A peppery, herbal Mexican liqueur stars in a bourbon cocktail: the Vaquero

A wintry bourbon cocktail is given a spicy, herby kick with Ancho Reyes Verde Liqueur, made with poblano peppers. Recipe below.

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]O[/su_dropcap]n our recent trip to Mexico City, mezcal was everywhere. Nearly every bar and restaurant served it, sometimes in elegant, interesting cocktails, but most often, neat, with a simple orange wedge, alongside little plates and charcuteries. The smoke, the herbiness and the slight sweetness are marvelous. Mezcal is so popular in the CDMX that it is even appearing in some beers. We came away knowing… well, a little more than before.

It was because of mezcal that we stumbled on the key ingredient on today’s cocktail. A little earlier in the year, eager to expand our mezcal horizons, we went to a tasting at our neighborhood liquor store. In the ordinary course of things it’s already a treasure trove of tequila and mezcal, but this tasting amped up everything—to the point where we found ourselves a bit overwhelmed. We walked away with just one mezcal, a conservative choice. The thing that blindsided us, our one wild impulse buy, was something we’d never heard of before: a liqueur—Ancho Reyes Verde.

Ancho Reyes is a liqueur based on ancho and poblano peppers. There are two versions—the classic red, made with ancho chiles, which is spicy and smoky, and the verde, made with poblano peppers, which is more moderately spicy and quite herby. They both are very nice!

The Vaquero was created by New York bartender Simone Goldberg. It is a great fall and winter cocktail—warm, interesting, very pretty. And it doesn’t taste like anything else. In this drink, the Ancho Reyes brings a subtle distinctive pepper note. It’s very easy to drink. Among the other cool things about this cocktail is that it shows off bourbon’s fascinating, self-effacing ability to vanish into a mix and create something mysterious and new. For this version of the Vaquero, we turned to the Ancho Reyes Verde, using its herby notes to enhance and flatter the sage.

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Vaquero

Course Drinks

Servings 1 hefty cocktail

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 ounces bourbon (see Kitchen Notes)
• 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 ounce Ancho Reyes Verde, or the red, if you prefer
• 1/2 ounce Aperol
• 1/4 ounce simple syrup
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 3 to 4 pineapple chunks (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1 sage leaf, plus another for the garnish

Instructions

• Put the pineapple chunks and the sage leaf in a shaker and muddle them well. Really smash the hell out of them. Then add all the other ingredients except the garnish. Toss in two or three ice cubes. Cap and give it a good shake for 20 to 30 seconds—the outside of the shaker should get nice and cold.
• Decant into a coupe or a Nick and Nora glass. If you like (and we do), add a nicely shaped ice cube, garnish with a pretty sage leaf, and serve. This is nice on its own, or to sip through a pleasant dinner of small plates and charcuterie.

Kitchen Notes

The bourbon. We used our current favorite, Town Branch, but other mellow bourbons, like Maker’s, would work well too.

The pineapple. We used canned pineapple chunks packed in pineapple juice, not in heavy syrup—pretty small chunks.

It’s easy to up your ice game beyond your fridge icemaker half-moons. We like the small handsome cubes—that are true cube-shaped ice cubes—from these silicone ice cube trays.

PS: Tequila v. mezcal—what’s the difference? To make things a bit more confusing, all tequilas are mezcals, but not all mezcals are tequilas. Max Bonem at Food & Wine offers a straightforward explanation.