Ingredients for Cardenal Sazerac:
- 60 ml Cardenal Mendoza Solera Gran Reserva
Production:
Chill the glass with ice and scent it with absinthe.In a mixing glass, add the syrup, bitters, and Cardenal Mendoza Gran Reserva brandy; stir for 30 seconds. Remove the ice and absinthe from the glass and pour in the mixture; smoke it with a tobacco leaf.
Ingredients for Carajillo 'quemao':
- 20ml Cardenal Mendoza Angelus
Production:
In a coffee cup, add a tablespoon of brown sugar, Angelus Cardenal Mendoza, and a 1-cm strip of orange peel. Heat it up and set it on fire; let it burn for a few seconds, then stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the shot of espresso.
For this recipe, I drew inspiration from my early days behind the bar, when the “old-timers would come in after lunch and say to me: ‘Hey, kid! Coffee, a drink, and a cigar!’ I also wanted to pay homage to my favorite cocktail, the Sazerac. I wanted to make it smoother on the palate by adding chocolate bitters to the recipe and smoking it with fresh Cuban tobacco leaves so that the aroma of tobacco could be detected on the nose.I paired it with a “quemao” carajillo from Angelous, which is a way of preparing coffee that’s very popular in the Alicante, Murcia, and Albacete area where I grew up.
I’m very happy with the result; I try to honor my beginnings behind the bar and where I am now, and I think those “old-timers” would have been very pleased with the result.
