#sotol

[thelostcanyon]

Sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri), J-six Ranch, Cochise County, Arizona.

[rafaelmartinezdelaparrafan]

¡Viva México!

[cocktailcatalog]

Bright Lights

*Rosé Cava Syrup* Add 3 cups rosé cava and 1 cup raw acacia honey into a pot over low heat and stir until honey is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool before using. Will keep, tightly covered and refrigerated, for up to 1 month.

[humongouscasheaglebagel]

[fatchance]

Sotol. 

[textless]

[drinkacefahz]

“This drink sure is heavy.”

“That’s because it’s so full of mercy.” 

NOMAN’S EUCHARIST | ABV: 35.7% | Yield: 2.56 fl oz | Improved Cocktail, Alternative/Regional Spirits, Old Fashioned, Smoked 

Rinse glass with absinthe (I used an atomizer/mister)

2 fl oz or 60ml Sotol

.25 fl oz or 8ml Yellow Chartreuse

.33 fl oz or 10ml Prickly Pear Elixir or syrup (some are less sweet, like the one I use from Floral Elixir Co. You might want to start with no more than a quarter ounce or even less and adjust to taste)

2 dashes Angostura Bitters 

1/2 dropperful Bittermens Burlesque Bitters 

Some (untreated) Oak wood chips 

Kitchen Torch

ON SMOKING YOUR DRINK:  If you have a cocktail-smoker set like I show, which are cheap to find online, [and usually come with some chips of orchard woods, oak, hickory, etc that are safe to smoke -- remember, do not smoke wood treated with chemicals like you’d buy to build with] I’d stir the drink together over the ice in the glass you’re serving it in, then follow your smoker tool’s directions 

ALTERNATIVELY, if you have a a fireproof surface [like a baking sheet] you can set the material you want to smoke with on it[this works with herbs as well as woods!], set it alight, and place the serving glass over it while you mix the other ingredients briefly with ice in your mixing glass. It’ll be served on a rock, so it doesn’t need too much pre-dilution. Invert the smoking glass, place a large rock in it, and strain the drink into and serve. 

I wanted to really stretch and challenge myself on Wolfwood’s drink in terms of the ingredients used. The fact is, most staple crops we use to make alcohol are incredibly water thirsty. Sotol is a spirit that has been made for ages, but until recently wasn’t broadly available -- in the US, the Texas-made ‘Desert Door’ Sotol will be easiest to find, but explore and look around. Unlike Tequila and Mezcal, it’s made with a desert shrub, referred to also as sotol or desert spoon. It’s not related to agave at all, and unlike agave-based spirits harvest doesn’t require digging up the entire plant -- allowing it to regrow, regenerate even, much like Wolfwood. Yellow Chartreuse is to match the religious order theming, add some more herbal nuances to the grassier notes in Sotol, and is commonly believed to be sweetened with honey, which keeps it compliant with my admittedly arbitrarily imposed restrictions. 

The smoke, herbal alpine liqueur and restrained, southern desert flavors makes this a more complex sip than Vash’s Life and Love. But definitely sweeter than today’s second drink, to post in a few hours, and the third TRIGUN Old-Fashioned/Improved Cocktail drink in this mini blog series, which will be a little... sharper, let’s say. 

[cactguy]

Julius Schepps Park

Dallas, TX

This micropark lies between the Farmers Market and Deep Ellum. I made a quick stop to snap these shots on my evening run.

Nice, clean design.