Hot & Heavy

The now defunct East Village cocktail den Pouring Ribbons was quite the rogues’ gallery of New York City bartenders during its heyday. Early ownership was a collective of some very respected mixologist types, and the earliest menus were put together so collectively, some of the staff struggles to recall whose drink was whose in its original iteration.

Who came up with the Hot & Heavy? My memory is aided by the fact that I later married the drink’s creator, Jade Brown-Godfrey. This spicy, complex smash stuck in my mind, too, because each of the choices in the recipe landed so well. Putting reposado tequila and mezcal together in a smash was smart; using that honey as a vehicle for spice was even smarter.

Joaquin Simo recalls that the drink was workshopped with Mike’s Hot Honey, but old master of syrups Amanda Elder was able to provide me the Pouring Ribbons spicy honey syrup recipe, which I’ve adapted here for home bartending. The bar’s version used both fresh serrano chiles and dried chiles; feel free to experiment with your own combination of spicy peppers. Or if you want to keep things simple, you can make a syrup by diluting 2 parts Mike’s Hot Honey with 1 part water, adding a teaspoon of white wine vinegar per cup of syrup.

The original Hot & Heavy at Pouring Ribbons was strained onto a large piece of ice, but Jade prefers the classic smash presentation—dump the shaken ice into a double old-fashioned, then add hand-cracked ice on top and garnish. And I always do things the way Jade tells me to! —Al Sotack

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