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AUGUST 2021
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When temps break into the tripledigits, it’s time for tequila drinks
BY kevin carlow
eah, it’s tequila weather. I mean, I drank tequila after nearly every shift back in Boston, no matter the weather, but I never really “got it” until I moved here. If it’s pushing 120 degrees, and your sweat is sublimating off of your skin, it’s tequila time. Forget the dainty tipples of England and the Northeast—the Collins, the Pimm’s cup, even the southside. When it’s hot, you need salt, ice and tequila. I have covered the margarita and its cloudy history before in this column. I touched on the it had to go away and come back much later to Mexican “firing squad” in a column on the great Charles Baker. I mentioned the Oaxacan get any traction outside of Texas. These days, you’re much more likely to old fashioned at some point, but if you order try one at a craft cocktail bar using ruby-red old fashioneds when it’s 118, please seek grapefruit juice (another American invention), help. Let’s diversify your tequila portfolio fresh lime, sugar and club soda. Here’s a basic with some other classics, shall we? template: The Paloma 1 1/2 ounces of tequila, either blanco or Mexico’s favorite cocktail is the paloma. reposado That’s right, gringo: You’re doing it wrong 3/4 ounce of grapefruit juice with those margaritas. At its simplest, this 1/2 ounce of lime juice cocktail is grapefruit soda (like Squirt or 1/2 ounce of simple syrup (or 2:1 agave Jarritos—not La Croix Pamplemousse, and water syrup) please) and tequila in a tall glass with ice, Tall, salted, glass with ice; soda to top. lime and sometimes salt. That was the way Garnish with grapefruit peel; express the oil I first tried this drink, at college in the late ’90s, thanks to a Texan buddy (from YOUThe El Diablo stuhn) and a vending machine that gave out Feeling extra-midcentury? Try this Tiki free Fresca when my roommate tipped it over classic, first in print in 1946 in Trader Vic’s just so. Book of Food and Drink. It’s an easy one. The history of this drink is rather muddy. Some sources attribute its creation to Don 1 ounce of tequila Javier Delgado Corona of the La Capilla 1/2 ounce of creme de cassis bar in Jalisco, or someone by the name of Juice of half a lime Evan Harrison from a 1953 pamphlet called Collins glass, ice; top with ginger ale and “Popular Cocktails of the Rio Grande.” I dug a little deeper and found a wonderfully sleuth-y spent lime shell post on Alcademics debunking both theories. Most craft bars do their own take on this— I thoroughly recommend reading it in its adding mezcal, more tequila, some jalapeño; entirety if you are feeling drink-nerdy. or substituting ginger beer for ginger ale; or I will summarize it here: It seems that Don all of the above. All of these make for a great Javier never claimed to have invented the drink; feel free to experiment. Use vintage cocktail, and Evan Harrison is a bartender Collins glasses for extra credit, and don’t and proprietor in Massachusetts born forget a cherry or two. decades after the drink was popular. Some jokers in Boston apparently rewrote a bunch Tequila Sunrise of Wikipedia pages back in the early 2010s to Add some Mick Jagger to your sweaty attribute classic cocktails to local bar buddies. swagger! He popularized this cocktail in (Come on, people! Like this job isn’t hard enough as it is!) The author of the Alcademics the 1970s, although he didn’t invent it. Some say it was invented at The Trident in piece (Camper English), cocktail history god Sausalito; some say it was created by sleepless David Wondrich and others have sought to bartenders in San Francisco—who knows? find a paloma recipe printed from before My bet is that it traveled north from Mexico, the current century without luck. Wondrich since a similar drink was documented by found a few ads from Squirt recommending Charles Baker in the 1930s. So many roads adding tequila to their soda; these go back lead to Charles Baker. to at least the ’70s. Squirt is an American Forget the dive-bar version, with orange product, created in 1938 in Phoenix, so is the juice from the gun and grenadine from a paloma an American invention? Shrug. If so, CVIndependent.com
plastic bottle. Use fresh-squeezed orange juice and real grenadine (or even just pomegranate juice), as well as a quality tequila, for a nice “eye-opener.” I used to make one with some added citric and malic acid in solution, so the cocktail ended up with more tang and balance.
water. The simplest version is just that, tequila and lime over ice. Other recipes call for sweetened lime juice. Some recipes are basically a margarita with soda water added as it’s consumed. Everybody has a version now, it seems. Try this one.
2 ounces of reposado tequila Collins glass, ice; top with fresh orange juice (Optional: citric/malic acid solution to taste) 3/4 ounce of grenadine, drizzled over the top and allowed to sink
1 1/2 ounces of blanco tequila 3/4 ounce of lime juice 3/4 ounce of simple syrup Build in a Collins glass over ice; top with Topo Chico
Ranch Water I couldn’t end this without mentioning this über-hip West Texas highball. There’s not a lot of history to speak of here, although it seems that it’s been a regional favorite there for many decades. I imagine the name is a take on ‘branch water,” as in “bourbon and branch water,” the low-iron spring water traditionally added to whiskey in the Southern states. In this case, the water is Topo Chico mineral
Then again, you can always just enjoy your tequila “cruda”—with salt and lime (made even better with the addition of an iced-cold Mexican beer). I love a Boilermaker, and this is one of the best. If you can find a place that does “sangrita” (a mix of tomato and orange juice, a little lime, some Worcestershire and dash of hot sauce), even better. It’s hot out, and you’ll need those electrolytes. Kevin Carlow can be reached at CrypticCocktails@gmail.com.