The original recipe for the Tequila Sunrise was created by Gene Sulit of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel around 1940. The far more popular and sweeter version wasn’t devised until the early 1970s by Bobby Lozoff and Billy Rice whilst they worked as young bartenders at Trident in Sausalito, California.
During a private party hosted by the Rolling Stones’ at the Trident in 1972, Mick Jagger was introduced to the Tequila Sunrise, he and the entourage seriously loved the drink; they toured across America ordering it, the tour itself became famously dubbed the “cocaine and tequila sunrise tour”.