This cocktail is just as rock and roll as its name suggests.
Described by its creator Joaquin Simo of Death & Co in New York, as the bastard love child
of a classic Last Word and Sam Ross's Paper Plane, conceived in the mountains of Oaxaca.
One of those drinks we have covered and the other we definitely need to so hit subscribe
if you haven't yet and let us know in the comments if you'd like to see that, but this drink uses the
easy equal parts formula of its forebears, with some rather interesting ingredients.
The result is amazingly complex while still being really fresh and approachable.
The Aperol is really the linchpin here it's not just for spritzes
the savory smoke of the mezcal and then the herbaceousness of the Chartreuse,
if I didn't just make that word up, are pretty full on and so the gentle orange
bittersweet amaro provides kind of a mellow backdrop for them to fight it out.
I do enjoy that Aperol is so well loved now that it can tempt people who wouldn't
normally go for the other ingredients and so I do often use it as an introduction to
mezcal, because it is still very zingy and refreshing with just a little hint of smoke.
That said my own favorite version of this drink is made by my friend Josh Crawford here in Melbourne,
and he let me into the secret that he does a full shot of mezcal and half a shot of everything else.
He and I are kind of mezcal fiends though, but if you are too
then you should definitely try it that way because it's delicious.
The Aperol and yellow Chartreuse are really a given. Green Chartreuse is a bit too intense
and boozy to balance properly, although in a pinch you can try it in a smaller quantity.
Regular viewers will know that I always advocate using good quality agave spirits,
but it's not the star of the show here so you don't have to go crazy.
It also doesn't have to be anything with too much smoke as you just want a little hint, at least in
my opinion, which is actually the direct opposite advice of the cocktails creator as he likes to
go for something big and aggressive like Del Maguey's Chichicapa so you can choose your side,
but Vida or Quiquiriqui are my go-to cocktail mezcals as they're not too expensive but still
properly made. I'm gonna go with Quiquiriqui here because I find it a bit less smoky and
more on that kind of vegetal and savoury side which I like to keep the drink fresh.
There's no garnish necessary for this one because the color is awesome but a
dehydrated lime wheel does kind of finish it off nicely so I'll keep that ready to the side here.
We do need some fresh lime juice so let's get that ready.
So we're going to go 20 mils of Aperol.
20 mls of Quiquiriqui. Fun to say fun to drink.
20 ml of yellow Chartreuse.
And 20 mls of lime juice.
Then we're going to fill our shaker tin up with ice.
And shake it.
Decided to go for some suitable early naughties glassware here and do a little
martini glass rather than my coupe. Nice and glamorous and celebrity appropriate.
And yeah such an awesome bright color that it's pretty kind of
garnished as it is but you can just drop a little dehydrated lime wheel on there to finish it off.
The Naked and Famous, so now you know.
Better give this one a taste, but certainly stands out in the crowd.
It's really good. It's um, it's got like a real kind of like juicy tangerine,
tangerine kind of satsuma like quite a floral orange note to it because you know as much as
I guess people think of mezcal as being quite big and aggressive it does have
a lot more kind of delicate notes as well and I think that the Chartreuse
and the Aperol really kind of help it show that gentle side a little bit.
And you know the Aperol does hold its own like I don't feel
bad for kind of sneaking this in front of Aperol drinkers because it's not like
it gets overpowered at all you know you're pretty you know aware that you're drinking Aperol
so just that really kind of like pleasant and mellow bitterness at the end.
Yeah definitely, a really fun one if you do like those kind of
bright and fresh sort of you know margaritas or something like that then
this is such a good idea to kind of mix things up a little bit maybe try something a new product
whether it's mezcal or Chartreuse that you haven't before it's a really approachable way to do that.
So zingy!