1) Great cocktail and easy to reproduce. Congratulations on your win.
2) @Simon Difford: so that current and future competitors can get a better handle on how to make a winning cocktail, could you please share the winner and runner-up point totals and how these broke down in each of the subcategories? It would really help.
This sounds really interesting, especially the addition of coffee flavours...
Great!
I used Tio Pepe fino and an Australian gin that isn't quite in the true London Dry style. Added a little more fino and it all came together.
Sooo tasty!
I also tried a simpler variant, using Mezcal only (45ml), rather than Tequila (30ml) + Mezcal (15ml) and it worked great too.
Wouldn't bother with the salt solution in the mix.
Just have a sip, then a lick of Tajin from the rim/side of the glass. Yum!
Great reason to buy my first bottle of Sotol, and experiment a little!
Agree with @Chris Brislawn that if you like Mezcal-like smokiness, maybe up the dose of the Sotol. If you're more of a tequila person, then the stated ratios are fine.
I'm not sure if it is timing or location (Melbourne, Australia), but I found it hard to find Yellow Chartreuse at the moment, and its first recommended substitute, Strega, was sold out as well. So I went with Izarra Yellow (from French Basque country) and found it a lovely alternative.
Happy to get Naked in the Desert with that.
Just made up and tasted a drink that in this context, I might as well call the "Queen's Jubilee Martinez".
Same recipe as above but using a sweet (red) vermouth
1 oz. gin (citrus-forward preferred)
1 oz. Dubonnet
1 oz. sweet (red) vermouth (I found Dolin worked well)
Martinez purists will want to add a tea-spoon of Maraschino Liqueur.
And I did too.
Turned out, the drink is better without it.
Use a cherry garnish as a nod to the Maraschino Liqueur, if you wish.
Enjoy!
Perfect, even without egg, as has been suggested.I used a muscat grape pisco from Chile.
Delish! Very moreish (I had to have one more immediately).
Low alcohol too (less than 1 standard drink according to the above).
I had some fresh, tart Granny Smith apple juice, which kept sweetness down (alternatively add a few drops of lemon juice, I reckon).
A wonderful cocktail. 5 stars from me.
An unusual combo of flavours that I like. I'd go one notch lower on the Campari.
Lovely! As mentioned in the text, there's a lovely hint of plum in this well-balanced drink. 5 ingredients, but widely available -- easy to make.
Didn't have hazelnut liqueur. So used walnut liqueur (Nocello) instead.
Floated a couple of raw walnuts on top.
Worked!
Whether you use hazelnut liqueur (which I'm still to try) or walnut liqueur, and echoing @Kenneth below, I'd say this is a subtle and sophisticated lowish-in-alcohol cocktail that will appeal to many, as it mellows out some of the "hard-core" sherry flavours that not everyone likes in sherry by itself.
Like this! Instead of Cocchi Americano Rosa, I made it with Dolin Rouge (as that's the most similar I had).
Upped the fino by 1/2.
Nice touch with the rose water.
Congrats on your prize.
Cherry Bribe
Cherry brandy, Coconut liqueur, Amaro (e.g. Averna), Amaretto liqueur, Chocolate bitters
Oops... used sweet (red) vermouth. Worked out well!
Nice! More serious in flavour than its gimmicky colour suggests.
Added a little Suze, gentian liqueur, which added not only a pleasant bitter dimension, but also changed the colour towards the turquoise/aqua spectrum, as Suze is yellow.
Italicus plays very nicely with the dry vermouth (Noilly Prat in my case).
In line with earlier suggestions, added half a tea spoon of olive brine and 10 ml or so of gin.
Tried the Monténégro version which was quite nice. The obvious pairing for me was Cynar - vegetal, intense, bittersweet. Worked much better in my opinion. Used a Meyer lemon twist, which is a cross between orange and lemon. Perro de San Juan mezcal. Delish!
Thank you for your suggestion, John!
I had the advertised Vida Del Maguey mezcal, which is quite smokey. Felt I had to go closer to a mezcal 1 to Cynar 1.5+.
Loved your suggestion at that ratio.
I added some lime, as the orange was too dominant to my taste. Next time I would try with tequila blanco, or mix reposado with some mezcal as suggested.
Even more lime juice? Maybe it's because I live in Australia where fresh juicy limes are plentiful, but I found 5/6 oz lime was a little too sour/tart.
Great suggestion. We adored this with the mezcal blend.
Agree as well. Would go as far as a split of 1 oz Reposado to 0.5 oz Mezcal.
Maybe call it a Smoking Italian Margarita ?
Excellent. Be generous with the gin, it easily gets lost amongst so many assertive ingredients.
Delicious, great balance of flavours. Quality artisan honey helps, as does the hint of salt from a top notch Fino (or Manzanilla). Will taste even better in the heat of summer.
Agree, it drinks very well -- and would be best in summer.
I find that cocktails with Fino/Manzanilla (especially Manzanilla) have a unique sea-breezy freshness not found elsewhere. And when mixed they lose the yeasty minerality that some dislike in Manzanilla by its own.
So in the end you substituted 3 out of 7 ingredients? Might as well call it a different cocktail
Haha, Albert! Yes you could say it's a riff and a half! But the result is in the same, uhm... spirit.