Hot Lips

Bartender Jessica Gonzalez invented the Hot Lips around 2010 at Death & Co. in New York, where it remained a popular pick among both customers and staff for years. The drink traveled with Gonzalez to the Nomad Hotel Bar when that opened. Being a crowd favorite at one influential cocktail bar can get a drink named a modern classic, but two, I’d say, makes it a shoe-in.

There was a bit of controversy during the drink’s test runs at Death & Co.—after all, it’s not only a spicy drink but one with citrus juice that is stirred, not shaken. This cocktail technique has had some traction since, but to my knowledge Hot Lips was among the early examples, along with other bartender favorites like the Art of Choke. In the Hot Lips, stirring helps avoid the frothy quality you’d find in a margarita, shooting for a velvety mouthfeel closer to martini or manhattan. Or perhaps, more accurately, it’s a curious hybrid of the two styles.

This drink was built around ingredients you’d commonly find at craft cocktail bars, so it does require a little extra prep at home. At Death & Co., there was always jalapeño tequila on hand for a variety of drinks, made with just the seeds of the pepper. I prefer the subtle green notes that the flesh brings to the infusion. Gonzalez’s original version bolstered a shorter pour of vanilla syrup with a bit of flavorful Petite Canne sugar cane syrup, but it works great to simply up the vanilla syrup as I’ve done here if you don’t have a bottle of that 21st-century cocktail bar standby laying around. —Al Sotack

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