Blanco Tequila: An unaged or lightly aged expression of tequila (no more than 59 days in barrel).
Reposado Tequila: Aged for 60 days to 11 months in barrel.
Mezcal: An agave spirit that often has a smoky flavor from being roasted in an earthen pit.
Triple Sec: A clear orange liqueur made from macerating and infusing orange peels in a neutral spirit.
Margarita
1 ½ oz Blanco Tequila
½ oz Triple Sec
¾ oz Lime Juice
¼ oz Agave Syrup
Rim a rocks glass with salt. Add all ingredients to a shaker tin and shake for 15 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wedge.
Paloma
2 oz Blanco or Reposado Tequila
½ oz Lime Juice
Fill with High Quality Grapefruit Soda
Add tequila and lime juice to a highball glass. Add a splash of grapefruit soda to integrate with the mix and fill the glass with ice. Top off the glass with additional grapefruit soda. Garnish with a lime wedge or grapefruit slice.
A Note on Batching Cocktails for Parties:
If you don't want to be behind the bar all night shaking and stirring drinks for guests at your Cinco de Mayo party, you can pre-batch some of the drinks in advance. Add 20% filtered water to the volume of the single serve drink and then multiply the volume of the single serving to reach the size of your container. For example, to make a 750mL (~25oz) size bottle of the Oaxacan Old Fashioned, you would add 16 oz Reposado Tequila, 4 oz Mezcal, 1 oz Agave Nectar, 4 oz Filtered Water, 16 dashes of Angostura bitters (about 2 teaspoons). Refrigerate until ready to serve then pour over a large ice cube and garnish.
Agave Spirits Tasting
The Margarita is perhaps the most well-known tequila cocktail in the United States with origins in the 1930s despite many conflicting founding stories. In addition to the traditional Margarita recipe, here is a bonus recipe from the cocktail renaissance.
Tommy's Margarita (1990)
2 oz high quality tequila (blanco or reposado)
1 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
1/2 oz agave nectar
Rim a rocks glass with salt. Add all ingredients to a shaker tin and shake for 15 seconds. Strain into rocks glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a lime wedge.
Despite the Margarita's popularity here in the United States, the Paloma is actually the most popular agave spirits cocktail in Mexico. It is an easy, refreshing highball drink that originated with the mass-market grapefruit soda Squirt. Today, we would recommend using a high quality grapefruit soda such as those produced by Fever Tree or Q Mixers.
Oaxacan Old Fashioned
1 ½ oz Reposado Tequila
½ oz Mezcal
¼ oz Agave Syrup
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Add all ingredients to a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir for 30-45 seconds and strain into a rocks glass over a large format ice cube. Flame an orange coin over the top of the drink to express its oil and drop it into the drink as a garnish.
Agave Syrup Recipe
Mix 1/2 cup agave nectar and 1/2 cup water in a small pot over medium heat until dissolved. Pour into a bottle and refrigerate. You may add 1/2 oz of high proof vodka or neutral grain spirit to extend the life of the syrup.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, American bartenders shifted away from using artificial mixers and returned to utilizing fresh ingredients in their cocktails as well as re-emphasizing classic pre-Prohibition cocktails. Some bartenders used classic cocktail templates to invent new recipes such as the Oaxacan Old Fashioned. Death & Co. bartender Phil Ward created the drink in 2007 as a riff on the classic Old Fashioned drink that featured whiskey. To introduce the relatively new spirit of mezcal, he used as a split base with reposado tequila to parallel the oak aging notes of whiskey. Instead of sugar or simple syrup, Ward substituted agave nectar to amplify the agave notes in the cocktail. The name of the cocktail derives from the Mexican state of Oaxaca which produces 90% of Mexico's mezcal. It became the most popular drink on the Death & Co. menu and a signature of Ward's agave-focused bar Mayahuel.
