21st Century (Difford's recipe)

Serve in

How to make:

1. Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
2. Prepare orange zest for garnish.
3. SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
5. EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Review:

I revisited this cocktail in December 2022 when Jim Meehan made me aware of his, original 21st Century and I changed from Joerg Meyer's 20th Century spec to a recipe based on my favoured Twentieth Century (but with tequila as the base), the key difference being the aromatised wine used. For the record, the previous recipe on this page (without "Difford's recipe" in the title) comprised:
50 ml Reposado tequila
30 ml White crème de cacao
30 ml Cocchi Americano Bianco
10 ml Lemon juice

I also retested my preference for reposado rather than blanco tequila but I still favour the rounding effect of reposado in this cocktail.

History:

I discovered the 21st Century, a tequila-based 20th Century Cocktail during Lockdown, in time for the 16th edition of our book. Regrettably, I didn't record where online I found it but it was only in December 2022 when I learnt, from the creator himself, that Jim Meehan created the tequila-based 21st Century Cocktail back in 2007 during his tenure at Manhattan's famous Pegu Club. A time before tequila's rise in popularity and before aromatised wines such as Cocchi Americano were imported into the USA.

More cocktails by Simon Difford

Nutrition:

205 calories

Alcohol content:

• 1.5 standard drinks
• 20.88% alc./vol. (41.76° proof)
• 20.9 grams of pure alcohol