It’s that time of year where summer menus start to grace the tables of many of the restaurants around town. I love this time of year for multiple reasons, new menus being one of them. It’s like going to the post office box and getting a yellow slip; I’m always excited. Summer also brings with it new drink menus as well. For a guy who likes a good Negroni or strong Manhattan, summertime drinks are usually pretty hit or miss for me. Tequila is usually present in these, and we don’t play that nice anymore. I needed a substitute bad, and finally found one. Similar in origin but different in flavor than tequila, mezcal is taking off in the cocktail world across the country, and we are starting to see it here in Jackson.
If I found the Dos Equis “most interesting man in the world” sitting at a bar, I bet he would be sipping on mezcal.
The Facts: All tequilas are mezcal but not all mezcals are tequila. Where tequila has to be produced in one of five specific states in Mexico (think Champagne or Scotch) Mezcal does not. True tequila also has to be 100 percent pure Blue Agave where as mezcal can be made from multiple different agaves, the most common of which is Agave Espadin. The biggest difference, however, is flavor. Mezcals are smoky and big in flavor almost like a Scotch. This comes from roasting the agave over the course of a few days in a large buried clay oven. (Thanks to Megan at The Rose and Dustin at Snake River Grill for making me feel much smarter after a few cocktails.)
Del Maguey Pechuga can be found at The Rose and Snake River Grill
The Fun: I was on a mission to see where in town I could find Mezcal in cocktail form. The Rose was the first stop and a perfect atmosphere to enjoy their Smoking Donkey Driver. This drink is definitely up my all, with lots of big flavors that complement the smokiness of the mezcal nicely. I even had the authentic experience of drinking out of a copita, which is a small clay shot dish that held a sip or two of Del Maguey Pechuga. The recipie for Pechuga is centuries old and calls for mountain grown apples, ripe plums and a whole roasted chicken. Sounds weird… tastes delicious.
Next stop was Snake River Grill, as I figured nothing accompanies the Branding Iron Onion Rings like the Hemingway Visits Oaxaca. The drink balances the smoky spirit delicately with rum, grapefruit and cherry liquor, a great summertime drink for those wanting to try out a mezcal cocktail.
I headed home for the night, but my adventure wasn’t over. I stopped by The Liquor Store the following day to do some cocktail experimentation of my own. The bottle I found was a little dusty and had a grub hovering around the bottom, so I figured I had the right stuff. Over the course of a lovely afternoon, I found that the substitution of tequila with mezcal made most of the drinks better, especially a simple margarita on the rocks. The biggest success of the evening, however, was subbing out the rum in a Dark and Stormy. The mezcal complemented the ginger and lime perfectly. The worm, however, did not go well with any of the cocktails I tried. That had to be eaten on its own.
