Tips To Create Smoky Tequila Cocktails: Ingredients And Techniques
Tequila cocktails are an exquisite mix because they bring together a really delicious and potent spirit with some rejuvenating and refreshing ingredients for a truly mouth watering mix. Tequila cocktails pack quite a buzz and some great taste. Be it a margarita full of the citrusy taste of lime juice and triple sec, or a paloma rich in fruity notes. Making smoked tequila cocktails then brings into your glass another layer of aroma and flavour which simply enhances the pleasure of enjoying a tipple on a relaxing evening.
Smoked tequila cocktails make use of mezcal, which is a category of spirits made from the agave plant. Tequila is made from agave too and is a subset of this broader category of liquors. A lot of times, this clear spirit akin to tequila, is used in the concoction of smoked tequila cocktails because of its spicy notes and its distillation process that involves roasting agave in the oven to give it a smoky texture. Still, there are numerous other techniques and ingredients involved when it comes to mixing smoky tequila cocktails.
Here are some of the techniques and ingredients that go into making a smoked tequila cocktail:
Using Mezcal
If you are home hosting an impromptu gathering and want to serve your guests a slightly different drink than usual, you can go for a mezcal mix and introduce its smoky elements into a signature tequila cocktail. Use a Don Julio Reposado to craft some quintessential mixes like a margarita or a tequila sunrise and add a splash of mezcal to the drink for its spiced, smokey and intense notes. Adjust the quantity of tequila and other mixes to make sure you arrive at a balanced taste.
Smoking Cloche Technique
One of the techniques that can be used to smoke a tequila cocktail is to use a smoking box or cloche. You can place the cocktail glass inside this cloche and use a special smoke gun to infuse the space with smoke. Once the entire cloche is filled with heavy smoke, you can serve it to your guests who can watch the cocktail absorb these smoky notes giving the whole experience a very intense and dramatic effect.
Infusing Woody Smoke
The kind of wood you would use to smoke a drink would have a role to play in how it affects the flavour of the cocktail. When you want to infuse your tequila cocktails with smoky notes, go for walnut wood or hickory wood chips which add some smoky and intriguing elements to classic cocktails. You can make a spicy smoked margarita using walnut wood because its scent will go well with the tartness of lime and the pleasurable notes of agave in a Don Julio Blanco.
Smoking Mixers And Ingredients
Sometimes, instead of smoking liquor or the entire cocktail, you can just introduce a smoky element into your mixers and other ingredients that go into building the drink. This means, you can bring out your grill in summer time and use it to smoke fresh fruits like pineapples which can then be blended into a juice to add to a fruity cocktail like a paloma. Smoking mixers will give the drink a very unexpected twist because you would certainly enjoy these intense notes but it will take a moment to figure out where they are coming from!
Smoked Glassware
Along with using smoked ingredients or mixers, another fun technique to make a tequila cocktail with smoky infusions is to introduce a sweet smelling smoky note into your glassware. This can be done by using wood chips, a kitchen torch and a wet cocktail glass. The glass can be kept upside down on a fire-safe bed and smoke can gradually be released into it from the burning wood chips. You can pour a margarita or tequila sour into this glass after it has sufficiently absorbed the smoky aroma
