The method
How to make it
Rim half a rocks glass with smoked sea salt, this drink earns the fancy salt.
Combine mezcal, lime juice, orange liqueur and agave in the shaker.
Fill with ice and shake hard for 12 seconds.
Strain over one big cube in the rimmed glass.
Garnish with a half wheel of orange, its sweetness plays against the smoke better than lime does.
The serve
How to present it
Rocks glass, big cube, smoked salt glinting on the rim. Let people smell it before they sip, mezcal announces itself from a foot away. This is a slow margarita for conversation, not a frozen-machine crusher.
Make it yours
Swaps & variations
Half mezcal and half tequila is the trainer-wheels version and honestly a great drink. Grapefruit juice instead of orange liqueur leans Paloma. A jalapeno coin in the shaker turns it into a campfire with opinions.
Keep pouring
