“I will not use sour mix.” A reminder posted (over and over and over again!) above the bar at Second Bar & Kitchen, in Austin TX.
This is probably a good lead-in to talking about other bibulous notes from the IACP conference in Austin. I’ve already posted about Tipsy Texan’s Rumble Sour, but I haven’t yet gotten into the details of what brought me to Austin in the first place: moderating a panel on Tequila, Texas, and Terroir. (If you care to, you can buy access to video archives of my panel and others here.)
My panelists were local tequila expert/author Lucinda Hutson, who made a fabulous picante sangrita, and bartender extraordinaire Bill Norris.
A couple of nights before the panel, I tried out drinks at Haddington’s, where Norris runs the bar. In addition to the conversation-stopping Duck Fat Sazerac, my favorite drink on the menu there was The Dubliner, a mix of Jameson’s, Aperol…and Dr. Pepper reduction. It sounds unbelievably odd, but it worked beautifully, and put me in mind of the barrel-aged Trident I had at Clyde Common in Portland.
But I didn’t get to try any cocktails made by Norris until my seminar, when he made Diablos, with silver tequila (we used Siete Leguas). Here he is in action, in the “staging room” before the seminar. (Why is the culinary volunteer to the right so distracted? NOLA chef John Besh was in the room too….causing one of the other volunteers to have a celebrity-induced teary meltdown.)
And here’s the finished Diablo:
Diablo Cocktail – from Bill Norris
1.5 oz Silver/Plata Tequila
.5 oz Creme De Casis
.5 oz lime juice
Ginger Beer
Combine tequila and lime juice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain over crushed ice-filled collins glass. Top with ginger beer and float casis on top.
Tipple Sheet 