A soft-serve margarita from Colima Taqueria II.
Photo-Illustration: Grub Street; Photo: thatgirltatyanaa/TikTok
On a recent afternoon, after the annual Pride March wound down, a group of 20-somethings made their way uptown to Colima Taqueria II in the Bronx, looking to order one item in particular. “It’s been all over TikTok,” they told me after inviting me to sit at their table.
It is a soft-serve margarita, an airy, fluffy cousin to the classic frozen variety, in an array of different fruit flavors. Word of this invention has traveled quickly. Early this year, posts about one served at the Cleveland seafood restaurant La Playa Mexican Food & Mariscos made their way to people’s FYPs, and followers around the world were hooked. “Mate, I live in Australia I am in tears every time I see these,” one user commented. “I need them so bad I’m actually about to get on a plane for them.” In the months that followed, restaurants across the country — in Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin — have started creating their own takes.
Colima began offering a variation at its Throggs Neck location not long after La Playa’s debuted. Bryan Centeno, who runs two Colima outposts with his family, says he got the idea from a restaurant in Texas and decided to put his own spin on it. “My sister was actually the first person who brought the soft-serve margarita trend to my attention,” Centeno says. “From there, I started doing my own research on how people were bringing the idea to life, and eventually, I decided to invest in a soft-serve machine.” Business has already increased so much that Centeno had to buy a second machine to keep up with the demand.
His semisecret recipe includes heavy cream and house margarita mix; others have been said to achieve Mister Softee–level smoothness with packaged Dole Whip, a tropical medley of chemicals and emulsifiers that lends the necessary industrial might. Centeno says it took more than 50 test batches to get his consistency just right. “We had to learn how temperature, sugar content, and alcohol levels all interact with each other. Sometimes we’d make what tasted like the perfect margarita, but it wouldn’t have the right consistency coming out of the machine. Other times, the texture was great, but the flavor wasn’t where we wanted it to be.” The house tequila that’s blended in it isn’t overpowering; it’s just enough to feel a slight buzz, the kind that helps you realize something about this drink works.
Centeno’s rotating flavors — mango, strawberry, litchi, and a creamsicle-like passion-fruit morir soñando — can be topped with Chamoy sauce and a dusting of Tajín, all served in a classic margarita glass. Colima’s Bronx neighbor LavieMex, Astoria’s Mama Coco, and Tipsy Scoop in Kips Bay are all serving swirls, too. (In some ways, the popularity is a full-circle moment: Mariano Martinez Jr. invented the frozen-margarita maker in 1971 when he adapted a soft-serve machine at his Dallas restaurant to keep pace with customer requests for frozen margs.)
During that afternoon visit to Colima, the group of 20-somethings opted for pastel-yellow mango with the works, including a cherry placed on the side. Straws and spoons were both on hand, depending on how they wanted to tackle it. But before anyone could try, one member of the group had an important instruction: “Make sure you take a picture for Insta.”
