink made), while Arizona had the cheapest at $0.23 ($0.04 per drink made).

The cost of making a margarita in Alabama, at $3 per cocktail, was 44 cents more expensive than the nationwide average of $2.56. “This was due in part to the state having the most expensive bottle of Jose Cuervo at $23.99, which cost $1.90 per cocktail,” MacKay says.

Tennessee and Kansas both had the most expensive DeKuyper Triple Sec is the most expensive to buy in Tennessee and Kansas, where it costs $11.99 per bottle or $0.47 per cocktail. The overall cost of making a margarita in Kansas, however, was close to the national average at $2.62 while the cost of making a margarita in Tennessee, at $2.86, was the third most expensive in the country.

The most expensive places to enjoy a margarita at home, besides Alabama and Tennessee, were: Arkansas ($2.90), North Carolina ($2.84), New York ($2.84), Alaska ($2.83), Louisiana ($2.82), Washington, D.C. ($2.80), Connecticut ($2.80), and Virginia ($2.78). “The East Coast seemed to be one of the most expensive parts of the country to make your own margarita,” MacKay says.

The least expensive states in which to make a home margarita, besides Arizona at $2.01 being the cheapest, included: California ($2.12), Colorado ($2.19), Minnesota ($2.21), New Mexico ($2.22), Illinois ($2.26), Nevada ($2.28), Georgia ($2.30), Texas ($2.30), and Washington ($2.31)

 costs the most in at $11.99 ($0.47 per drink made); however, Tennessee was the only one of the two in the top 10 most expensive states to make a margarita. 

The East Coast seemed to be one of the most expensive parts of the country to make your own margarita, with Virginia, D.C., Connecticut, New York, and North Carolina all making the top 10 most expensive states to make a margarita.

“Depending on where you live, it might cost you a little more to make it,” MacKay says.