Skip to main content

A clarified whole milk cocktail with fruits and coffee for National Mezcal Day

Using milk to clarify your cocktails gives them an elegant clear appearance and great mouthfeel

mezcalita cocktail recipe img 0353 1
Hilton Cancun Mar Caribe

Mezcal is one of the hottest spirits in cocktails right now, and it’s great for making simple but delicious drinks like a mezcal margarita, Old Fashioned, or Paloma. But as today is National Mezcal Day, we’re exploring some of the more ambitious uses for this complex and beloved spirit.

We’ve got a recipe from the Hilton Cancun Mar Caribe, a hotel in Cancun which has its own cocktail mixologists working on ways to make use of mezcal. They have come up with a highly unusual mezcal recipe which makes use of milk for clarification. This technique is mostly seen in clarified milk punch, but can be used with other ingredients too to both give your drinks a beautiful clear appearance and to add a rich and silky mouthfeel.

Recommended Videos

Clarification sounds technical but it’s fairly easy to execute — just mix up your ingredients first, then add them to plenty of whole milk by pouring in slowly. The mixture will curdle, but that’s exactly what you want to happen! Leave to sit for a few hours, then you can filter or strain out the curdled material, leaving you with an elegant clear drink with a great texture.

This recipe includes wine, jam, juices, and even a hit of coffee as well as the essential mezcal, giving you a deep and complex flavor that is enhanced with a few drops of hot sauce and some bitters. There’s also a salt and lime foam as garnish, which you can make by adding a little lecithin to a salt, lime juice, and water mixture and blitzing it in a blender to create a light and frothy texture.

Mezcalita at Hilton Cancun Mar Caribe

Ingredients:

  • Espadín Mezcal
  • Chardonnay Wine
  • Apricot jam
  • Orange juice
  • Lime juice
  • Tabasco sauce drops
  • Angostura bitters
  • Coffee
  • Whole milk (for clarification)

Method:

Mix all the liquid ingredients together. Add 100 ml of whole milk and let the mixture sit for 3 hours. Strain through a fine cloth strainer to clarify. Once clarified, use a mixing glass to chill the drink. Serve in a rocks glass with a spoonful of apricot jam, and top with salt and lime foam.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet is a cocktail enthusiast based in Berlin, with an ever-growing gin collection and a love for trying out new…
Fresh and fruity mezcal drinks for Día de los Muertos
Get mixing with tangerine juice, blood orange, and Sal De Gusano
fruity mezcal dia de los muertos cocktails la calaverita 6

As Día de los Muertos is celebrated across Mexico, the US, and beyond this weekend, now is a great time to try some tastes of Mexico in your cocktails. While your mind might go straight to tequila when you think of Mexican spirits, in recent years there has been an explosion of small batch, artisanal mezcal brands breaking into the US which means that high-quality mezcal is more widely available than ever.

The brand Mezcal Union has two cocktails to celebrate the holiday, making use of fruity ingredients to add a touch of sweetness and interest to the smoky flavors of mezcal. There's the La Calaverita which uses tangerine or mandarin juice, plus some pumpkin spice syrup to bring in a touch of fall flavor, and adds a smoked salt rim to enhance the smoky and savory flavors of the mezcal.

Read more
The Marigold Margarita adds floral syrup to the classic cocktail
The marigold, or Flor de Muerto, is used as syrup in this recipe
marigold margarita 1800 cocktail 770x1024 1 png

Part of the Día de los Muertos celebrations you'll see this weekend to honor those who have died is an abundance of marigold flowers, used to decorate ofrendas in the traditional orange color. The bright color and strong scent of the flowers is thought to help guide souls to visit their families, and the flowers are sometimes known as the Flor de Muerto because of their connection with the festival.

Marigolds are also edible, so they can be used for decorating cakes, cocktails, and other food or drinks. So why not try them in cocktail syrups too? A recipe from the brand 1800 Tequila makes use of marigold syrup to create a seasonal variation on the classic margarita cocktail, using crystal clear Cristalino Tequila for a fancy touch, along with lime juice for sharpness and mango puree for fruity sweetness. The drink is finished off with a tajin rim for a hint of spice, and a marigold flower for a beautiful garnish.

Read more
Mezcal cocktails for Día de los Muertos
From marigold syrup to mole bitters, get into the spirit of the holiday
mezcal cocktails dia de los muertos fo  sforo ddlm 2 1

With Día de los Muertos this weekend, people in Mexico and around the world are preparing for celebrations with friends, including preparing the favorite food and drinks of those who have died to remember them and honor them. It's also a time for tasty food and drinks for the living too, and a great excuse to work with traditional Mexican spirits like mezcal or tequila.

To get you in the mood, we have a selection of cocktails from Fósforo Ensamble Mezcal, a mezcal designed for mixing. The drinks include nods to the holiday with marigold syrup and to Mexican foods with mole bitters, taking advantage of mezcal's smoky flavors to create something special.
Ofrenda Old Fashioned
Ingredients:

Read more