BARFLY RECIPES

Blackberry spiced daisy

1 ½ ounces Tapatio blanco tequila

1 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice

½ ounce blackberry syrup (Torani, Amoretti, Monin) 4thin slices of jalapeno pepper, seeded

4 fresh ripe blackberries

King Floyd's Black Lava rimming salt

Wet a thumb-sized patch on the rim of the serving glass with lime juice, then dip the wet patch into rimming salt and set aside. Combine all remaining ingredients in a mixing glass with ice.

Shake two to three times to combine, then pour entire contents into the saltrimmed serving glass.

Fresh berries are actually tarter than they are sweet. When making fresh berry cocktails, a sweetener is often needed to adjust for this (agave syrup, simple syrup or even triple sec). Since fresh berries also don't add a lot of color, berry syrups are a great way to add both sweetness and more color to your drinks. And when working with fresh chiles, remember that a little goes a long way, and while it is always possible to add more heat, it is nearly impossible to remove it.

Soiled dove

1 ½ ounces Cinco Sentidos agave distillate

½ ounce Alma Tepec chile liqueur

1½ ounces pink grapefruit juice

Sparkling water

1 dried chile de árbol

1 dried blood orange wheel King Floyd's sriracha chile salt

Wet a thumb-sized patch on the rim of a tall serving glass with lime juice, dip in rimming salt and set aside. Then, combine agave distillate, chile liqueur and grapefruit juice in a shaking glass with ice. Shake two to three times to combine. Pour entire contents into the salt-rimmed serving glass and top with soda. Stir gently and then garnish with the blood orange wheel and dried chile.

Drinks made with sparkling water should never be shaken once the water is added, doing so eliminates much of the carbonation. Chile liqueurs are more consistent than fresh chiles, which can vary quite a bit in intensity throughout their growing cycle. Be careful with “agave distillates,” as both high-end and low-end producers use the term. Price is not always an indicator of quality, but in the agave distillate category it often is. If it seems too cheap, then it probably is.

Smoke on the water

1 ½ ounces Santo Mezquila ¾ ounce Ancho Reyes chile liqueur

1 ½ ounces fresh watermelon juice

½ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice

½ ounce aquafaba

Pinch of Tajin seasoning

Put aquafaba in a shaking glass and dry shake until foamy. Add ice, mezquila, chile liqueur, watermelon juice and lemon juice to the foamed aquafaba in the shaker. Shake, making sure that foam develops even more on top. Pour into a serving glass and dust the foam lightly with Tajin seasoning.

To make watermelon juice, remove rind of a seedless watermelon (including all white parts) and pulse in a blender until liquified. Mezquila is neither tequila nor mezcal, but an entirely different product (an agave distillate). As such, mezquila's more subtle smoke flavor works better in this cocktail than a regular mezcal.

Although if real subtle smoke is your thing, then a reposado or an añejo tequila might be more to your liking.