Does La Loma make Denver's best white-trash margarita?

Original is good... strawberry is better.

We tasted a lot of house margaritas in preparation for our Best of Denver 2011 issue, and the marg at El Camino was hands down the Best House Margarita, as well as one of the most simple, true to the classic roots of this Mexican cocktail. At most American Mexican restaurants and bars, the term "house margarita" is a way to describe cheap tequila poured into a vat of sugary sweet and sour, possibly with triple sec, but possibly also with some weird, weird things, like flavor syrups and Everclear grain alcohol, a rumored ingredient at one very popular place.

While we crowned our winner based on the pure goodness of El Camino's house marg, we must confess that we occasionally love one of those white-trash margaritas, even (especially) when they're made with questionable ingredients and served frozen. And through the warm spring and summer months, we plan to keep drinking white-trash margaritas, reporting on what we find during our quest.

Up first: the strawberry house maragarita at La Loma.

La Loma's regular margs are made using 30-30 Reposado, triple sec and sweet and sour mix. Sometimes they're delicious. Sometimes they're watered-down and merely drinkable. So we like making the beverage trashier classier by ordering the strawberry flavor, frozen, which masks the watered-down nature of the original with sweet, sweet artificial flavoring and a sugared rim.

With a basket of chips and salsa for dinner, we can belly up to La Loma's ornate bar and down these margs (or one birdbath-sized version) all night long -- without regard for the inevitable hangover that punishes our poor choices the next day.

Have your own favorite white-trash margarita? Tell us about it in the comments.