November 13, 2019
Where to find it: Tocqueville, New York City
Price: $18
Creator: Fatima Kuras, general manager
Ingredients: Tequila, brown sugar cube, brandied cherries, orange bitters, yuzu juice
Last year, Fatima Kuras set out to break the “rule” of tequila cocktails with lime juice that inevitably tasted like Margaritas.
“I was behind the bar with my bartender and they were giving me these ideas with tequila and lime juice, but I was like, no, we have to break this relationship. No matter what you add to it it will end up with some kind of Margarita taste,” she said.
Kuras said she had recently been introduced to yuzu juice. “It was such an interesting fruit. It’s so distinctive,” she said. “It’s like if grapefruit, lemon and lime had a baby.”
The bar also had brandied cherries, used in the classic Old Fashioned cocktails. So Kuras decided to give tequila and yuzu juice the Old Fashioned treatment, muddling it with brandied cherries and an orange slice. The cocktail includes a sugar cube — sometimes a dash of simple syrup — and orange bitters. It’s shaken and served over the dirty ice (used for shaking) and garnished with cherries and orange slice.
Added to the menu last year, the cocktail remains hugely popular, she said. “People say, ‘I’m not a tequila drinker but I love it,’ and ‘I’m not a whiskey drinker, but it’s an Old Fashioned I can drink.’ I love that it’s something for everyone,” said Kuras.
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