devotion & desire

1 oz El Buho Mezcal (Peloton de la Muerte)
1 oz Campari
1 oz Cynar

Stir with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with an orange twist.

Two Wednesdays ago, I uncovered a set of online recipe flashcards for the Sinclair in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I locked into the oddball Mezcal Negroni of sorts called the Devotion & Desire from the Winter 2018 menu which reminded me of the Cynarita with tequila, Smoke & Mirrors with aquavit, and Bottechia with Fernet. Moreover, the combination of Campari and Cynar as the modifiers was one that I utilized in 2020 in the Pinball Racket. Through Instagram, I learned that the drink was created by Geo Thompson who managed the rock club-restaurant establishment around that time, and he described how they had a menu full of "classic riffs named after songs by bands that played there recently or upcoming. Devotion & Desire is a song by [the band] Bayside. The goal was to introduce the bartenders to some classics with goal of building knowledge out from there."In the glass, Devotion & Desire began with an orange, caramel, vegetal, and smoke aroma. Next, Cynar's caramel filled the sip and was followed by smoky, vegetal, bitter orange, and herbal flavors on the swallow.