Here’s a sophisticated take on a tequila drink, with a nice dryness balanced by the dark sweetness of cherries. Try different tequilas – I’ve enjoyed blanco here but aged reposado works as well.
If you haven’t already sampled one, I suggest you turn back to my chapter on whiskey and give the Paper Plane a try. That drink is equal parts bourbon, bittersweet Aperol, Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice, and Amaro Nonino. Here, we go with a Mexican- influenced version, subbing tequila for bourbon. It has no grapefruit, but you would swear that was half the ingredients. Avion de Papel is a super refreshing and worthy variant of a modern classic.
Drinking a cocktail out of a clay planter? Well, yes, I’d love to! I first enjoyed a Cantorito at the now- defunct El Mexicano, an authentic Mexican joint in our neighborhood. And yes, it was served in a shallow clay pot with multiple straws. Basically, it’s a Mexican- inspired Scorpion Bowl In the end, the Cantarito is a dressed-up margarita, using various fruit juices and sweetened by soda. You can use the less- sugary Squirt or even use Topo Chico grapefruit flavor, although you might need to slip a 1/4 oz. of simple syrup into the drink if you do.
Here’s another Last Word varient, keeping the equal ratios and subbing tequila for gin. In a lot of ways, I find this an interesting improvement on the original where gin’s botanicals are replaced with the grassy and mineral notes of a great blanco tequila.
