Honeycomb

Remember that time I went to Seattle? Yeah, me too; I think about it every day… sigh…

But, looking on the bright side, I figure that if I can’t bring myself to that wonderful city in the near future, I might as well bring the city to me! You may remember me mentioning that I had the best cocktail of my entire life while I was there at the Sun Liquor Distillery. Since I really like tequila, their spicy mezcal cocktail with cassis and ginger beer really intrigued me. I ordered it and this is what happened

Bartender: “Have you ever had Mezcal before?”

Me: “Not sure, it’s like tequila, right?”

Bartender: “Kind of, but it’s different from tequila in the way that scotch is different from whiskey. It’s very smoky.”

My Friend: “It’s intense, you probably won’t like it.”

Bartender: “Let me give you a sample.”

Bartender prepares sample, hands me the glass and I take a sip.

Me: “This is amazing! Let’s go for it!”

From there, I got the cocktail and was immediately happy with my decision. The smokiness of the mezcal combined with the spiciness of ginger beer and habanero bitters became the pure essence of the smell of a bonfire in drinkable form. My friends very much disagreed and proceeded to complain about the smell of my drink for as long as it took me to drink it, which was not long for the record. But then again these are the same friends that make fun of me for intentionally burning my marshmallows for s’mores because I like them that way.

But anyway, the next day I found a bottle of the same “firewater bitters” that were in the drink. They’re made by Seattle-based company Scrappy’s and come in a ridiculous number of flavors. So I got the bottle and headed back to the east coast determined to recreate the recipe for myself. After some experimentation, a few of my own touches, and a name rebranding, this is the result. Cheers!

Bonfire Fizz

Ingredients

2 oz. Mezcal

1 oz. Black Raspberry Liqueur, like Chambord

2-3 dashes of Scrappy’s Firewater Bitters, or another hot pepper bitters you can find

the juice from half a lime

ginger beer

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the mezcal, black raspberry liqueur, the bitters, and the lime juice and shake well. Fill a cocktail glass with crushed ice and the used lime half. Strain the mixture into the glass and top off with cold ginger beer.