People often say that tequila sends them over the edge.
No, my friend, it’s not tequila that sends you over the edge. It’s the type of night that leads you towards tequila shots that sends you over the edge.
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.
I've tried this drink a few times and very much enjoyed it. Tonight I thought I'd try subbing the mezcal for the other smokey bottle in my cabinet - an Islay single malt. Oh man. Someone needs to give this a name and get it on a menu ASAP.
Scotch and Montenegro, might be inclined to call it an S&M…
10-15ml crème de banane (not some old bottom shelf banana liqueur, but something proper like Giffard) is an excellent addition.
Subbing the lime for ~30ml lemon also fits the flavor profile rather well
Okay wow maybe it's the bourbon (Jim Beam black extra aged) but I really don't like this. I know it's not the best bourbon out there but I think you can tell this drink predates the era of cocktails.
This is indeed a pre-cocktail era beverage in that there’s no fruits or aromatics or whiz bangs to distract the drinker from how blindingly hideous the piss-warm back alley “whiskey” in it is. In the Julep any deviation in ingredients or technique stands out like a sore thumb. The whiskey must be outstanding, the mint ultra fresh and the ice must be almost snowlike in texture. The cup must be metal (preferably silver) because the high thermal conductivity allows a fine film of ice crystals to form on the outside of the cup, letting all the world know that this drink is Very Cold Indeed. The churn should be done with great care, making sure that each ice crystal in the cup is suffused with bourbon (without spillage). You should also use a julep strainer, so that with each sip the snow on top is washed with bourbon rather than sucking the slurry through a straw. A straw siphons off the good stuff, leaving you with a cupful of underwhelming meltwater after a few slurps. You could even wonder if it’s worth the investment in all these novelty cups and strainers and mountain of crushed ice. This is a good drink. This is such a good drink that while you’re juggling the strainer and the rim of the cup and doing your darndest not to spill you forget for just a moment that this drink is what it is because it’s the potable embodiment of the antebellum South. You forget that this drink is so cold because enslaved Americans worked in the heat all day and night, that it’s churned perfectly because spillage meant the whip, and that nobody asked if this drink was Worth It because this is How It Was Meant To Be. Damn this drink and all that it stands for, but oh man is it good.
Keep the sweetness of your ingredients in mind when making this. If your sake is on the sweet side or you made the mistake of buying sweetened coconut water you might want to forgo the sugar syrup entirely, but in my case (dry sake, water straight from the nut and a spirit that’s only vaguely sweet) I cut the syrup in half. The sweetness does round out the flavors in this delicate and delightful drink. In keeping with the theme I gave it a twist of yuzu, works great!