Outside Mexico, people order a Margarita. In Mexico, they order a Paloma: tequila, lime, a pinch of salt and grapefruit soda, over ice. Today we serve it the Jalisco way, in a **cantarito** — the unglazed clay cup once used to keep water. Some say the clay softens the citrus; what's certain is that it changes how you drink it: slower, made for sharing. Its bigger sibling comes from there too, the Cantarito: same idea with more citrus (orange, lime and grapefruit), topped with the same grapefruit soda. Sometimes with a chile-and-salt rim. Ours, from the school's card: · 50 ml 100% agave tequila · 5 ml lime · a pinch of salt · 100 ml pink grapefruit soda Built over ice, no shaker. The bubbles lead. The salt is the part people skip. It goes in the liquid, not just on the rim — it knocks the bitterness back and lifts the fruit. Question for the bar: tall glass or clay? And if you turned yours into a Cantarito, which citrus would you add?

Every stirred or shaken drink leaves the tin with more water in it than you poured. That water is part of the recipe, and it is the only ingredient nobody measures. You can stop guessing this week. All you need is a kitchen scale. **The challenge** 1. Put the empty mixing glass on the scale and zero it. 2. Pour in the ingredients of a spirit-forward drink you know well, and write down the weight. 3. Add ice, stir exactly as you normally would, then strain into a glass sitting on the zeroed scale. 4. Second weight minus first weight is the water you added. Divide that water by the starting weight and you have your dilution as a percentage. **Post in the comments: your number.** Just the percentage, and what you were making. That figure is yours — it comes from your ice, your glass, your hands and your stirring speed, and it is worth more than any number printed in a book. Almost everyone is surprised by how large it is. Mine used to be much higher than I thought. Full protocol: Master the Invisible Ingredient → Weigh your dilution — open to everyone, no level needed.