Recipe

• 2 parts tequila

• 1 part lime juice

• 1 part triple sec

Salt the rim of a cocktail glass; you can do this by making a cut halfway through a lime, putting the rim into the cut, and running it all the way round the rim, then putting a pile of salt on a small plate, and running the wet rim through the salt.  Preferably leave it overnight to dry on.  Then shake the three ingredients together with ice and strain into the glass.

What went wrong here?  I've made margaritas many times before, and always enjoyed them.  But for some reason this one tasted dull, flat and uninteresting.  Was it something to do with the recipe?  I used the IBA recipe as usual, or something very close to it.  Was it the type of tequila?  In the past, if anything, I've used slightly cheaper stuff, but I think usually reposado (barrel-aged tequila) rather than today's bianco (unaged white tequila) – perhaps that accounts for the lack of flavour.  Did I oversalt it?  I used to love the salted glass, but you can have too much of a good thing.  Or was it just something to do with me? I've got a cold coming on, and my recent heavy workload isn't exactly putting me in the fiesta mood – but it hasn't stopped me enjoying other cocktails recently.

Without a doubt I'll be making this again, and searching for the margarita X factor that eludes me.  Watch this spot, dear readers.