This Must be the Place’s Trejo
Chocolate in cocktails – a crime against taste? Not when it’s bitters.
Thanks to chocolate bitters, chocolate has secured a legitimate place in the bar world beyond hens’ parties. “Chocolate bitters can give you all the joy of dessert without needing to bring too much sweetness to a drink,” says Felix Allsop, bar manager at Melbourne’s The Everleigh. “They boost the cinnamon and vanilla flavours already present in rum or bourbon, or give you a much more pronounced chocolate flavour when combined with lighter spirits.” Charlie Ainsbury, co-owner of Sydney’s This Must be the Place, also finds bitters versatile. “Chocolate goes really well with dark spirits. You find elements of cocoa in a variety of dark rums, so to pair them with chocolate bitters is a no-brainer.” His favourite way to drink chocolate? In a Trejo. “It’s a twist on an Old Fashioned, with chocolate bitters and a little float of mezcal. Delicious.” The Everleigh, 150-156 Gertrude St, Fitzroy, Vic, theeverleigh.com; This Must be the Place, 239 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, NSW, tmbtp.com.au; onlybitters.com SAMANTHA TEAGUE
> Combine 50ml whisky (Charlie Ainsbury uses Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve), 10ml agave syrup and two dashes of Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters in a tumbler with ice. Stir for 30 seconds, then strain into an Old Fashioned glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a lemon twist, pour 10ml mezcal on top as a float and serve.