Reposado tequila in the Old Fashioned template.
Why you are pouring this tonight
The Tequila Old Fashioned is the cocktail for people who think the bourbon Old Fashioned is too on-the-nose, which is to say tequila drinkers, which is to say me. Reposado tequila, agave syrup, three dashes of Angostura, one of chocolate bitters if you have them, expressed orange peel and a cinnamon stick to garnish. The agave-and-oak character of a properly aged reposado does what bourbon does in a regular Old Fashioned, but herbier, smokier at the back, more like a desert at sunset than a Kentucky porch.
The reposado matters. Six months in oak gives the spirit enough body to carry the bitters. Cazadores is fine at the entry tier, El Tesoro is the dinner-party flex, Patron Reposado at the showing-off tier. Stir for thirty seconds in a mixing glass with cold ice (not the rocks glass), strain over a single big rock, express the orange peel skin-down over the surface, drop the peel in. Pair with smoked brisket, charcoal-grilled steak, anything that has spent more than three minutes touching real fire.
What to pour it alongside
Steak, smoked brisket, any time you’d reach for a bourbon Old Fashioned but the room is too warm.
Notes
Use a reposado, six months in oak gives the spirit enough body to carry the bitters. Blanco tastes thin in this template.
The recipe
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