20ml bourbon whiskey (Maker’s Mark)
2 dashes mole bitters (homemade)
Rinse tumbler with mezcal and insert one large cube of ice. Stir remaining ingredients over ice and strain into glass. Garnish with a cut red chili pepper.
I love and have always loved chili peppers and the heat that comes with them; be it in Indian, Latin or Asian food or even just by the teaspoon when it comes to sauce. I have quite a tolerance to capsaicin and the unique smell that a freshly cut chilli has - similar to other peppers but grassier and more pungent. When I learned that Ancho Reyes existed I immediately put it on my wishlist.
The liqueur itself is great, it has that fresh chili smell and a gentle heat which allows it to play incredibly well with agave spirits, but I’ve found it also works well with bourbon and rye. I quickly swapped it for sweet vermouth in a Manhattan and while this was great at adding a different note of depth, I wanted more chili flavour. Drinking it on the rocks I noticed that while a liqueur it isn’t overly sweet, and had the idea to flip the Manhattan blueprint upside down, using whiskey to support the liqueur and swapping out the Angostura bitters for my newly bottled homemade mole ones. Add a mezcal rinse for some smoke (the original name for this was a Fire Ant) and finish off with a chili garnish.
The Dust Devil starts with the olfactory sense, the mezcal hitting the nose with the grassy notes of the chili (this one was especially pungent) keeping it light and refreshing while hinting at the contents of the glass. The initial taste is a mix of the liqueur and the sweeter notes of the bourbon headed by alcohol heat, which give way to the depth of the spice within the Ancho Reyes and finishes with a slow-building burn. While this won’t be for everyone, personally, it hits all the right notes.
Original recipe © Ben Talbot, 2018.
