tres hands

3/4 oz Mezcal (A split of Fidencio Espadin & Mezcales de Leyenda Cupreata)
3/4 oz Tequila (Lunazul)
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth (Cocchi)
3/4 oz Campari
3 dash Bittermens Mole Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with a cherry.

After making the Right Hand just shy of two weeks ago, I revisited Sasha Petraske's Regarding Cocktails and selected the Tres Hands from that Milk & Honey 'Hand' series. I was able to locate elsewhere the exact proportions, and I was looking forward to an agave Negroni. The idea reminded me of my first trip to Mexico to visit a tequila distillery. During one of the dinners, my tablemate declared that she really wanted a tequila Negroni, and once I heard that, I wanted one too. Unfortunately, both the server and the bartender at the restaurant did not know what a Negroni was. Clearly they had plenty of tequila and knew what Campari was, but they did not have any vermouth. I was sure that they did, and they invited me to go behind the bar to look. When I found it, they exclaimed, "Ah, Martini!" and thus the language barrier was broken. I ended up making both tequila Negronis behind their bar (to be billed to our table), and later, I regretted that I might have been "that gringo" for I would not be too keen on anyone stepping behind my bar to make a drink. Mission accomplished but not without wondering if I had overstepped my boundaries. Here at least, it was my own kitchen, and my wife seemed pretty excited by the night's direction too.
The Tres Hands offered up an elegant vegetal agave nose with hints of smoke and orange. Next, a grape sip fell into a smoky agave blending into bitter orange swallow with a chocolate finish.