ashes in our mouths

1 1/2 oz Sombra Mezcal (Peloton de la Muerte)
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Ancho Reyes Chile Liqueur
1/2 oz Zucca or Sfumato (Sfumato)

Stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with a grapefruit twist.Two Saturdays, I was flipping through the KindredCocktails database when I spotted the Ashes in Our Mouths by user Applejack from Chicago in 2016. Applejack took the name from a line in President JFK's 1962 Cuban missile crisis speech where he, according to one historian, "walked a rhetorical tightrope between the language of diplomacy and the language of war." Kennedy declared, "We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth, but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced." Overall, the combination reminded me of Raines Law Room's Comanche Club minus its Campari component. Once prepared, the Ashes in Our Mouths began with a grapefruit, smoke, and herbal bouquet. Next, grape and dried fruit notes on the sip launched into smoky mezcal, earthy, bitter, dried pepper, and spice flavors on the swallow.