With tequila rapidly growing in popularity, now the second fastest growing spirit category just after gin, I felt it was about time I used it in one our Happy Hour cocktails. That said, whilst I quite enjoy a tequila now and again, I have no idea when it comes to tequila-based cocktails.

The easy option would have been to go with the one we all know, Tequila Sunrise, but that would be too easy and where is the fun in being predictable. So, on this occasion we enlisted a little help from our friends at AKP to provide some suggestions on a world of cocktails that neither myself nor Amanda are familiar with.

A few suggestions piqued our interest but after some taste testing, and a happy coincidence, we decided on one called the Picante. This is in one you’re not likely to have heard of unless you’ve been lucky enough to frequent one of the many Soho House venues across the globe. As it is their very own, somewhat fiery, take on a Tommy’s Margarita and to my knowledge is not served anywhere else… at least from my research, the only references to it I could find took me back to Soho House. I mentioned a happy coincidence involved in our decision. As Soho House is a private members club, as you can imagine, someone like me can’t just waltz in off the streets to view the menu, see the ingredients and it being made before giving it the all-important taste test. As it happens, the day we received the Picante as a recommendation for this blog post, Soho House themselves posted on their website (in response to popular demand) the recipe for this very cocktail. It was clearly meant to be!

Having made one for myself and really enjoying it, I felt it only right that it be the first tequila-based cocktail I shared with all you lovely lot that read my blog. After all, you could not get a set of more fitting ingredients to mix with a spirit from Mexico.

Picante Cocktail Ingredients

• 50ml Reposado tequila [Hutch recommends – Olmeca Altos Reposado]
• 20ml Agave syrup
• 25ml Fresh lime juice
• 1 Chilli pepper (about ¼ inch wide)
• 10 Coriander leaves with stem

Tip #1 – If you can’t find agave syrup (usually in the sugar aisle of supermarkets) then honey can be substituted in

Tip #2 – This can obviously be tailored to your taste when it comes to the size of chilli. The chilli I had was a little smaller than suggested and resulted in a warm feeling with no lingering burn.  

How to make a Picante Cocktail

• Cut the chilli in to small pieces and press in a cocktail shaker with a muddler
• Hand clap the coriander and drop in to the shaker
• Add the rest of the ingredients along with a couple of ice cubes and shake
• Strain into an ice filled glass and garnish with the top end of chilli with stem up

Salud!

Hutch