Welcome to the second cocktail recipe ever posted on Down in the Hollow! I concocted our house margarita recipe last year…or was that 2019? Y’all, it’s been a doozy since 2020 trying to figure out what happened when. But I’m back at it tonight conducting a test kitchen to create a cocktail for an upcoming tapas night I’m cooking for friends. Just as I did when I was coming up with the “Hollowrita,” I laid out a bunch of ingredients I thought might taste good together and then set to work. I knew I wanted it smoky and sweet, hence choosing a Mezcal over a tequila. Now, here’s the thing I’m going to preface this cocktail with and it has to do with the “sweet” component. You’ll see on the recipe that I included an option ingredient of simple syrup. I think most people like their cocktails to be a bit on the sweeter side and if that’s you, then simple really cuts through the spice and smoke. I made a version with the simple but I honestly like this cocktail a lot better without it. Simple is always a little too sweet for me and it always leaves my tongue feeling a little furry…you know what I’m saying. But without the simple, this cocktail is spicy, smoky, fresh with that zap of grapefruit and lime and crisp because it’s topped with mineral bubbles. Yowza. It’s honestly dangerous that’s how good it is (without the simple imo, but you do you, boo).

Also, can we just acknowledge that by the time I got around to being able to do this and trying to take photos of it that it was EIGHT P.M. at night?! K, so….if you think the lighting is terrible that’s because it is and I used my ring light to help but ya know, que sara sara am I right?

Sidebar: unintentional smiley face happening on my plate of Tajin. Truly that just encompasses how I feel about Tajin. Have y’all ever heard the Frank’s RedHot sauce commercials with the elderly woman that says, “Franks RedHot! I put that sh*t on everything!” …that’s basically me with Tajin. If you know, you know.

Alright, alright I’m not technically a food blogger so I don’t feel moralistically compelled to make you read through 18 chapters of absolutely nothing before getting to the recipe so here she is! If you hover your mouse over the image, you’ll see that a Pinterest logo will appear in the top corner. Sharing this recipe on Pinterest will not only 1) allow you to save the recipe for later because you know you’re going to be making this all summer long but also 2) it helps the reach and growth of Down in the Hollow so you can feel like you’ve done a good deed for the day! 🙂

Yeah, buddy, make mine a double!

XOXO, Thessali

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