garden of good and evil

1 1/2 oz Del Maguey Mezcal Vida
1 oz Velvet Falernum
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/4 oz Angostura Bitters

Muddle 2 slices of cucumber, add the rest of the ingredients and ice, and shake. Strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice and half-rimmed with celery salt. Garnish with a cucumber slice and add a straw.

Two Mondays ago, Andrea and I ventured over to Estragon for dinner. For a drink, bartender Sahil Mehta suggested the Garden of Good and Evil that he created for the Angostura competition. With mezcal, cucumber, and falernum in the mix, it was hard to turn down especially with how good the cucumber, mezcal, and ginger Olivia last month was. I am not sure if the drink name is a reference to the book and movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil or to something other (*).
The celery salt from the glass' rim provided much of the Garden's aroma along with hints of vegetal cucumber and smoky agave notes. A lime sip led into a swallow that began with the mezcal and ended with the falernum clove, Angostura spice, and a lingering cucumber peel finish.

(*) Sahil visited me when I was bartending the other day and told me it was indeed after the book and movie, but such a long name would be more difficult to say and order so he cropped it down.