The Holy Trinity Cocktail

This drink was born from my love for a Tequila Old Fashioned, my personal favorite of the ‘fashions.

Clearly, I had to come up with some sort of twist. I knew that I wanted to work with dried chiles, and the first dish to come to mind was Mole Negro. Mole is a deeply spiced, earthy, fruity, and savory salsa that pairs exceptionally well with chicken. It uses a base of three dried chiles (known as the holy trinity) and a large variety of spices, cacao, citrus to create one of the deepest and most complex flavor profiles in a dish.

The Holy Trinity Cocktail takes the base components of Mole and incorporates them with cocktail ingredients that mirror those complex spice elements. Amaro Averna adds depth, sweetness, and bitterness, while Chocolate Bitters represent, well, the cacao.

I love bringing culinary elements into cocktails, but I still want it to drink like a cocktail. Mole also uses garlic and oregano, but to me, none of those would make a nice drink (well, they wouldn’t make this drink nice).

Cocktail Spec

1oz Guajillo-Infused Tequila Reposado
0.5oz Ancho-Infused Mezcal
0.5oz Pasilla-Infused Sotol
0.25oz Amaro Averna
1 Barspoon 2:1 Rich Demerara Syrup
3 Dash Spiced Chocolate Bitters (The Bitter Truth)
Saline to your liking
Orange Twist Garnish

Method

When it comes to the infusion, there’s plenty of room to play. My “agave blend” is what has worked for me; I haven’t tried every possible blend, this is where my intuition brought me. My first version used only Tequila Reposado, but the Malpractice version brings in a “trinity” of agave spirits because, well, that just feels right at Malpractice.

I’ve had mixed results using the typical clear plastic bagged chiles in the Mexican food section of the supermarket. I’ve had better results using unlabeled bagged chiles from a proper Mexican-style Mercado (I use La Oaxaqueña here in Portland).

Deseed and remove as much pith from the chiles to prepare for the infusion. You’ll get the perfect amount of spice if absolutely all of the seeds are removed, it can become too spicy otherwise. I sit down with the bags, some latex gloves and break them apart over a bowl, it takes some time but a little goes a long way and the chiles will keep for later batches.

In 32oz mason jars measure 750ml of Sotol in one, 750ml of Mezcal in another, and 1500ml of Tequila Reposado into two jars. Add prepared chiles into desired jars, following my blend or your own. As for amount, I add enough for the jar to feel full but not packed tight.

At the bar we infuse everything together (see image below), using these weights:

50g Guajillo,
40g Ancho,
20g Pasilla/Chile Negro.

This works for us because we batch the entire cocktail, but for the home bar, I think it’s fun to keep the infusions separate. This allows you to experiment with different ratios or use the infusions in other drinks. The Guajillo infusion, for example, makes a great highball or fizz.

Let the infusions stand at room temperature for 48 hours, agitating occasionally. You’ll notice a beautiful color change as the flavors extract.

Taste each infusion to make sure there isn’t one that’s wildly spicy, typically that’s not a problem. Blend all of the infusions into a large container, straining through a fine mesh. It’s ideal to use a coffee filter as well to remove the fine sediment from the chiles. There will be some loss absorbed by the chiles, reliably I have a bit more than 2500ml of the Infusion and follow this batch before bottling: