Any one of these five mezcal cocktails will remind you life is good!
Everything Good Cocktail
Get yourself about three tablespoons of honey, a cup and a half of mezcal, a quarter cup of orange liqueur, two and a half teaspoons of chocolate bitters, and eight orange twists.
Then mix the honey with two tablespoons of boiling water in a quart-size jar and let it cool. Stir in the rest and freeze at least a couple hours. When you’re ready to enjoy, mix it and pour it onto ice. Squeeze the oranges over it and rub the peel around the rim of your glass.
Created by San Francisco bartender Gillian Fitzgerald.
Hibiscus and Cilantro Mezcal Cocktail
You’ll need to get your hands on 1/2 cup of dried hibiscus flowers (at your local Mexican market, or use hibiscus from hibiscus tea bags), 1/2 cup sugar, 3 cups cilantro leaves with tender stems, divided, 1/2 cup mezcal, 1/4 cup fresh lime juice, and cilantro flowers or sprigs (for presentation).
Simmer 3 cups of water in a saucepan. Turn off the heat and add hibiscus and let it steep 10 minutes. Strain hibiscus tea into a medium bowl and let it cool.
Bring a cup of water to a simmer in a small saucepan. Add sugar and cook, stirring, until dissolved. Let it sit and add 2 cups of cilantro. Let that steep 20 minutes. Strain the syrup into a small bowl and let it cool.
To make the cocktail, muddle the remaining cup of cilantro in a large pitcher. Add mezcal, lime juice, hibiscus tea, and 1¼ cups cilantro syrup and stir.
Fill glasses with ice and pour it into them.
Oaxaca Old-Fashioned
Set out 1 ½ oz. reposado tequila, ½ oz. mezcal, 1 bar spoon agave nectar, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, and flamed orange twist, for garnish.
Mix the tequila, mezcal, agave nectar, and bitters in a mixing glass with ice. Strain over a fresh rock in an Old Fashioned glass. Flame an orange peel over the top of the drink, and rest the twist in the glass as a garnish.
Created by bartender Phil Ward when at Death & Co.
Mezcal Mule
Add 2 oz. mezcal, ½ oz. fresh lime juice, ½ oz. fresh ginger juice, 1 oz. agave nectar, 1½ oz. sparkling water to a shaker and dry shake. Get ready for a little push back from the soda water. Strain into a copper mule mug and add fresh rocks. Garnish with a sprig of mint and a quartered lime.
Killer Bee
Set out 1 1⁄2 ounces honey, two ounces of mezcal, 1 1⁄2 ounces of freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 1 lemon).
Combine the honey with 1 1⁄2 ounces water. In a shaker, combine the mezcal, lemon juice, and 3⁄4 ounce of the honey syrup. Fill the shaker three-quarters of the way with ice and shake hard for 10 seconds if serving on the rocks or 15 seconds if serving “up.” Strain into an ice-filled double old-fashioned glass or bucket glass, or serve up with no ice.
See all 20 recipes here: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes-menus/best-mezcal-cocktails-gallery Two recipes were excerpted from Mezcal © 2017 by Emma Janzen and Nopalito: A Mexican Kitchen by Gonzalo Guzmán with Stacy Adimando, copyright © 2017.
