Siesta Cocktail
Perhaps it’s time for a Siesta. No, not the nap enjoyed under sombreros on tropical afternoons, but the complex Tequila cocktail that’s become an international classic even though it wasn’t invented until the 21st century.
Your Cinco de Mayo libation ritual may well do with some updating this year. When celebrating Mexico’s victory over the French in 1862’s Battle of Puebla, think beyond south of the border beers and Margaritas. Despite its sleepy name, the Siesta, an agave riff on the rum-based Hemingway cocktail, will wake up your May 5 festivities.
Katie Stipe was early in her bartending career when she invented the drink at New York City’s Flatiron Lounge in 2006. Pulling from the well-balanced Hemingway (made with lime and grapefruit), she fashioned the Siesta by swapping out the rum with Tequila and replacing the maraschino liqueur with bittersweet Campari. The brisker, livelier result became almost an instant mainstay—one which today has found its way into cocktail books, mixology apps and bars across the globe.
Now a director at Voysey bar in Portland, Oregon, Stipe thinks of the drink as “a gateway cocktail for guests who may shy away from bitter spirits, or for guests who just want to adventure beyond the simple Margarita.”
Part of the charm is that, despite its complexity, the ingredients are easily available and are not particularly seasonal. (In other words, you might find yourself drinking Siestas far after Cinco de Mayo.) While Stipe is the author of the drink, she invites modifications, herself adjusting the Tequila base, the juice levels and sweeteners, even adding salt, depending on guest preferences.
Inset is her original recipe, but as Stipe says, “Nothing is written in stone here.”
