Si-Güey

How to make:

STIR first 3 ingredients with ice and strain into ice-filled glass (preferably over a large cube or chunk of block ice). FLOAT peated whisky.

Review:

Your nose is greeted by zesty orange then, with the first sip, smoky whisky hits your palate. As you work your way through this late-night sipper, so depleting the whisky float as you sip, the flavour of mellowing orangey tequila grows.

History:

Adapted from a recipe created by late bartending legend Sasha Petraske at his Milk & Honey bar in Manhattan, New York City, USA.

The Si-Güey features in the 2016 book Regarding Cocktails, written by Sasha's wife, Georgette Moger-Petraske, as a tribute to her late husband. Pronounced "see-gwehee" and meaning 'yes dude', 'yeah, dude', 'yeah, man', or 'yeah, mate', "si-güey" is a Mexican slang greeting that Sasha and the other bartenders would say to each other during shifts at Milk & Honey. In the book, Michael Madrusan explains why.

Segue – as in "to move, without interruption, from one scene to another" – is imperative for working in the tight quarters of any Petraske bar. Güey is the colloquial Mexican Spanish way of referring to any person without using his name, and Sí, Güey, was something Sasha and all the bartenders would say to one another at various points of the evening.

Michael Madrusan, Regarding Cocktails, 2016

Nutrition:

One serving of Si-Güey contains 173 calories