la jetée

3/4 oz Mezcal (Del Maguey Vida)
3/4 oz Cognac (Pierre Ferrand 1840)
1 oz Bonal Gentiane-Quina
1/2 oz Amaro Braulio
2 dash Chocolate Bitters (Angostura Cocoa)

Stir with ice and strain into a glass (coupe here but old fashioned would work too).

I was stymied two weeks ago with power outages on Monday and Tuesday nights, so I skipped making drinks in the dark and jeopardizing the remaining chill in our freezer and refrigerator. Therefore, on Wednesday, I played a little catch-up by making two drinks. The first one was inspired by the mezcal-Braulio combination in the Montañista a few nights ago. From there, I drew influences from the 1910 Cocktail by matching the mezcal with Cognac as well as its recipe structure; the Cognac aspect first came about when I thought of the St. Bernard's Pass that essentially makes a Cognac Black Manhattan with Braulio. Since Bonal pairs elegantly with both mezcal and Cognac, I decided to take that route instead of the 1910's Punt e Mes. For a name, I dubbed it La Jetée after the 1962 French science fiction movie that inspired Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys.La Jetée jumped to the nose with a richness from the Cognac and Braulio and with a smoke and vegetal aspect from the mezcal. Next, grape and caramel on the sip landed on Cognac flavors as well as mezcal interplaying with Braulio's minty herbal notes on the swallow with a chocolate and smoke finish.