lupe velez

2 oz Convite Mezcal
3/4 oz Honey-Hibiscus Syrup (*)
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1/4 oz Honey Syrup
2 dash Dr. Sours Manganero Bitters (sub other spicy bitters or a little hot sauce)

Shake with ice, strain into a glass, and garnish with a sprinkling of chili powder.
(*) A strong 4 minute steep of hibiscus flowers in boiling water. Strain into an equal volume of raw honey, and stir until integrated.For my two shifts at the Convite Mezcal bar, I needed to proffer two recipes to serve that utilized more market ingredients than liqueurs. I took that as a challenge to not use any liqueurs (although I opted for them in on-the-fly requests the second night). For one of them, I selected the mezcal version of the Gilded Paloma; this was a recipe that I crafted on the fly at Drink as a Paloma variation that was a mashup with Death & Co.'s Gilda (tequila, pineapple, lime, and cinnamon). For the other, I was inspired by two Milk & Honey family recipes: the Red Grasshopper at the Everleigh with tequila, lime, honey, and garnish cayenne powder, and the Dahlia's Revenge at the Varnish with mezcal, lemon, honey, and garnish cayenne powder (via a podcast and not the Unvarnished book). I figured that I could opt for mezcal and lime which had not been tried in those drinks and split the honey with another ingredient that I spotted at the market akin to the honey-ginger of the Penicillin. That ingredient was hibiscus flower that they call Jamaica that would add an elegant berry-floral note and a beautiful red hue. Its slightly drying nature required me to add an additional bit of regular honey syrup for balance (see above for syrup instructions). The mix seemed a bit flat, so I opted for something spicy – namely a semi-local (Mexico City) bitters company's mango, habañero, and tamarind bitters – as inspired by the spice element in the similar in structure Mexican Razor Blade. I was in a bind for a name, I decided to recycle the Lupe Velez from the 1934 edition of Boothby; that drink is better know as the Kingston Heights anyways.