Oaxacan Lady

Yet another drop down into the equal proportions cocktail rabbit hole. I present the Oaxacan Lady:

• 3/4 ounce mezcal
• 3/4 ounce Bénédictine
• 3/4 ounce Amaro Montenegro
• 3/4 ounce lime juice
• 2 dashes Bitterman’s Xoxolatl Mole bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice, then strain into a coupe.

Back when Twitter had a non-zero signal-to-noise ratio, I used to love chatting and following other cocktail nerds like Ted Haigh, David Wondrich, Brother Cleve (who, unfortunately, is no longer with us but once sent me to a dive bar in Pittsburgh where I got wanded with a metal detector and stinky drunk on amazing cocktails), and others. They were so free with advice to a newbie like me and I learned a lot from them.

Naked and Famous

As a fan of equal proportion cocktails such as the Last Word, I’m surprised it has taken me so long to try the Naked and Famous.

• 3/4 ounce mezcal
• 3/4 ounce yellow chartreuse
• 3/4 ounce Aperol
• 3/4 ounce lime juice

Shake all ingredients with ice, then strain into a coupe. No garnish.

Invented by Joaquín Simó when he was at Death & Co., it is described as “the bastard child born out of an illicit Oaxacan love affair between the classic Last Word and the Paper Plane”, the latter being another drink I haven’t tried, mainly through an inability to source Nonino Quintessentia amaro.

The Mosquito

I am a big fan of cocktails made with equal proportions of ingredients, such as the Golden Dawn and my signature Last Word, so I was really excited when I learned that Sam Ross had created a series of cocktails with equal proportions. His most famous is probably the Paper Plane, but he also created a group of four, all containing sweetened ginger juice, that became known as the “bug cocktails”. The first is the Mosquito.