Disney's Avocado Margarita Is A Must-Try For Cocktail Fans

Most people might envision a margarita looking like something you drink, not a creamy dip for tortilla chips or a spread for that nutritious morning avocado toast. Thick, green, frozen, and served in a fancy cocktail glass? Not so much. But Disney insiders in Orlando, especially ones with an evening break from the little ones, know a little secret about avocados: They love getting smashed with some tequila, lime, and liqueur any day of the week.

Disney isn't the only one in the avocado-know when it comes to cocktails, though it's likely the most prominent, given the 12.7 million visitors to Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom theme park in 2021, per Statista. Some claim to have cracked the cocktail code for making the drink at home, and it seems that one enterprising two-time Food Network champion and cookbook author has actually pulled back the magic curtain. Here's a look at the La Cava Avocado margarita, available at two Disney World venues: EPCOT and Disney Springs.

A name like La Cava Avocado indicates a drink of Spanish or Mexican origin, but the avocado part throws many imbibers into a perplexing quandary – do they drink this or eat it, or perhaps spoon it out of the glass? It's thick, for sure, but no more than other margaritas made with fresh fruits. So, number one is the correct answer – you drink it!

Fresh avocado is the only real surprise in this margarita, as the other ingredients are simply clear blanco tequila, melon and orange liqueurs, agave nectar, and lime, according to Grilled Cheese Social, who wheedled the recipe from Disney's official Tequila Ambassador, Hilda Castillo. It arrives frozen and presented in a glass rimmed with hibiscus salt.

Per the menu for Frontera Cocina at Disney Springs, one version of the drink uses Centinela Blanco, which hails from an artisan tequila company situated in the Jalisco state of Mexico. The company, founded in 1904, describes itself as a precursor to jima and blue agave processing, now offering a range of bottled tequilas and 100% agave products. Old Town Tequila recommends using Centinela Blanco (white) tequila for cocktails and pairing it with seafood, Mexican dishes, and poultry.

Contrary to mostly true rumors that Disney will cost you a whole paycheck, or even a few of them, the Disney Springs area of Walt Disney World Resort is free to enter, explains Visit Orlando. It provides covered parking at no cost and opens opportunities for a wide range of entertainment, including Cirque du Soleil productions, amphibious car rides, balloon rides, luxury bowling, shopping, and daily live entertainment. But many people come for the dozens of drinking and dining venues.

Celebrity chef-owned eateries populate the space, including ones by Guy Fieri, Masaharu Morimoto, José Andrés, Art Smith, and Wolfgang Puck. It's also home to Frontera Cocina, founded by seven-time James Beard Award-winning chef Rick Bayless. It's perched right in the Town Center of Disney Springs and provides a rare chance to experience Disney's avocado margarita without paying a Disney park entry fee.

Frontera Cocina at Disney Springs opened in 2016, doling out upscale Mexican food and regional specialties. It offers 11 types of margaritas, and the La Cava Avocado margarita here uses the Centinela Blanco tequila. Frontera's Instagram feed suggests that you eat your veggies and drink your fruits – by way of the restaurant's Taquería Salad and La Cava Avocado margarita.

The La Cava del Tequila cantina resides within Disney's EPCOT park, which launched in 1982 and features a global culture theme with world adventure, discovery, and celebration areas, per Visit Orlando. It also harbors a World Showcase area featuring cultural aspects of 11 different countries. That's where, in addition to several food-infused festivals throughout the year, visitors find a wide array of diverse cuisine and cocktails.

Given that EPCOT is an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, explains Travel + Leisure, the original future-forward theme seems fitting for an out-of-the-ordinary cocktail created at one of its drinking hubs. La Cava del Tequila nestles in the Mexico Pavilion of World Showcase and boasts 200 tequilas experienced in tequila flights and specialty cocktails, including the La Cava Avocado.

Unlike the version at Frontera Cocina, this one isn't billed as a margarita. It does contain the same ingredients, including blanco tequila, and arrives frozen with the hibiscus salted rim, as noted on its lounge menu. But the tequila comes from Tromba, another Mexican tequila brand whose name refers to heavy rain storms nourishing the region's blue agave plants, according to Total Wine.