Did you know that the Margarita is America’s favorite cocktail? Since Nielsen first started conducting surveys to discover bargoers’ favorite drinks in 2016, the Margarita has been the number-one pick. In 2019 the drink edged out the Martini, the Old-Fashioned, the Mimosa and the Moscow Mule for the coveted first-place spot. The Original Margarita was created when Dallas socialite Margarita Sames mixed her two favorite spirits, Cointreau and tequila, together with lime juice while she was vacationing in Acapulco back in 1948.

I certainly understand how we associate alcohol with an exalted way of being, sort to speak; from being an essential element in any given cultural celebration around the world to also being a symbol of status, adulthood, and success. Even as I sit here writing this up, there is a glass of wine within reach. It is, rather sardonically, one of my versions of honest-to-God sophistication: getting to write on my desk while sipping on a cheekily-named California red while Alexa booms out my usual playlist—which, by the way, is fittingly yet unintendedly named “The Hemingway."