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Rodeo Ghost

1 oz Mezcal, Fidencio
1 oz Zucca
1 oz Sweet vermouth
2 ds Bitters, Bittermens Xocolatl Mole
1 Orange peel
Instructions

Stir, strain into old fashioned glass with a large cube or sphere. Garnish with a flamed orange swath.

Notes

I personally prefer this with the mezcal bumped up a quarter ounce; the original is equal parts.

Cocktail summary
Created by
Brent Butler, West of Pecos, San Francisco, CA
Year
2012
Is an
authentic recipe
Reference

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/07/rodeo-ghost-at-west-of-peco…

Curator
Not yet rated
User rating
4 stars
(9 ratings)
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From other users
  • Dolin worked very well without being too sweet.
  • a hair sweet, but v. good
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Comments
yarm commented on 1/17/2021:

The SeriousEats article has it as sweet vermouth and an unflamed orange twist; this entry which cites it has Punt e Mes and a flamed one. Not sure what happened.

yarm commented on 1/18/2021:

I found that one too but it lacked a pedigree (BarNotes is a wild west).

I did find a recipe in Drink Me magazine that was a perfect with sweet and dry vermouth. Food & Wine does not mention the sweet vermouth in a Negroni changing to Punt e Mes (they listed every other component "The Rodeo Ghost substitutes bittersweet Zucca amaro for Campari and mezcal for the usual gin. It's finished with mole bitters.") and every one of the restaurant's websites I could find in articles, photos, etc. just lists the ingredient as "vermouth."

I stuck with the recipe as published in Serious Eats despite thinking that it would be better with Punt e Mes. I just feel that there should be a note that the recipe above does not mention the reference link.

Postnote: I just found the cocktail menu from their site that lists it as "grapefruit-infused vermouth" which adds another wrinkle. Perhaps they use Punt e Mes when they're out of grapefruit-infused vermouth or perhaps the recipe has drifted through the years. Also, you can't really propose a recipe to Serious Eats that requires a specialty infusion.

applejack commented on 1/22/2021:

Fair enough.  Due to an unfortunate iCloud blunder I lost some of my earlier bar notes and recipes; I had tried this one at the bar sometime in the winter of 2012/13 and asked for the recipe.  I would note that in the BarNotes thread, someone from Blackbird Bar (which is where Brent previously was the bar manager, and I know that some bartenders worked at both places) chimed in with the authorship and that they had served a lot of them.  I would think they would have corrected the recipe if it was incorrect, but again, not definitive.