firmin's folly

1 1/2 oz Mezcal (Peloton de la Muerte)
3/4 oz Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat)
1/4 oz Tempus Fugit Crème de Banane
2 dash Chocolate Bitters (Angostura Cocoa)

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail coupe.

Two Mondays ago, I opened up Robert Simonson's Mezcal & Tequila Cocktail Book and landed upon Firmin's Folly. The recipe was created by Dylan O'Brien at Prizefighter in Emeryville, California, in 2019, and he named it after the protagonist of Malcolm Lowry's 1947 Under the Volcano. Since I have enjoyed two other tributes, the Under the Volcano from the Rogue Cocktail Book and the Hawthorne's Under the Volcano, I decided to make this homage to Geoffrey Firmin, the dipsomaniac British diplomat in Mexico. Dylan described how his creation "struck me as the kind of thing a British alcoholic might have drunk in the '40s while whiling away the day."Firmin's Folly opened up with smoke, caramel, and tropical aromas on the nose. Next, a caramel-driven sip flowed into smoky, vegetal, cooked banana, and spice flavors on the swallow.