Plaza Vieja
"Hey Siri, what's the Spanish translation for Vieux Carre?"
I don't know why no one has ever thought to use a split base tequila in a Vieux Carre, but together with my friends at @mijenta tequila, we're creating the Plaza Vieja, which translates to "Old Square" in English and 'Vieux Carre' in French.
It's traditionally a New Orleans-born recipe, using a split base of rye (for the bold, spicy flavor) and cognac (for the mellow fruitiness) to balance. Today we're using Mijenta's Reposado and Gran Reserva Anejo Tequilas to achieve the same balance. This split base plays perfectly with the Benedictine and spices in vermouth. All of it is tied together with a flamed lemon twist to give it a kiss of smokiness.
Give this one a try - or heck, this would be a great one to batch too, let me know if you want to see me make that recipe.
Cheers y'all.
ingredients:
1 oz | 30 ml Mijenta Reposado
1 oz | 30 ml Mijenta Anejo
1 oz | 30 ml sweet vermouth
¼ oz | 7.5 ml Bénédictine
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Lemon peel
instructions:
Stir all ingredients with ice until chilled. Strain over a large ice cube and express a lemon peel over the drink. Serve and enjoy!
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I’m your huckleberry ðŸ¤
I just got back from Montana with my friends at @traegergrills. It was strictly a grilling event but given what I do, of course I had to get behind the bar. I knew I wanted to incorporate local Montana ingredients like huckleberry, juniper (grown on site) and honey but also wanted to incorporate smoke from the grill. So I had the idea to make a bramble type cocktail.
For the smokey element, I smoked some local raw honey along with some juniper berries on the Traeger to just get a kiss of smoke. I then constructed the cocktail originally using gin like a traditional bramble, but the juniper botanicals overpowered the recipe so I switched to a reposado tequila and knew it was the perfect fit. They also had some locally made huckleberry liqueur which was the perfect last ingredient to top the cocktail and bring that sweet/sour/fruity element to the cocktail. Finally topped it with that smoked juniper berry branch to give it that botanical pop and tricking your brain into thinking you’re drinking a bramble when you’re actually drinking something closer to a margarita.
Given the ingredients and location, it was just fitting to call this the ‘Big Sky Bramble.’ Cheers y’all.
Big thanks to @i_drewcifer for the R&D help!
🎥: @tobojosh / @grillvaultbbq