firecracker cocktail

1 1/2 oz Pisco Torontel (Macchu Pisco)
1/2 oz Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal (Mezcal Vida)
1/2 oz Agave Nectar
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1 oz Pineapple Juice
1/2 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram

Stir agave nectar with ingredients until dissolved. Add ice and shake. Strain into a glass rimmed with cinnamon sugar.

Two Fridays ago, I decided to search through Gregory Dicum's The Pisco Book for a recipe, and we decided upon the Firecracker Cocktail. The drink was created by Dushan Zaric at Manhattan's Employees Only and has appeared on menu at the Macao Trading Company where Dushan also works. On the Macao menu, it lists the ingredients as "Barsol Pisco Italia combined with homemade Créma de Mezcal, Lime & Pineapple Juices Finished with Macao’s 5 Spice Bitters." Since I did not have Créma de Mezcal, I used Mezcal Vida and assumed that the agave nectar in the recipe would be sufficient for sweetness; it appears that Macao makes their own sweetened mezcal. Moreover, I am not sure if they dropped the cinnamon-sugared rim in favor of garnishing with bitters. But as we discovered, the cinnamon rim was worth the efforts.
Indeed, the cinnamon on the rim helped to fill the aroma along with the pisco and mezcal notes; as the drink warmed up, the allspice from the liqueur joined with the cinnamon in a pumpkin pie spice sort of way. The lime juice dominated the sip and worked well with the pineapple, pisco, and mezcal on the swallow. Next, the Firecracker Cocktail finished with a lingering smoke and allspice flavor that increased with successive sips. Given the name, I expected this drink to be much more intense; instead, it was quite pleasant. Definitely, the addition of mezcal and Allspice Dram to a Pisco Punch took the drink in interesting directions.