Classic cocktail · Guided recipe
Chapala
Start makingFive things in the glass and none of them shouting. Orange juice softens the lemon, grenadine tints it a warm sunset pink, and the tequila's green pepper edge still comes through the fruit.
In the glassTequila (blanco) · Orange juice · Fresh lemon juice · Triple sec / Cointreau · Grenadine
See exact amounts
What goes in
Ingredients
Set up before you pour
Use a rocks glass.
The low, sturdy bowl suits concentrated drinks and gives one large cube enough width.
- Standard size
- 300 ml10¼ oz
- Ice & serve
- Fill it with fresh ice cubes.
- If you don’t own one
- Use a small water tumbler with a heavy base.
- cocktail shaker
- strainer (or a small sieve)
- jigger or measuring spoon
- Tequila (blanco)45 ml
- Triple sec / Cointreau8 ml
- Orange juice22 ml
- Fresh lemon juice15 ml
- Grenadine4 ml
From bottle to glass
Method
- 01
Measure into the shaker Pour 45 ml tequila into your shaker
Tequila (blanco)
- 02
Measure into the shaker Add 22 ml orange juice
Orange juice
- 03
Measure into the shaker Add 15 ml fresh lemon juice
Fresh lemon juice
- 04
Measure into the shaker Add 8 ml triple sec / cointreau
Triple sec / Cointreau
- 05
Measure into the shaker Add 4 ml grenadine
Grenadine
- 06
Ice the shaker Fill the shaker with ice
- 07
Seal and shake Seal and shake hard
- 08
Ice the glass Fill your glass with fresh ice
- 09
Strain cleanly Strain into your glass
- 10
Finish the drink Finish it — add an orange slice
Know your drink
About the Chapala
Blunting the lemon
Orange juice is not sweetening this. Fifteen milliliters of lemon on its own would give you a hard, narrow sour, and 22 ml of orange spreads that acidity out and puts some body behind it, so the drink lands wide rather than sharp. Take the orange away and you have to cut the lemon to about 10 ml or the tequila has nothing left to stand on.
Reposado means rested, legally two to twelve months in wood, and most bottles sit near the short end of that. Enough to round the agave off, not enough to taste like whiskey. Against 37 ml of combined juice you will notice the vanilla and lose some of the green pepper. Worth doing in cold weather. Blanco is the version that still tastes of the plant.
Common questions
Chapala FAQ
Mine came out orange, not pink. Did I do something wrong?
Four milliliters of grenadine is a tint, not a dye. If your oranges are deep-colored the pink barely registers, which is correct. Adding more turns the drink candied and buries the agave, so leave it alone and let the fruit do the work.
Why two citrus juices instead of just one?
They do different jobs. Lemon supplies the acid that makes this a sour; orange supplies volume, sugar and body without adding sharpness. Run all 37 ml as lemon and the drink is punishing. Run it all as orange and you get a soft, flat tequila punch with nothing holding it up.
Is reposado wasted in something this fruity?
Not wasted, but outnumbered. Blanco keeps the peppery, vegetal agave in the foreground, which is the reason to build a sour on tequila at all. Reposado works and tastes good, though you'll get vanilla and light oak sitting on top of the fruit instead.
What if I don't own triple sec?
Cointreau, dry curaçao or any unsweetened-tasting orange liqueur slots straight in; eight milliliters is a rounding-off amount rather than a flavor. Leaving it out entirely makes the drink thin and a little sour, so put a teaspoon of simple syrup in its place.
What ingredients are in a Chapala?
A classic Chapala calls for 45 ml (1.5 oz) Tequila, 22 ml (0.75 oz) Orange juice, 15 ml (0.5 oz) Fresh lemon juice, 8 ml (0.25 oz) Triple sec / Cointreau, 4 ml (0.25 oz) Grenadine. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.
How strong is a Chapala?
A standard Chapala is roughly 22% ABV once mixed (before ice melt softens it further). That makes it spirit-forward — closer to a Martini than to a beer, so sip it slowly.
Is a Chapala shaken or stirred?
A Chapala is shaken — the rule of thumb is to shake anything with citrus juice. About 13 seconds with plenty of ice chills and dilutes it correctly.
Sharpen the technique
Skills used in this recipe
How to shake a cocktail properly
The grip, timing, ice and visual cues that make shaken drinks colder and brighter.
Read the guide
Cocktail ice: cubes, crushed ice and dilution
Understand why ice is an ingredient—and choose the right shape for every drink.
Read the guide
Fresh citrus for cocktails: juice, wedges and balance
Get brighter lime, lemon and grapefruit flavor with better prep and storage.
Read the guideWhere to go next
If you like the Chapala, try these.
Tequila Daisy
Grenadine is what makes a Daisy a Daisy. Here it pushes 60 ml of tequila into red-pink territory, sweet at the edges and still plainly agave in the middle.
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The margarita is tequila, lime and orange liqueur, shaken hard and served over ice. No sour mix, no blender — the real thing takes three ingredients and about ninety seconds.
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Mexican Firing Squad
Everything hangs on the grenadine here. Made with real pomegranate, it gives the drink spice and a dusty red color that earns the full 15 ml; made with red corn syrup, it flattens a decent tequila sour into candy. Angostura does the rest.
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