Mezcal and Tequila: To the Margarita and Beyond – Part III, More than Margaritas
Part III: More than Margaritas
Part I of this trilogy discussed the history of agave distillation and the resulting wide array of tequilas and mezcals offered today. In Part II, I made the easy case for placing the Margarita upon the throne of the world of agave cocktails. And, we explored the many colorful possibilities of that tasty cocktail’s origins. This Part III will present a partial look at what historical and modern day cocktail-crafting mixologists have done with tequila and mezcal beyond the Margarita.
A Few Famous Early Concoctions
The Evolution of a Sunrise
Remember the Agua Caliente Resort in Tijuana that kept showing up in my Part II tour through the birth of the Margarita? That same Prohibition playground likely created a drink called the Sunrise Tequila in the early 1930s. The resort introduced it in its cocktails and drinks guide, Bottoms Up, with a theatrical story claiming its recipe was discovered by archeologists digging in Mexico’s Toltec and Aztec ruins. The Guide read, “Sunrise Tequila, a close parallel to the original dawn drink of the gods, if not the same; A fascinating tequila fantasy – the drink you can never forget…a man’s drink…a woman’s drink.” Holy cow, they could really sweettalk a drinking customer back in the day!
That early Sunrise recipe called for tequila, lime juice, grenadine and Crème de Cassis served over ice in a highball glass, and topped with seltzer. And, perhaps not so coincidentally, if you take out the grenadine, the recipe matches another Tequila Sunrise claimed to have been invented at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel also in the 1930s. The story can be found in detail at the resort’s Wright Bar. It identifies the creator as longtime employee Gene Sulit, who worked at the Biltmore beginning in the 1930s. Supposedly during his time as a bartender, he invented and named his Tequila Sunrise in response to a request by a customer who loved tequila and wanted something refreshing to sip poolside.
Those ancestral claims aside, we must fast forward four decades to 1972 and shift a little north to the Trident bar in Sausalito, California to address the modern Tequila Sunrise. The Trident poured more tequila than any other bar north of the border. Its bartenders Bobby Lozoff and Billy Rice were heavily into inventing and reinventing cocktails with a tequila focus.
The Trident became party central for high rollers and rock ‘n rollers. David Crosby called the Trident, “Ground zero for sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll!” Janis Joplin had her own table. She sat near a side door and slipped in and out without being noticed. Clint Eastwood and Sonny Barger (head of the Hell’s Angels) were regular bar stool buddies. Heck, even Robin Williams worked there as a busboy.
The Rolling Stones were at the beginning of a U.S. tour to promote their new album, Exile on Main Street. The previous time The Stones had played in California was the infamous concert at Altamont Speedway. That night, the concert organizers unfortunately hired Hell’s Angels as security guards. When some concert goers got out of hand, they waded through the crowd wielding pool cues. They stabbed one man to death after he pulled a pistol. Legendary concert promoter Bill Graham arranged for a private party at The Trident to start this tour on a better note.
Since it was a bar known for its tequila, a thirsty Mick Jagger, leaned over the bar and asked for the obvious Margarita. Lozoff was ready with an alternative. He had recently played with the old Agua Caliente Sunrise Tequila recipe. His version replaced the lime juice with fresh California orange juice. As the local demand for his tasty Tequila Sunrise concoction grew, he realized a simplification was in order. He maintained the visual appeal of an air-brushed colorful California sunrise and the refreshing taste with a simplification to a three-ingredient blend of tequila, orange juice, and grenadine. He prepared several in his customary chimney glasses and offered them to Jagger and the rest of the Stones.
The Stones had many Sunrises before sunrise that night. Before leaving, their tour manager wrote down the recipe. Next night, there was a new requirement. He had to deliver two bottles of José Cuervo, a gallon of orange juice and a bottle of grenadine to the dressing room before each show. Not long after, a letter sent to promoters warned, “It would be very strange to see Keith Richards in top form without the company of a good tequila.” The tour became known as the Tequila Sunrise Tour. In September 1972, the Tucson Daily Citizen ran Lozoff’s recipe ahead of a Stones concert date. “Two of these,” the paper warned, “and you’ll be imitating Jumping Jack Flash.”
In 1970, I was a long-haired college student at Manhattan College in NYC. I had just joined the other 499,999 young fans at Woodstock in 1969. So, I was pretty well imbedded in that period of rock music and cultural rebellion. In 1973, I seem to remember enjoying a number of Sunrises at Corby’s Bar in South Bend, Indiana. As a grad student there, I’m sure I smuggled a few into Fighting Irish football games.
That same year, Jose Cuervo put the recipe on the back of its tequila bottles. And, the Eagles released a song called “Tequila Sunrise” on their “Desperado” album. The drink went mainstream in response to these added pop culture boosts. It has been a part of the cocktail world ever since. Although it is a simple splash of liquid color, with tequila and mezcal bars now on the rise in America, it’s a cocktail ripe for rediscovery and reimagining.
Trader Vic’s Mexican Devil
Victor Bergeron, aka Trader Vic, started pumping out the Tiki drinks in the 1940s. He predominantly used rum as his base spirit. The Mai Tai, the Fogcutter, the Scorpion Bowl, rolled off his rum concoction assembly line. However, in his 1946 publication, Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink, he gave us a tequila cocktail. He called it the Mexican El Diablo (later shortened to El Diablo). In all his books, the recipe for making El Diablo remained the same:
½ lime; 1 ounce tequila; ½ ounce crème de cassis; Ginger ale; Squeeze and drop shell of lime in a 10-ounce glass; add cracked ice, tequila, and crème de cassis; fill rest of glass with ginger ale.
The modern shaken version of Vic’s drink ups the tequila and lime slightly. In addition, he calls for using ginger beer instead of ginger ale. The ginger beer actually mimics older spicier ginger ales more closely.
1 1/2 ounces reposado tequila; 1/2 ounce crème de cassis; 1/2 ounce lime juice freshly squeezed; Three ounces ginger beer; Garnish: lime wedge. Fill a cocktail shaker with a few ice cubes. Add the crème de cassis, tequila, and lime juice, and shake the mixture. Strain the mixture into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top the glass with ginger beer. Garnish the cocktail with a lime wedge.
Either version is a tasty combination for sure. Vic just basically replaced the club soda of the 1930 Arizona Biltmore Sunrise Tequila with ginger ale. He introduced El Diablo in his 1948 book with some personal advice. Vic warned, “I hate like hell to bring up unpleasant things at a time like this, but go easy on this one because it’s tough on your running board.”
Squirt Gives Birth to a Dove
Noted cocktail author and historian, David Wondrich, has referred to it as the National Drink of Mexico. No, not the much discussed Queen Margarita of Part II. That honor goes to the Paloma. There’s nothing complicated about a Paloma. Like a Rum and Coke, or a Gin and Tonic, or a Vodka and Orange Juice, or a 7 and 7, it’s just a perfect match of two ingredients. In this case, tequila and Squirt (grapefruit soda). Ok, and maybe a little lime juice. That’s it.
Juan Pablo De Loera, a tequila and mezcal consultant based in San Antonio, says that simplicity is what makes the Paloma so great. “We rarely drank sodas in our house, but when friends would come over, there was always Squirt around for a quick Paloma. It was like a condiment you would always have on hand, like ketchup or mustard. I don’t know anybody that would measure out a Paloma. It’s just a pour of tequila over ice and however much soda you would like.”
Unlike many classic cocktails, which predate Prohibition, the Paloma didn’t arrive on the scene until after 1938. That was when Squirt was first invented in Phoenix, Arizona. Squirt began advertising its appeal as a mixer with tequila as early as 1950. However, Mexico didn’t begin importing the soda until 1955. So, although the Paloma is a favorite in all those Mexican households, Americans likely mixed them up in their glasses first.
It’s unclear how or when the Paloma got its name, paloma being Spanish for “dove.” It might have been named for a popular back-in-the-day Mexican folk song of the same name. But what does a dove have to do with a grapefruit drink? I think it more likely that some U.S. squirt sales people got their Spanish confused. They probably meant to call the mixture a Pomelo, Spanish for grapefruit.
Or
You can make a Pomelo, I mean Paloma, by mixing tequila, lime juice, and a grapefruit-flavored soda. For the soda, you can choose Fresca or Squirt or Mexican Jarritos. Then just pour it on the rocks with a lime wedge. Blanco tequila is the traditional choice, but lightly aged reposado also makes a fine drink. Like the Margarita, adding salt to the rim of the glass is also an option. Alternatively, one can replace the grapefruit soda with fresh white or red grapefruit juice and club soda or 7-up.
In Mexico, the drink’s popularity stems from its use in homes as a tasty way to make a guest feel comfortable. So, you will not find it on too many Mexican bar menus. However, in the States, todays cocktail craftsmen are mixing Palomas with all kinds of inventive components. Bartenders are trying everything from fresh Rio Red grapefruit juice or grapefruit tonic, to tamarind-laced Himalayan salt and chile-infused tinctures. Ask for a Paloma, and you might get one with a simple syrup made with lime peels or hibiscus, or one with muddled mint and jalapeño.
New kids on the block
Whether it was a Picador, A Tequila Daisy, A Margarita, a Sunrise, or a Diablo, the early tequila recipes all were minor variations on the tequila + lime + sweetener formula. And then, during the 1970s and 80s, most experiences with tequila were in the form of a poor Margarita made with bottled sour mix and mixto tequila. Or, you might do a party shooter of that bad tequila masked by some salt predecessor and lime successor.
The sale of agave liquors has surged over the past several years. As one might expect, interest in tweaking old cocktails and inventing new ones made with tequila or mezcal has boomed with it. The boom has awakened bartenders to a multitude of agave avenidas down which to explore.
New York City became ground zero for this explosion of cocktail creativity. And, the epicenter of ground zero was Death & Co, a groundbreaking bar opened in 2007 by David Kaplan. Kaplan had a knack for picking the right bartenders, and Phil Ward was at the top of his list.
In the introduction to his Death & Co book of modern classic cocktails, Kaplan wrote, “I asked Phil to come to an open call we were having at the bar that weekend, and he showed up – a lanky, mop-headed fellow from Pittsburgh with a bone-dry sense of humor. He entertained my interview long enough to fill out a questionnaire I’d written up for the candidates. The last question was, ‘Name as many bitters as you can.’ In 2006, most bartenders only knew Angostura, if that. Phil listed sixteen types of bitters. Then Phil interviewed me – several times, in fact. ‘What kind of ice machine will you use? What kind of glassware will you buy? Will we have to serve Red Bull? Will we be open on Sunday?’ I offered him a job as head bartender.”
It was while at Death & Co that he began to delve into the taste profiles of tequilas and mezcals, liquors that were underused in cocktails. Ward would go on After Death & Co to open Mayahuel, an influential mezcal bar, in 2009. And, before long, Mezcalerias proliferated around the country.
Oaxaca Old Fashioned
One of the first key cocktails that paved the way for the current generation of agave-forward drinks was Ward’s Oaxaca Old-Fashioned, debuted at Death & Co in 2007. It mingles reposado tequila and mezcal in the same glass. “The cocktail quickly became the breakout liquid star at Death & Co,” author Robert Simonson wrote in his new book, ‘Mezcal and Tequila Cocktails: Mixed Drinks for the Golden Age of Agave.’ Tequila Old-Fashioneds were not unheard of before 2007. But no Old-Fashioned featured mezcal, which lent an unfamiliar and exciting depth of flavor to the mix.”
The drink came to symbolize Death & Co’s approach to cocktails: “A simple recipe grounded in the classics, but with a level of innovation that comes from a deep understanding of the ingredients at play.” The Oaxaca OF paved the way for using the aggressively-flavored mezcal in a modifying supporting role.
The original recipe uses 1.5 ounces of El Tesoro Reposado Tequila and 0.5 ounces of Del Maguey San Luis Del Rio Mezcal. Ward specifies adding 1 teaspoon Agave Nectar, 2 dashes of angostura, and a flamed orange peel.
The Agave Children of the Last Word
In a previous post, I discussed the components and history of the classic Prohibition Era cocktail called the Last Word (see ‘Any Last Words’). The unusual combination of gin, chartreuse, maraschino and lime juice somehow works. Phil Ward referred to the Last Word as “a 4-way car crash in which no one is hurt and everyone’s glad they met afterward.”
It is a cocktail that has become the focus for creative adaptation by bartenders everywhere, and particularly in the great progressive bars of New York City. The reason for this focus is likely twofold. For one, it has a cool name with all sorts of possibilities of wordplay. There are now cocktails called Latest Word, Other Word, Next to Last Word, Last Palabra, Loose Talk, Closing Argument, and Bird is the Word. For two, it has the intriguing recipe of four powerful ingredients combined in equal measures. Two of the offshoots of the Last Word were of an agave nature. Both are tied to Death & Co.
The Division Bell
Once upon a time, young Philip Ward made his way to New York City by way of backpacking through Europe and Africa. After three years of hands-on mixology education, he became a head bartender and then (as we have already discussed) helped open and operate Death & Co. Using what he had learned, in 2009, he opened his own place, Mayahuel. It was there that he did much to elevate the use of agave spirits. It was in preparing his cocktail menu for Mayahuel that he invented a drink he called the Division Bell. But why that name? Once again, the mists of imagination envelope us and another scene of possibility materializes from a chapter of the unchronicled tales cocktail lore.
In New York’s East Village, the strains of Pink Floyd echo throughout the soon-to-be-completed Mayahuel. A carpenter stops his work and yells, “Yo, Mr. Ward! You must really like this album; You’ve been playing it over and over.”
Phil Ward glances up from his work behind his beautiful new bar, having been in deep mixological thought. He was putting the finishing touches on his tequila and mezcal menu-to-be.
“You got it, Jimmy,” he answered. “Best album ever. It’s Floyd’s Division Bell, and that last song was Lost for Words.”
He returned to his cocktail menu, thinking that “Lost for Words” reminded him of a Prohibition era drink called The Last Word made with gin, Chartreuse, Maraschino and lime. Ward thought, “What if I replace the gin with mezcal, the Chartreuse with the citrus flavor of Aperol, and keep the lime and Maraschino.”
He quickly mixed one and knew he had a winner. He added it to his menu, and smiled as he named it a “Division Bell.” And as he gazed out over his Mayahuel, he thought of the future and whispered words from the album’s song, High Hopes. “At a higher altitude with flag unfurled; We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world.”
Phil Ward’s Division Bell combines Mezcal, Aperol, maraschino liqueur, and lime juice. The cocktail calls specified Del Maguey Vida mezcal, but any espadín with fruity and smoky notes will work. Aperol lends its bitter, citrusy flavors alongside the brightness of lime juice and the gentle sweetness of maraschino liqueur. Although it doesn’t have the easy-to-remember equal-parts formula of the Last Word that inspired it, the combination works well enough for it to be memorized by any serious home bartender.
1 ounce mezcal (preferably Del Maguey Vida); 3/4 ounce Aperol; 1/4 ounce maraschino liqueur (preferably Luxardo); 3/4 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed; Garnish: grapefruit twist. Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Express the oils from a grapefruit twist over the drink, then discard the twist.
Naked and Famous
Back at Death & Co., meanwhile, Joaquín Simó created the Naked and Famous, an equal-parts cocktail of mezcal, Aperol, yellow Chartreuse, and lime juice. Although it and the Division Bell are similar on paper, each borrows from the Lost Word in a different way. The Naked and Famous uses the Aperol in place of the original’s maraschino liqueur. The Division Bell employs the orange bitter liqueur in place of herbaceous Chartreuse. Each drink has its own distinct flavor profile.
The Naked and Famous is described in the Death & Co book of modern classic cocktails as being “the bastard child born out of an illicit Oaxacan love affair between the classic Last Word and a Paper Plane.” Using the four-equal-parts structure used by these two cocktails, Simó incorporated Chartreuse from the former and Aperol from the latter to complement the drink’s key ingredient, mezcal. “The botanical intensity of the two liqueurs gives such great length to the drink that it manages to be simultaneously crushable and complex,” says Simó. “There’s just enough sugar to balance the tart lime and funky, smoky mezcal, but not so much that it gets cloying. It’s a great balancing act that gives the cocktail enough structure to let all its complex ingredients speak in turn, rather than all at once.”
So, why call it a Naked and Famous, Mr. Simó? It seems Simó choice in cocktail naming was also musically inspired. His response – It just comes from a lyric in a song Simó loved as a teenager, “Tricky Kid” from Tricky’s album Pre-Millenium Tension.
The Danny Ocean
The list of new mezcal/tequila concoctions could continue ad infinitum, so I will close with just one more interesting tale.
Once upon a time, a man named Rande Gerber graduated from Arizona with a marketing degree. He worked as a model for a couple of years, switched into commercial real estate, and then in 1991 branched out on his own to form the Gerber Group. That year, he opened his first hotel bar, The Whiskey, in New York City. Gerber said of his plan, “Bars were all Irish pubs or dance clubs. The idea of an upscale lounge didn’t exist. People thought I was out of my mind. But I had a vision: I wanted it to feel like my living room.”
So, that was his theme as worked to expand his bar empire throughout the world. Along the way, he met many famous and influential people. One of those, and most important, was Cindy Crawford, who he married in 1998. Another, and most key to this tale, was George Clooney, who he met at one of his NYC bars over a tequila.
Gerber and Clooney became great friends over many more tequilas. With other friends, they started taking golf trips around the country. Although they played some golf, they quite likely spent more time sampling agave spirits. It was on one of these trips that they met real estate guru Mike Meldman. And, it was through Meldman that they became neighbors. Gerber and Clooney built homes next to each other in one of Meldman’s developments in Mexico.
“It felt like one compound,” Gerber said. “We’d have a bunch of our friends there — breakfast at our place, lunch at his, dinner at ours. It felt like one big house.” They named the two homes “Casamigos,” (house of friends).
During one of their evening post dinner samplings of various Mexican tequilas (some not quite to their liking) Clooney suggested they produce their own house brand. They wanted a non-burning, affordable tequila, with a flavor profile that met their demanding tastes. So, they began some serious research. They met with distillers, sampled hundreds of products, and ran blind taste tests with their family and friends. Two years later, they had their perfect house tequila.
Naturally, they called it Casamigos and distilled it strictly for their own private consumption and entertainment. However, it wasn’t long before their distiller informed them that they had exceeded 1000 bottles, and they needed to be licensed. And so, the partners released their house tequila to the public in 2013. Sales took off worldwide. So much so, that what started as a fun thing to do for two tequila-loving celebs was recently sold to alcoholic beverage mega-company Diageo for a cool $1 Billion.
“But we’re not going anywhere,” George Clooney says. “We’ll still be very much a part of Casamigos.” If you go to the Casamigos website, you will find a large collection of agave cocktail recipes. and, one of those stands out as a direct connection to George Clooney – The Danny Ocean. Danny Ocean, of course, was Clooney’s gentleman thief character, who was the ringleader and idea man of the crew that robs three casinos in Ocean’s Eleven. And, if you watch the movie carefully, you might just see Danny sipping on some refreshing tequila concoction.
The Danny Ocean takes a Paloma and adds both tart and sweet complexity with lemon and Maraschino ingredients.
2 oz Casamigos Reposado Tequila; .75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice; .75 oz Fresh Pink Grapefruit Juice; .5 oz Agave Nectar; .25 oz Maraschino Liqueur; Garnish with Lemon Peel. Combine all ingredients into tin shaker. Add ice, shake vigorously and strain into rocks glass. Add fresh ice and Garnish.
Final Advice
And so, this concludes the 3-part post on the tequila and mezcal agave distillates and today’s explosion of interest in creating new exciting cocktails with them. There is only one thing remaining to say. Get out there and buy a couple of bottles and whip up a Naked and Famous. Or, put on some Jimmy Buffett and mix that perfect Margarita. Or, just let your creative spirit lead you to invent a new happy hour favorite. Whichever your choice, you will likely be looking at tequila in a whole new way and at Mezcal as a wonderful new discovery.
