Our Mezcal Cocktail playlist covers many great and memorable mezcal drinks. You’ll find easy mezcal cocktails and variations of other beverages that are utilizing mezcal instead of their standard spirit.
Mezcal Substitution in Popular Recipes
You’ll find most mezcal recipes make perfect substitutions for your standard well-known cocktails. For instance, you love an Old Fashioned? What if you make a Mezcal Old Fashioned by taking your whiskey and substituting mezcal? It works! Love a gin martini? Use Mezcal. Love a margarita? Use Mezcal.
Why do mezcal substitutions work? Because mezcal is such a diverse spirit it brings many of the “clear spirits” bright flavor and spice profile (like tequila, rum, gin, etc.) yet also have those darker smokey notes more like a brown spirit (rum, whiskey, etc.) Mezcal works as an easy substitution for tequila because tequila is a mezcal anyway. Not all agave species used in Mezcal produce the same flavors, some will bring black peppers or salts or minerals while others may bring more citrus nuance. You’ll find it pairing well with grapefruit, lemon and lime just like a gin.
Not all mezcal labels produce smoke-heavy flavor profiles so you’ll find something for everyone. A mezcal drink as a substitution for vodka works well for those that want to experience something just a bit different. Vodka is very neutral but many of the drinks it is built within work just fine with mezcal. A Mezcal cosmopolitan perhaps?
You can get mezcal in all three age categories: blanco (joven), reposado (rested) and añejo (aged). Barrel aging your mezcal can make it fit well into the brown spirits category. However, even a blanco mezcal works in conjunction with many whiskey cocktail designs. Try your old fashioned, manhattan, whiskey sour and see how mezcal changes the game for you. Take what you know and add variety to your life with the nuances of mezcal.
Plus, many classic cocktails make for easy mezcal drinks!
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