Cocktail of the week: St James Bar’s taco

A luxury margarita, with pink grapefruit and lime juice, and peppermint and green chilli liqueur in place of the traditional orange liqueur

This is a twist on the Tommy’s margarita, the now classic cocktail created in the mid-1980s by Julio Bermejo at Tommy’s Restaurant & Bar in San Francisco. Serve with tortillas and salsa to get the full effect. You need to use freezer-cold tequila to counter the warming effects of the blender blades, which might otherwise cause the vibrant green coriander leaves to discolour and turn brown.

Taco

For the coriander tequila (makes 8-10 servings)
375ml freezer-cold tequila blanco
½ bunch coriander, leaves picked

For the drink
10ml agave nectar
15ml pink grapefruit juice
15ml lime juice
5ml peppermint liqueur
15ml green chilli liqueur – we use Ancho Reyes Verde; for a cost-effective alternative, use a few drops of green jalapeño Tabasco instead
40ml coriander tequila (see above and method)
Salt, to rim the glass
1 pink peppercorn, to garnish
1 strip dehydrated pink grapefruit peel, to garnish (to make it, simply leave strips of peel exposed to the sun or in a low oven for a few hours)

First make the coriander tequila. Put the tequila blanco and coriander leaves in a blender and blitz at a high speed for a minute. Filter through a fine muslin cloth (or fine-mesh sieve), then decant into a suitable container or bottle, seal and store in the freezer.

To make the drink, put all the liquids in a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake vigorously and fine-strain into a salt-rimmed rocks glass filled with a big chunk of ice. Garnish with the peppercorn and dehydrated peel, and serve.

• Angelo Sparvoli, head bartender, St James Bar, Sofitel London St James

Source: The Guardian