{"id":1278,"date":"2013-02-15T10:01:21","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T15:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/?p=1278"},"modified":"2013-02-15T10:01:21","modified_gmt":"2013-02-15T15:01:21","slug":"south-of-the-border-west-of-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/?p=1278","title":{"rendered":"South of the Border, West of the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tequila\"<\/a><\/p>\n

South of the Border, West of the Sun
\n<\/strong>1.5 oz Monte Alban mescal
\n1 oz grapefruit juice
\n1 oz bell pepper syrup (see below<\/em>)
\n0.5 oz Benedictine
\n2 dashes Aztec chocolate bitters<\/p>\n

Shake well with ice and strain into a coupe. Garnish with a wedge of grapefruit.<\/p>\n

NOTES<\/strong>: This one was a bit of a shot in the dark. Inspired by Cantina’s Tequila Club meeting<\/a>, I wanted to play with mescal, and I wanted to try working more savory flavors into drinks. While the pepper is sweet in comparison to other vegetables, in the context of a cocktail it added a pretty interesting complexity. The drink was overall surprisingly drinkable. Lightly smoky and\u00a0herbaceous, a little tangy, spicy and just a touch bitter. It was a nice change from the norm for me, and while I wouldn’t want every drink to taste like this, it was a welcome difference. Might be well suited for a breakfast drink with some alterations, as well. It’s nice to screw around with something unusual and have it end up better than you might expect.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Orange Bell Pepper Syrup<\/strong>
\n1 large orange bell pepper
\n1 cup light brown sugar
\n0.25 tsp red pepper flakes<\/p>\n

Slice up the pepper, discarding the stem and seeds. Put the pepper slices into a pot with 2 cups of water and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and add the sugar. Stir, cover, and simmer on low for 30-45 minutes. Remove from heat, allow to cool, and strain into a bottle. Will keep for a couple of weeks refrigerated. If you like your drinks spicy, feel free to play with the pepper flake ratios.<\/p>\n

NOTES<\/strong>: While this isn’t the most versatile syrup, and certainly one I wouldn’t want to drink with a little seltzer, I’m happy with how this turned out. It’s definitely a good tequila\/mescal pair, and I’m having trouble imagining it with anything else. Maybe Scotch or Gin. I’d also consider using it in a Bloody Mary variation I think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South of the Border, West of the Sun 1.5 oz Monte Alban mescal 1 oz grapefruit juice 1 oz bell pepper syrup (see below) 0.5 oz Benedictine 2 dashes Aztec chocolate bitters Shake well with ice and strain into a coupe. Garnish with a wedge of grapefruit. NOTES: This one was a bit of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39,139,40,138,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aztec-chocolate-bitters","category-bell-pepper-syrup","category-benedictine","category-grapefruit-juice","category-mezcal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1JYfz-kC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1278"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1301,"href":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1278\/revisions\/1301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homespeakeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}