Mezcal Sour Recipe
A silky egg-white sour with mezcal, lime and ginger, finished with drops of chocolate bitters that play off the smoke.
- Category: Popular
- Glass: Old fashioned glass
- ABV: 13%
- Difficulty: Medium
Ingredients
- Mezcal45 ml (1.5 oz)
- Simple syrup22.5 ml (0.8 oz)
- Fresh lime juice15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Ginger syrup15 ml (0.5 oz)
- Egg white1 piece
- Chocolate bitters2 dash
How to Make It
- Add the mezcal, simple syrup, lime juice, ginger syrup and egg white to a shaker without ice.
- Dry-shake to build the foam, then add ice and shake again until cold.
- Double-strain into a chilled rocks glass.
- Dot the foam with a few drops of chocolate bitters.
Garnish
A few drops of chocolate bitters on the foam
What it tastes like
The citrus acidity leads, smoke dominates the nose and it wears a foam cap.
The technique
Shaking. Anything with juice, syrup, egg white or cream gets shaken: the shaker chills the drink and adds roughly 20% water, and that water is what takes the edge off. Twelve to fifteen seconds, until the tin frosts over. Under-shaking leaves the drink harsh because it never got enough dilution.
Glass and ice
A heavy-bottomed, wide old fashioned glass. Wide enough for one large cube, which is the point: a big cube has less surface area, so the drink gets cold without getting watery.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Mezcal
- The Mexican spirit whose smoke comes from roasting the agave in a stone pit. It can stand in for tequila, but the smoke walks over everything else; starting half and half is the balanced move.
- Simple syrup
- One part sugar to one part water, stirred until it dissolves — no need to boil it. Keeps a month in the fridge. No syrup? Use the same amount of honey, loosened with a little water.
- Fresh lime juice
- Freshly squeezed lime. Bottled lime tastes cooked and flat; one lime gives about 30 ml. If you have none, half lemon and half grapefruit juice comes closest.
- Ginger syrup
- Ginger syrup — grated fresh ginger steeped with equal parts sugar and water, then strained. In a pinch use ginger beer, but then cut the sugar elsewhere in the recipe.
- Egg white
- Egg white adds texture, not flavour. Shake it first without ice (a dry shake), then again with ice. The vegan swap is chickpea water, in the same quantity.
- Chocolate bitters
- Cacao-nib bitters. Not sweet, and not to be confused with chocolate liqueur; it adds a dry cocoa depth to whiskey and rum drinks.
The Story
The classic sour template — spirit, citrus, sugar, egg white — applied to mezcal; smoke and cacao are a long-standing pairing in Mexican cooking, which is what the bitters nod to.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a Mezcal Sour mixed?
- It is shaken and served in an old fashioned glass.
- How strong is a Mezcal Sour?
- Roughly 13% ABV as served — right around a glass of wine — an aperitif or an early-evening drink.
- Can a Mezcal Sour be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a Mezcal Sour hard to make?
- Moderate. A shaker or mixing glass plus a strainer covers it.
The main ingredient here is also a dream symbol: Chocolate in a dream
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.