This started out as my friend’s friend’s best-ever recipe for a cosmopolitan. And it was a good enough cosmo, except that I’m not really a great fan of vodka.

“This might be better with rum,” I suggested.

But there was no rum in the house. It was, after all, a second home, and the liquor closet was only half stocked.

“Brandy?” I persisted. “Cognac? How about tequila?”

It turned out they had a surprisingly good tequila. Now, I am (she said modestly) a master of the true margarita. And thus was born Ginger’s cranberry margarita. The drink for which everyone was willing to abandon their cosmos.

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Ginger’s Cranberry Margarita (recipe makes two drinks)

Mix the following:

• Juice of one lime
• 2 jiggers of cranberry cocktail (added sweetener is okay, but not the cranberry-apple stuff. Try to avoid high-fructose corn syrup or indeed any corn products in anything you eat or drink.)
• 2 jiggers of triple sec or cointreau or one of each (add more if you have a particularly juicy lime or a drinker with a particularly sweet tooth; this is your main sweetener in this drink)
• 3 jiggers of reposada tequila (never, NEVER use anything less than “100% de agave” tequila for anything where tequila is the main ingredient. Certainly not for any margarita)

Stir. Check for balance. Pour into two margarita or martini or, hey, even wine glasses. Add ice to bring the liquid level to the top of the glass.

If you want to be fancy, decorate with a thin slice of lime on the glass.

Enjoy!