Happy Friday! As I write this, the website is still broken. The issue lies with the hosting provider, and hopefully they can get their heads out of their asses and un-fuck the site.

On to happier things, this week’s drink. I wanted to do something out of the Please Don’t tell book since I haven’t used that one in a while. Unfortunately, that book is at Forward Operating Base: Cape Cod. So, I went with plan B. That was to go to a tequila drink called the Rosita from the New York Times. In a stroke of good luck, the recipe source is Jim Meehan who was behind Please Don’t Tell. So I consider that a win in my book. Anyway, here is the Rosita:

1.5 oz. tequila

.5 ounce Campari

.5 ounce sweet vermouth

.5 ounce dry vermouth

 Dash of Angostura bitters

 Orange twist, for garnish

Stir all liquid ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

The drink has a fairly neutral nose. I detect the sweet vermouth most of all, with a little bit of campari mixed in there.  But other than that, the other ingredients are muted. No tequila smell to speak of at all here. I imagine the orange garnish would be the most prevalent. 

The sip is quite interesting. Despite having two intensely flavored ingredients, nothing really takes over. Everything kind of melds together nicely. About midway through the flavors start to melt away with the exception of the dry vermouth. The vermouth starts to melt away with the others, but it lasts a lot longer. It even leaves a dry aftertaste for a minute or two when you’re finished with the sip.

I would have liked to add the garnish, but sacrifices had to be made. I attempted to compensate by adding a few drops of orange bitters to the top once I strained it. However I don’t feel that it made that much of a difference in the overall flavor profile, for better or worse. 

Overall I do like this. I was thinking it would have more intense flavors, but I appreciate the fact that it is very well balanced, which makes it quite drinkable. I want to make this again, to see what the orange garnish brings. I’d also be interested in trying this with a smokey tequila. Not a mezcal, since that might be too intense, but a lightly smoked blanco could be a nice touch here.