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Devil's Soul
Spirituous, smoky, earthy, bittersweet, floral, herbal and complex. I've reduced the original serve by one-third to produce a complex, serious and most...
Doug James
21st April at 05:15
Another great cocktail from Ted Kilgore. I’m a big fan of Ted’s Purgatory cocktail and this one is also a real banger. On the second round I modified it slightly with expressed lemon rind garnish rather than the orange and also added one dash of cherry bitters. Lovely concoction this!
9th January at 19:40
Cheers, Ted, another hit.
8th January at 23:12
Made with bourbon and amaro nonino, which is what I had on hand. The mezcal dominates, but doesn't detract from the drink. I do think that averna+rye would help the profile. I really like that the elderflower still manages to come through the other flavors. Definitely going into the rotation.
19th December 2025 at 21:55
I’ve made this both as written, and inverting the rye and mezcal proportions. I’m a fan of both, but more-so of the mezcal heavier one.
5th December 2025 at 17:59
Yes this is lovely. Sweet and few things going on but nothing dominates.
1st December 2025 at 18:19
Made it with Bourbon (I don't know why, except that I was a bit tired), but it was sensational, and it will probably be even better with Rye. Complex, sophisticated, delicious, and incredibly boozy - this is what I imagined cocktails were supposed to be all about!
14th November 2025 at 18:09
More than the sum of its parts....punchy!
25th October 2025 at 22:06
Made it...it's ok.
24th October 2025 at 15:14
a really good one, I think I'm in love
13th September 2025 at 01:02
I was shocked with the first sip. hard to pick out the notes. The more I drank it, the more I appreciated it. One of the more unique tasting drinks I've had in a while. I liked it.
3rd July 2025 at 15:43
Very complex and delicious. A magic potion in a few ml's
3rd July 2025 at 11:05
Very good. Not quite as good as the similar Bonaparte's Manhattan, which has 4 rather than 6 ingredients.
30th November 2024 at 22:45
Somehow the balance in this is such that you can kill it by overdoing it on the garnish. In my first attempt the smell of orange from my fingers knocked out all the subtleties and skewed the whole drink towards straight orange. A smaller patch of orange zest on take two allowed for a far better drink.
21st September 2024 at 22:47
This is a really balanced drink. I describe it as none of the ingredients are in charge but all do their job in adding the subtle notes as intended. Together they make a new flavor.
18th August 2024 at 07:33
Quite sippable, not really so intense as some have indicated. Rye and Mezcal fight for dominance, with Averna somehow bridging the gap. Aperol lends bitter orange notes that tie together the garnish (originally flamed orange oil, as I understand) and the Amaro, with a bit of sweetness on the back end that ushers in the Elderflower ever so subtly. The ingredients are all keeping one another in check miraculously, but the cocktail somehow lacks a cohesive flavour.
17th August 2024 at 13:27
Glad of the reduced serve: the flavours here are OTT intense!! It is balanced and can taste all the components… but SO strong! Maybe Halloween is the best time for this. Title well earned. One to come back to I think.
2nd June 2024 at 10:54
I used Montenegro because I was out of Averna. 5 stars from me… maybe even 5+.
15th April 2024 at 20:05
Just perfect!
16th June 2023 at 23:26
Love it! The mezcal is present but so are the other ingredients! Small portion though. May need to do 1.5x
3rd May 2023 at 02:19
Had high hopes so made everything at 1.5x for a larger amount. Unfortunately, no part stood out and it was mostly just tasted like sweetened booze.
16th March 2023 at 08:44
I made the full size version and I must say this is just great. And amazingly it came out awesome on first try: I really thought I would need to go back and try many different combination of mezcal/amaro/rye but that was not the case. BTW I used St. Germain, Aperol, Averna, Ezra Brooks straight rye 45%, and Derrumbes Durango.
4th March 2023 at 00:49
Absolutely fabulous!! Love the blend. Used Montelobos that I found after a trip to Mexico this year…
15th November 2022 at 03:06
Substituted Jägermeister (1/4 oz) for Averna Amaro (1/3 oz).
5th November 2022 at 21:13
You should rename this cocktail "The Marmite" given how it has divided people! I love it. Made it with Nonino as I didn't have any Averna; maybe that makes all the difference. Like some other commenters I said "where's the rest of it" so doubled the ingredients for a proper drink.
12th October 2022 at 01:00
Quite nice and a lot more enjoyable than the similar Beelzebub we tried last night. Didn’t happen to have a regular orange at hand, but a garnish of Bergamot orange zest made it sing. Too bad you have to grow your own to get Bergamots.
30th September 2022 at 19:59
Sort of a smoky Negroni. Very nice use of Mezcal. Good one!
5th September 2022 at 04:44
Well, with these proportions, it’s even short in a Nick & Nora. Punchy, tasty, but insufficiently distinctive to merit so many ingredients.
4th March 2023 at 00:51
I know…didn’t fill the glass much…I think I’d used one of my vintage glassware
5th September 2022 at 04:44
Boozy, bitter, smoky, so many things to like. Low volume, high octane. Next time Flamed Orange will be nice, similar to another favorite cocktail found on Difford’s, the Revolver.
9th July 2022 at 01:52
At first I thought this drink was a bit of an unfocused mess, but then I tried adding a lemon peel and it was a significant improvement - really bringing the flavors together.
20th May 2022 at 18:01
Wow. Probably the smokiest drink I've tried that doesn't involve islay whisky. Must be the mescal and the averno doing their thing.