Drinks

Tequila Old Fashioned

Trade bourbon for barrel-aged tequila in a Day-of-the-Dead cocktail

Photo: Jacqueline Stofsick


Even in the cocktail-forward South, tequila sometimes gets an unfair rep as the shot of choice for college kids, or something to hide beneath a margarita mix. But a fine tequila, such as Jalisco, Mexico’s Patrón Añejo, is aged in white oak barrels for twelve to fifteen months, and is a smooth, nuanced sipper. The oak imparts a warmth and depth reminiscent of bourbon. Just in time for the Mexican holiday Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), swap in aged tequila for bourbon in a twist on an Old Fashioned.


Ingredients

    • Orange peel

    • ¼ oz. simple syrup

    • 1 dash bitters

    • 2 oz. Patrón Añejo (or your favorite aged tequila)


Preparation

  1. Over a double old fashioned glass, use a vegetable peeler to take off two strips of orange peel, making sure to express the oil into the glass. Add tequila, simple syrup, and bitters. Add ice—the biggest cube you can find—and stir. Adjust sweetness to taste.


CJ Lotz Diego is Garden & Gun’s senior editor. A staffer since 2013, she wrote G&G’s bestselling Bless Your Heart trivia game, edits the Due South travel section, and covers gardens, books, and art. Originally from Eureka, Missouri, she graduated from Indiana University and now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where she tends a downtown pocket garden with her florist husband, Max.


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