indian summer

3 Cardamom Pods
1 1/2 oz Blanco Tequila (Casa Noble)
3/4 oz Pimm's No. 1
1 oz Pineapple Juice
1/4 oz Lime Juice
1/4 oz Simple Syrup (Gomme)

Muddle cardamom and add rest of ingredients. Shake with ice and double strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime twist.

Two Fridays ago, it was cocktail time so I opened up our newly acquired Food and Wine: Cocktails 2010 and began to flip through the pages. The Tiki-like tequila drink, the Indian Summer, stood out as quite curious. Jacques Bezuidenhout, the drink's creator, commented that "[he] love[s] the aroma of cardamom, and it works well with the spice in tequila." The Indian Summer reminded me of Joaquin Simo's Bourbon and rum-laden Punky Monkey that we made back in January, and I was curious to see how tequila would fair in a similar mix.
The shaking generated a decent foam from the pineapple juice, and the aroma was lively with young tequila and lime notes. The beginning of the sip was a combination of the pineapple, lime, and cardamom, and this was followed by the tequila in the middle. Lastly, the cardamom appeared again on the swallow as a somewhat bitter and spicy note. Indeed, Jacques was correct -- the cardamom and the blanco tequila's peppery notes complemented each other rather well.