You down with the OLT? When there’s a ridiculous cocktail name, people think it came from somewhere. Yes, because cocktails have to have names, (I went over this already, you missed it) I often have some story behind the name or at least a dumb reason or pun. So when there’s no reason at all, like the most recent one sitting above, people get all weirded out and think I’m not telling them the actual truth. “Oaxacan Love Triangle must mean something. Tell me! Tell me!”

Ok. If a reason existed I would say this cocktail is an intersection of flavors and cultures that all come together. Let’s name them: Mexico. Spain. Japan. I mean, that’s a great list. We’ve got the mezcal, somehow still artisanal which is why it stays somewhat expensive and high quality.

Here’s a quick pit stop. Tom Waits once said, “Fast. Good. Cheap. Choose two.” So, if something is fast and cheap it won’t be good. Cheap and good? Won’t be fast. Fast and good? Not cheap. Anyway, I just thought of that because mezcal is neither cheap or fast but it’s a real damn quality product. It puts a hole in old Tommy’s theory. We’ll forgive him because he’s the one who came up with the gems, “Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends.” As well as, “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.”

Back to the subject at hand. We’ve been obsessed with this certain pot still rum from Oaxaca. It’s delicious and donkeys were involved in the manufacture. It’s called Ron Camazotz.

Anyone with any good taste absolutely loves this stuff because it’s super funky (Hogo!) and has a high ABV (48%). The people who don’t like it? Most of our lame guests, so we’ve got to sneak it in. It’s made like a rhum agricole. Why is this important? Because agricole rhum contains terroir. Yes, the word a somm flung at you the last time you ordered a bottle of wine and made you roll your eyes at the pure pompousness. Pomposity? Regular rums are typically made with the run off after sugar cane is processed. Yeah, at some point someone said, “Let’s make booze out of this shit! Wooooo!” Agricole is different because it comes directly from the plant itself. Didn’t you read the damn link I took the time to paste? C’mon.

So, this stuff is made in a pot still. What’s that you ask? It’s a type of still, dummy. They look like this:

There you go, we’re rabbit holing today. You’ve probably seen one of these before. The raw ingredients are fermented and alcohol forms. The juice goes in here and since alcohol has a lower boiling point than water, you can extract the pure hootch with the right heat, add water, and then call it a day. People have been doing this shit for awhile, try to keep up.

Anything whipped up in a pot still will have more flavor. It’s not like the flavorless, quadruple column distilled vodka you enjoy pounding because it has no discernible scent, you lush you. Read more about it here (the pot still not the vodka) because I’m not pretending to be an expert and all this explanation so early in the morning is chafing me.

Ok. Kosho. It’s a Japanese condiment. Basically Japanese tajin, but wet. Yes, someone else in the world discovered if you put salt, citrus zest, and something spicy together it becomes a nice, tasty treat. The Japanese version typically uses fresh chili, salt, and yuzu zest and juice. Put it all together, let it ferment a bit, slather on whatever you want.

So, I found some of this in the walk in the other day. I like to snoop around in there. Chef Zarah made some with whole kumquats and Fresno chilis. Super yummy. I stole a deli pint of it and started messing around. I thought there would be more but Chef Keith broke a big vat of it, so I made my own. 4:1 Kumquat to Fresno, blended, then 2% salt by weight. Remove the seeds from the kumquats and Fresnos first, ding dong.

Oh crap, Manzanilla Sherry. Well, I know very little about sherry except that manzanilla is acidic and will work in place of citrus (I just got this vision of a bottle of sherry standing on the side of the street holding a cardboard sign saying “Will work for citrus.” Bear with me here, it’s Saturday morning.) while adding a weird salinity. It works so well in cocktails. Here you go, some wine nerd wrote about it, ad nauseam, in the New York Times. Read this. Rejoice.

This post has officially become either very informative or wrist slittingly boring. I was actually going to concoct some tale about an actual Oaxacan Love Triangle. Some fiction, but I had a big dinner party over here last night and have a slight touch of the Irish flu. Yes, a rare Friday night off. Kinda nice and normal.

After all this bloviating, here’s the cocktail specs:

Oaxacan Love Triangle

1.5 oz. Mezcal

1 oz. Manzanilla Sherry

.5 oz. Oaxacan Rum

.5 oz. Fresh Orange Juice

.5 oz. Lime Sherbet

.25 oz. Fresh Lime Juice

.25 oz. Whey Syrup

1 tsp. Kumquat Fresno Kosho

Shake and double strain over a BFR in a large rocks glass. Top with a pickled Fresno chili.