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Scientific look at what makes up a margarita can be intoxicating

The next time you tip back a margarita, consider the ethanols, butanols, acetals, aldehydes and limonene headed down your throat.

Not that there's anything wrong with them.

They're simply the chemicals that make your cocktail, and their numbers are baffling. Literally hundreds of individual compounds swim around in a drink made simply by mixing tequila, orange liquor and lime juice.

A sobering analysis of the margarita – a classic Mexican beverage – was presented yesterday afternoon at the American Chemical Society's annual conference, held this week in downtown San Diego.

The talk was the last one of the day and came just before happy hour.

A margarita's complexity of flavors adds up to more than the sum of its parts, said Sanja Eri, a researcher at International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., a product development company in Union Beach, N.J.

And those parts are many.

Tequila made from 51 percent distilled blue agaves contains 115 to 236 compounds, depending on the analysis.

How about orange liquors derived from orange peels and spirits? They can contain 111 compounds or more.

Lime juice adds at least 104 compounds.

Take all those chemicals and you can't help but make a tasty cocktail.

"So many reactions probably occur when you mix them together, (but) it depends on how fast you drink," Eri said.

Her examination considered the chemicals found in a margarita's three primary ingredients – each studied separately. Studying the actual cocktail will take more careful analysis.

"When you mix them together," Eri added, "it's beyond the scope of what you can think of."

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