March 2, 2012

Blue Smoke


Smoke seems to follow me everywhere this week. Not unwanted cigarette smoke or anything unpleasant like that - nice smoke, evocative smoke.

On Monday a friend and I had a blast at Copenhagen Spirits and Cocktails (Does not seem to be updated - they had a blast too!) We took a class on tequila and tasted nice stuff from Patròn.

Ronan Rogerson explained about the differences between tequila and mezcal and how it is made from agave, that has been smoked in the ground.

How amazing that tasted we found out during a class on drinking rituals where the tradition of pouring mezcal in a cross before serious drinking commenced was explained.

And I had a bit of an epiphany when I inhaled the smell of the mezcal and was transported back to my childhood and the smell of the Players medium navy cut tobacco my Dad smoked in his pipe.

Mezcal smells like his tobacco smelled in the square light blue tin - a bit like prunes, a bit like rubber tires and a bit like honey. A smell I had not given a second thought in the intermediate 40 years but that I suddenly missed.

As I started reading Camper English's article for LA Times about liquid smoke this morning, I suddenly knew I had to lay my hands on some mezcal for my Friday cocktail. I also knew I wanted to mix the cocktail myself and I'm quite pleased with it actually:
  • 4 cl mezcal
  • 1 cl Yellow Chartreuse
  • 1 cl Golden Falernum (wonderful product from Bitter Truth)
  • 1 cl dark agave syrp
  • 3 cl freshly squeezed red grapefruit juice
  • 6 blueberries.
Add liquids and syrup to shaker along with 5 blueberries, muddle gently, then add ice and shake. Strain into cocktail glass with last blueberry placed in the bottom. Cheers Dad!

2 comments:

  1. This was delicious! I rarely muddle blueberries but it worked quite well here. And lovely blog! I will surely follow.

    http://spiritedalchemy.com/

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  2. Thank you SpiritedAlchemy,

    I'm quite pleased with this concoction, myself ;)

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