Hi!
I bought some Mezcal on a whim (Del Maguey Mezcal Vida), and I’m wondering if you have any good recommendations for what to do with it?
I have tried a margarita with Mezcal instead of tequila, and I thought it was nice.
Oaxaca old fashioned is another classic.
I really like a penicillin variant sometimes called the "Mexican medicine " or “medicina latina”. Basically you swap blended scotch/islay single malt for tequila/smoky mezcal, and swap lemon for lime.
That’s actually perfect, I tried a penicillin last week but I didn’t have any Islay. I’ll definitely try the variant!
My favourites are:
- naked and famous
- division bell (similar to the above if you don’t have chartreuse)
- sea legs
Division bell looks good! I read about the naked and famous, but I can’t seem to find yellow chartreuse unfortunately. I did find good alternatives for the green ones, but not for the yellow yet. Sea legs sounds really interesting with the celery bitter too, I didn’t know it was a thing!
Sorry, I also had more information, but I was falling asleep as I wrote that message:
It has been pretty easy to find Chartreuse in where I live, but I have heard that it has become hard to get yellow and green Chartreuse in the US. In my opinion, while a Naked and Famous is a great cocktail, the Division Bell isn’t too far from it and is cheaper to make. The Mezcal is certainly more dominate.
Sea Legs has been one of my favourite drink over the last half year. The peat from the Islay(pref. Laphroaig) pairs wonderfully the mezcal. If you like the Modern Medicine or the Penicillin, I’m pretty confident you would love this drink. I highly recommend making your own orgeat (if you’re not already). There is a hack where you can make it from oat milk, which is easy and much nicer than store-bought. Every time I’ve been served a drink with store-bought orgeat, its tasted awful.
I also use my celery bitters in a jalapeño & grapefruit cordial, which makes for a good mocktail. It works well with those kind of flavours.
Here’s a video on the Sea Legs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hll45WbmWc
Nice, thanks for the details! I’ll try to get some chartreuse next time I go to France :) I do make my own orgeat, mainly for Mai Tai, but it’s always nice to get more use for it!
Nothing fancy but I found an excellent Mezcal margo.
Mezcal Tommy’s Marg:
60ml (2oz) mezcal 20ml (⅔ oz) lime juice 20ml (⅔ oz) agave syrup Salt to garnish (optional) Dehydrated lime wheel to garnish (I just use a real lime)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHxF_agkH4g&t=1
(You got my favorite mezcal, by the way.)
Pretty close to the margarita I made, with the agave syrup instead of Cointreau! I’ll have to try this version as well. Not so sure where to get agave syrup, I don’t think this is a common thing here in Sweden.
I found the agave in the bio section of my grocery store in Germany so you might not be out of luck
My favorite is the El Camino 1 oz Del Maguey Vida 1 oz rye .5 oz benedictine 4 dashes Peychaud bitters Orange peel garnish Stir, serve over a big ice cube
We’ve been buying this same mezcal and have been enjoying it quite a bit! I will sometimes just make an oaxaca old fashioned as another commented.
Another drink we like is one we found on Difford’s Guide called Devil’s Soul. https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/6127/devils-soul
Last one, I had a mezcal cocktail in a bar once that they called a Noche Buena. No idea if this is just some other drink under a different name but we like it a lot!
2 oz mezcal 1/2 oz amaro 1/2 oz cointreau 1 tsp agave nectar (or use agave simple syrup) Dash saline water
Stirred and strained into a coupe glass.
Ok hear me out…put mezcal in a matcha latte. Really good combo
Mmh, that does sound really interesting! I can see the matcha working well with the smoke though.
Mezcal & Cynar are really good together.
Pas de Loup
1 oz Mezcal
1/2 oz Ancho Reyes
1/2 oz Honey Syrup
3/4 oz Cynar
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
I like it with pineapple juice
Get one of those fancy, tulip-shaped whisky glasses (e.g. Glencairn); a wine or cognac glass also works. Sniff the hell out of it!
For cocktails, the Ti’Punch (rhum agricole, lime coin, sugar, often drunk without any dilution) is a great template for when you want to enjoy a spirit-forward drink. The tricky part is that not every recipe tells you that traditionally, it’s done with lime coins rather than peels, wheels or eighths, which is a circular slice from the side that has both peel and a little bit of flesh, and it’s IMO the perfect ratio of peel to flesh/juice.
I did sniff it as soon as I bought it, the smoke is a really interesting smell! I’ll have to try the ti’punch template. Thanks for the details about the lime coin, I have never heard of this! It makes me think I have to try rum agricole at some point ^^
