Cocktail Questions: Let's Win a Margarita Competition

Also: First Sip drinks and Second Serving Drinks.

In this edition of Cocktail Questions…

• A special Margarita to win a competition at a chili cookoff?

Do you have a question about cocktails, bars, booze, home bartending, or something else related to the topics discussed in this newsletter? Send your pithy, clear question to me at cocktailswithsuderman@gmail.com

Let’s Win a Margarita Competition…Without a Margarita?

Huge fan of the newsletter—it’s one of my favorite reads every week.

I need your help! Every year, I have a cocktail throwdown with some friends that we call “Marg Madness.” It’s essentially a chili cookoff with margaritas, judges gets a few sips of everybody’s drinks and then determine a champion. Rules are pretty loose as to what can be defined as a “margarita” but basically, there’s gotta be an agave spirit and lime. But variation is encouraged (and rewarded). Past champions include a hibiscus marg, a spicy Mexican Martini, and a cucumber-jalapeño variation.

Here’s the trick: since the drink is going up against about a dozen others and you’ll only get a sip or two from the judges, it has to be bold and memorable. A perfect classic margarita doesn’t really stand out in the format.

I’m trying to come up with ideas for this year’s contest in a few weeks. Any suggestions?!

Joe

Joe, this sounds like a good time and an excellent tradition—exactly what cocktails are for.

I realize now, as I write this, that I may be too late for the competition, given that it’s Marg Madness, which probably means it happened in March, along with the relevant basketball games, which have apparently already been played. (You can tell I’m not a sports person because I had to look this up.)

But there’s always next year? (I gather they play basketball every year these days.) If nothing else, there’s a summer of Margarita-drinking ahead.

Sincere apologies for taking so long. But I do have an answer that might help you and others think about this kind of question more generally. And that answer includes a delicious, unique Margarita-esque drink that might be a winner next time Marg Madness comes around.

First Sips and Second Servings

Your email brings to mind what I consider an important distinction in cocktails: There are First Sip Drinks, and there are Second Serving Drinks.¹

A First Sip Drink is immediately impressive. It wows you from the first sip, with a big fanfare of intense, unusual flavor. A First Sip Drink is tuned to impress on first sight, like the display TVs at Best Buy. A First Sip Drink announces itself boldly, like a Timothée Chalamet outfit. They can be divisive. But you can’t ignore them.

Second Serving Drinks are less instantly showy. They are satisfying above all. They go down easy, with a comforting balance that keeps you coming back for more.

Many of the best cocktails combine both. The best Martinis hit hard on the very first taste—they also make you think about having another.

Or consider the Jungle Bird. That particular bitter, neo-tiki cocktail is a showstopper on the first sip, thanks to the pineapple-and-Campari combo that holds it all together. But it’s also comforting, satisfying, and just plain old delicious in a way that makes you think about shaking up another. And perhaps even another after that.

For a competition with a lot of entries, so as you noted, you need a cocktail designed with the first sip in mind. But this is a gathering of friends, not a panel of celebrity judges you’ll never see again. So even though the judges only get a few sips to decide the winner, the event will probably continue long after the first sips have been, er, sipped.

Which means you also want it to be drinkable, craveable, crushable, and satisfying enough that you want a second serving. You want a drink that you and your friends actually want to drink.

You also have a food pairing. Chili is spicy and meaty. It’s heavy. You need something that pairs well with what amounts to an intense stew.

For example, pineapple.

Or amaro.

Wait…WAIT.

Aren’t both…components…of…a Jungle Bird?²

Yes. Yes indeed.

So my suggestion is that you not make a Margarita.

Rather, I think you should make a Jungle Bird—and then convert it into a Margarita-like drink that fits your competition requirements.

Let’s Marg-ify a Jungle Bird

The Jungle Bird has roots in the 1970s, but it has been altered and updated by today’s bartenders.

Recipes vary, but most contemporary versions look something like this:

• ½ ounce simple syrup

• ½ ounce lime juice

• 1 ½ ounces pineapple juice

• ¾ ounce Campari

• 1 ½ ounces Blackstrap rum

This is obviously not a Margarita. But it doesn’t take too much imagination to convert it into something that meets your loose Margarita-like specs—an agave spirit and lime juice.

To Marg-ify (Margaritify?) this drink, all you really need to do is replace the rum with mezcal. That gives you a drink with an agave spirit base and lime juice. You’re already in the clear.

But we want to make this drink pop just a little bit more on first sip, and we also want to make it more distinctly Margarita-like, so we’re going to make a couple more changes.

First, we’ll swap in agave syrup, used to add sweetness and viscosity in many Margarita variations, for the simple syrup.

Second, in place of Campari, we’ll use Cynar. Partly because it goes so well with mezcal. Partly because, well—you know why.

Finally, we’ll add two small modifiers—a bit of heat from Bittermen’s Hellfire Shrub, and a bit of salt from a basic saline solution. The salt gives the drink a Margarita-like zip, and the shrub gives the drink a distinctive spicy kick.³

Marg and In Charge

Now, I know you asked for a Margarita. And this is not technically a Margarita in the classic sense. But your friends, frenemies, and competitors won’t know that.

As we have discussed, cocktails are as much about storytelling as about craftsmanship. Names, origin stories, descriptions—these set expectations for a drink. You can’t fix a bad drink by setting expectations for it. But you can alter how people perceive or relate to a cocktail by changing how you describe it.

In this case, you’re going to set the expectation that this is a form of Margarita.

Don’t feel bad. You won’t even be misleading them!

Think of this as a Tommy’s Margarita (basically a Margarita that uses tequila, lime, and agave syrup but no orange liqueur) plus Cynar, pineapple juice, and a bit of salt and spice.

So what you’re going to tell them is that this is a…

Bittersweet Spicy Mezcal Pineapple Margarita

• 5 drops 20 percent saline solution* (or a pinch of salt)

• 5 drops Bittermen’s Hellfire Shrub

• ½ ounce agave syrup

• ½ ounce lime juice

• 1 ½ ounces pineapple juice

• 3/4 ounce Cynar

• 1 ½ ounces mezcal, preferably Del Maguey Vida

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker.

2. Add ice, then shake until thoroughly combined, about 10-12 seconds.

3. Strain into a rocks glass over a big hunk of ice.

*20 percent saline solution: Combine one part salt with four parts water in a saucepan. Heat on medium low, stirring occasionally, until fully integrated. Let cool, then bottle in an eye-dropper. Shelf stable, keeps for many months.

The Bigs Have Become Park Pals

Blake was not a park dog, so it’s been fun to take the two of them together.

1. It’s not exactly the same, but there’s some overlap here with Calvin’s explanation for why the second bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs is always his favorite. Most of my thinking on any given issue goes back to Calvin & Hobbes, the most important philosophical work of my lifetime.

2. Yes, yes, I know all too well that there is some argument about whether Campari counts as an amaro or a “red bitter.” We are not going to settle this today.

3. If you don’t want to use shrub, you can use a small amount of red pepper or aleppo pepper flakes, probably about ⅛ teaspoon, though you may need to experiment with precise quantities.