After about a year and half of researching into gins – and trying out 42 bottles from 17 different countries and 100+ gin cocktails, I had started the journey on mezcal. This took me a year and half too. 16 bottles, about 50+ cocktails and one country (Mexico is the only country that makes this alcohol).

I need to figure out what I want to focus on next but here are my key learnings on mezcal…

1. I have never been to Oaxaca. And I cannot possibly close the chapter on mezcal before making one trip there. I will get it done.

2. Mezcal is not a cocktail drink. The best way to enjoy mezcal is how they do it in the villages of Mexico – slowly sip it from copitas (earthen cups), with naranja (oranges) and sal (salt). This is not meant for cocktails – regardless of what those new fad in American bars are these days.

3. Surprisingly, most parts of Mexico – at least the American tourist friendly places like Cancun and Cabo do not have much mezcal. You can get as much of tequila as you want. Mezcal is few and far between.

4. The following captures the essence of mezcal, if you truly focus on the drink…

“Para todo mal, mezcal.
Para todo bien, tambien.”

I will let you research the translation of this.

Picked this up again from the book Murali sent. It was sunny but cool last evening in Atlanta. Had some mango juice. Some freshly squeezed orange juice, lemon juice, vodka and cointreau – voila! We had a mango cooler!

The book advertises this as a great aphrodisiac. I was snoring by the time I could get to the second one!!

Murali sent me a 1000 cocktails book. Well timed. After about 15 bottles of mezcal, I was wondering how to mix it up when it came to my cocktail repertoire. Came home, randomly went to a page and picked this drink.
Good drink but since I do not like citric acid, I will probably not do this too many times. Or perhaps go down on the lime juice and increase gin (what can go wrong, right?)

This was pineapple juice, lime juice, grenadine and gin.

Mango juice, lime juice, orange zest, bay leaves and mezcal

This is mezcal with lime juice, aperol and grapefruit liqueur.

Mezcal, yellow chartreuse, absinthe, agave and lime juice. Got the recipe from Steve of the Steve The Bartender game from Australia.

Fairly complex drink. The chartreuse has an overwhelming presence. The absinthe toned down the earthiness of the mezcal.

I believe the word means “Little Death”
This is beet puree with mezcal, triple sec, jalapeno and lime juice. Went well with the cold temperatures.

Picked the recipe up from Liquor magazine. First, it is a riff of your traditional margarita. Instead of tequila, you put mezcal. You put the orange liqueur, simple syrup and lime juice as you would normally do. Now, for a twist, float some red wine on the drink.

I was not sure what to expect – but it actually turned out fairly palatable. No salt on the rim though – the acidic red wine and salt are going to mess it up.

I have to admit there are not too many weirder cocktail names I have seen compared to this. I had no idea what this name meant. Studied it up and learnt that in the movie “Kill Bill” (which I have never seen), there was apparently a type of “Touch of Death” (look this one up in Wikipedia) where a person is hit in five different pressure points in the body. Then, when the person moves, after five steps, his/her heart explodes. Presumably leading to death.

Even after that explanation, I have no clue what connection this cocktail has to it. But something must have inspired Erick Castro – the mixologist at Polite Provisions in San Diego to come up with this name.

This has mezcal, sweet vermouth, coffee liqueur and chocolate bitters.

Fairly desultory to the nose and the palate.

A few days back, a colleague of mine – Denise Piatt – talked about a cocktail she had at Mockingbird Cafe in Dundee, IL. It is a bourbon based drink but she liked the kick of the jalapenos and cinnamon in it.

Last night I tried a variation of it. Instead of jalapenos, I muddled in some Ahi Chileno that we had brought from Chile. Instead of muddling cinnamon, I went with the Goldschlager cinnamon liqueur.

Additionally, this has maple and bourbon.

Was a great cocktail for the snowed in evening in Atlanta. And to go with the theme of Fire and Ice, I had it while sitting in 102 degrees water out in the snow!!