Time for a Repo Man.

Repo Man.

Welcome to our third and final (well for now anyway) look at the Margarita and its variations. We’ve seen classic and modern versions but now it’s time for my own twist. As we discussed before there are three styles of tequila (at least once we’re down to the good 100% agave stuff) blanco which is unaged, reposado which is just slightly aged and anejo which is aged for over a year. You could say I’m a repo man* as I find that gently aged tequila to be just in the goldlocks zone; not too raw but also not so heavily influenced by the wood that it loses that characteristic tequila tanginess. While Julio Bermejo ditched the orange liqueur and replaced it with agave syrup I took a leaf out of Sasha Petraske’s book (well, not literally as it’s too good a book to be ripping up) and used honey syrup as my sweetener. But then I kind of missed the oranginess so I fired in some of my home-made orange bitters. You could also use Regan’s #6 (which are similar, if less intense) but if you leave an appropriate response in the comments I might be inclined to give away a few free samples. It might be arrogant of me to say so but I really enjoy the balance of reposado, honey, lime and a hint of bitter orange. I’ve traveled far enough from the classic Margarita recipes to have earned the right to give this its own name and it was a no-brainer for me to name it after one of my favourite films. It’s an intense drink but then a repo man is always intense.

Repo Man.

2oz /60ml 100% agave reposado tequila (Espolon in this case).

1oz / 30ml fresh lime juice.

scant 0.75oz  / about 19-20ml honey syrup (3:1).

2 or 3 good dashes of orange bitters.

Shake with ice and strained into a chilled champagne coupe. No salt and no lime garnish.

Toast Alex Cox for his brilliant 1984 cult classic.

*I actually did do a bit of repossession work when I was younger and quicker but the only piece I was packing was my lunch.