Recipe

The Brisita: Margarita, Mule, and Paloma Meet in One Breezy Cocktail

Name: The Brisita
Prep time: 75 min
Yield: 1 cocktail
Cuisine: Southern
Ingredients: 1½ oz blanco tequila; ½ oz. Aperol; ½ oz. ginger syrup (recipe follows); ¾ oz. lime juice; 1 bunch mint; Soda water; ½ lb. ginger root; 5 oz. granulated sugar

The Ariston in Nashville shakes up a handful of classics for its own tequila and Aperol–laden cooler

By Gabriela Gomez-Misserian
Recipe by Alex Howard

July 31, 2025

Photo: Victoria Quirk

For Alex Howard, the beverage director and cofounder of Nashville bar the Ariston, classic cocktails offer a mine of inspiration from which to spin entirely new recipes. The punchy lime of a margarita, gingery zip of a Moscow mule, and tart acid of a paloma come together in Howard’s crushable Brisita, a drink that hits all the right mouth-tingling notes with help from citrus, Aperol, and a DIY ginger syrup. “Brisita translates to ‘little breeze’ in Spanish,” he says. “It’s easy-drinking and refreshingly light.”

The Brisita

Yield: 1 cocktail

For the cocktail

- 1½ oz blanco tequila
- ½ oz. Aperol
- ½ oz. ginger syrup (recipe follows)
- ¾ oz. lime juice
- 1 bunch mint
- Soda water

For the ginger syrup (Yield: 1 cup)

- ½ lb. ginger root
- 5 oz. granulated sugar

Preparation

Make the ginger syrup: Peel fresh ginger root and juice using a cold-press juicer, or blend smoothly in a blender with 1½ cups distilled water. Strain the ginger juice, then let it settle for at least an hour so the starch separates off. Blend remaining juice with sugar until sugar is fully dissolved. This will make 1 cup of ginger syrup—save some in the fridge for a cocktail, lemonade, or latte.
Make the cocktail: Combine tequila, Aperol, ginger syrup, lime juice, and mint in a cocktail shaker. Press with a muddler, then add ice. Shake hard and strain into a chilled Collins glass filled with fresh ice. Top with soda water and garnish with a mint bouquet.

Gabriela Gomez-Misserian, Garden & Gun’s digital producer, joined the magazine in 2021 after studying English and studio art in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. She is an oil painter and gardener, often uniting her interests to write about creatives—whether artists, naturalists, designers, or curators—across the South. Gabriela paints and lives in downtown Charleston with her golden retriever rescue, Clementine.