Naked and Famous
22.5 ml Mezcal, 22.5 ml Aperol, 22.5 ml Yellow Chartreuse, 22.5 ml Lime juice, 1 wheel Lime
Oaxaca Old Fashioned
An Old Fashioned that smells of a campfire.
Modern Classic
Easy
4 min
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 12 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 540 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 540 ml line. Mezcal
- 180 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 180 ml line. Tequila blanco - The tequila keeps it from being all smoke
- 90 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) and one small side (25 ml) of a standard jigger, plus a tablespoon. Agave syrup
- 24 dashes Bottle 24 quick shake of the bottle - each a few drops, about a millilitre. Angostura bitters
- 12 twists Orange twist (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Stir everything over ice and strain over one large cube.
Method
Batch (12 drinks)Batch (12 drinks) - about 816 ml of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Fill a mixing glass with ice and add the mezcal, tequila, agave syrup and bitters.
- Stir for 30 seconds.
- Strain over one large cube in a rocks glass.
- Express an orange peel over the top and drop it in.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Oaxaca Old Fashioned
Phil Ward made this at Death & Co in New York in 2007, and it did more for mezcal than a decade of explaining. The idea was simply to make an Old Fashioned with agave spirits, in a city where the drink had been a rye drink for a hundred years - and the half-measure of tequila in there alongside the mezcal is what stops it becoming a glass of smoke.
Getting it right
Mezcal is a big, warm, divisive flavour: if yours is a fierce one, use a little less and make the tequila up. Agave syrup rather than sugar is obvious once you taste it, and orange peel rather than a cherry is the garnish that suits it - the citrus cuts through the smoke, where a cherry would sink into it.
Tasting notes
Smoke, roasted agave and a little vanilla, with orange oil sitting on top of the glass and a long, warm, faintly sweet finish. It is the campfire of the cocktail world, and the drink that converts people who "do not like mezcal".
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