Mountain Mezcal Sour
Mezcal Mule
INGREDIENTS:
3 cucumber slices (plus 1 for garnish)
0.5 oz (15 mL) agave syrup
1.5 oz (45 mL) mezcal, preferably Del Maguey Vida
1 oz (30 mL) ginger beer
0.75 oz (22 mL) lime juice
0.75 oz (22 mL) passion fruit purée
Garnish: Candied ginger, pinch of ground chili
METHOD:
In a cocktail shaker, muddle the cucumber slices and agave syrup, then add the remaining ingredients. Shake with ice, then fine-strain into a chilled rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with the candied ginger skewered to the cucumber slice, and a pinch of ground chili.
Mexican Firing Squad
Take aim at some great grenadine flavours
INGREDIENTS:
2 oz blanco tequila (or mezcal)
¾ oz grenadine*
¾ oz fresh lime juice
3 dashes Angostura bitters
1 dash lime bitters
Splash of soda
Lime wheel, for garnish
METHOD:
Shake all the ingredients except soda with ice. Strain over fresh ice in a Collins glass. Top with soda and garnish with a lime wheel. Serves 1.
*La Mezcaleria’s grenadine: Place 1 cup pomegranate juice (fresh is best, but bottled 100-per-cent pomegranate juice will also work) in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat for approximately 5 minutes. To preserve the bright, fresh flavour, do not boil or reduce the juice. Remove from the heat and add 1 cup sugar and a couple of dashes of orange flower water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. This will keep, refrigerated, in a clean glass jar for up to a week.
—by Ryley Zucca
Read more about the inspiration behind this cocktail.
Not Yo’ Granny’s Cobbler
“A riff on Portugal’s national drink of choice — White Port and Tonic— that combines the flavours with those of Mexico in a housemade cordial.”
Spicy Oaxaca Old Fashioned
INGREDIENTS:
2 oz mezcal
0.5 oz cocoa nib syrup*
2 dashes Scrappy’s Fire Water
1 dash Angostura bitters
orange zest for garnish
METHOD:
Pre-chill an Old Fashioned glass. Add all liquid ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir for 20 seconds. Strain cocktail into the glass, over fresh ice. Garnish with orange zest.
*Cocoa nib syrup: Add 1 cup cocoa nibs, 1 cup raw sugar and 1.5 cups water to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, stir, and simmer for 10 minutes. Allow syrup to cool and strain into a sealable bottle or mason jar and refrigerate (it will keep for about four weeks). Dry the nibs on parchment paper to use as garnish.
—by Justin Taylor
The Last Wall
This Mexican-influenced variation on the classic Last Word cocktail was created by bartender Tarquin Melnyk to highlight the fresh, juicy Ms. Better’s Green Strawberry Mah-Kwan bitters. “It has the biggest wow factor when people are trying bitters for the first time,” he says.
• 1 oz (30 mL) mezcal, preferably Siete Misterios
• 1 oz (30 mL) green Chartreuse
• 1 oz (30 mL) Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
• 1 oz (30 mL) fresh lime juice
• 2 dashes Ms. Better’s Green Strawberry Mah-Kwan bitters
How to stock your spirits cabinet
Every cocktail starts with a base spirit. Every home cocktail bar should do the same. The question is, what spirits do you really need to stock at home? What’s worth spending money on (and what isn’t)? After all, those bright, shiny bottles can be expensive.
Tomillo Margarita
Created by Alicia Whitfield
• 1.5 oz mezcal
• 0.5 oz Cointreau
• Dash of agave syrup
• 2 lime wedges squeezed
• 2 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1 sprig of thyme
• Salt
Van Isle Iced Tea
This drink – created by Robyn Gray and Brad Stanton, head bartenders at Prohibition in the Rosewood Hotel Georgia – taps into several of 2017’s cocktail trends: infusions, new white spirits, and mixing multiple spirits together. Note that you can purchase jars of hibiscus flowers in syrup at stores like Gourmet Warehouse, or make your own using the recipe below.
Donner & Blitzen
Smoky and tropical, this cocktail created by Katie Ingram, bar manager of L’Abattoir, is a perfect pick-me-up for a chill day.
• 0.75 oz (20 mL) Del Maguey Vida Espadin Mezcal
• 0.75 oz (20 mL) French sweet vermouth
• 0.75 oz (20 mL) Heering cherry liquor
• 0.5 oz (15 mL) pineapple juice
2 tsp (10 mL) orange juice
1 tsp (5 mL) lemon juice
2 dashes Bittered Sling Autumn Bog Cranberry