Poquito Picante
A little heatA little heat. More than a little grace.
This drink has no history beyond the table at which it was first made — a late evening, a well-stocked bar, and the particular mood that descends when the formal business of a gathering has concluded. It was mixed by a member who has requested no attribution, served to four people, and consumed in a silence that members present have described as "the kind you get when something is unexpectedly correct." It has been served at every Boar Moon Supper since.
Ingredients
- 3 rounds
English cucumber
Center cuts, not the ends. Where the water content is highest and the flavor is least aggressive.
- 4 leaves
Fresh cilantro
Not the stems, not pressed, not torn. Laid flat. A presence, not a flavoring agent.
- 2 slices
Fresh jalapeño
Seeds intact if the evening calls for it. Seeds removed if it does not. Read the room.
- 2 oz
London Dry gin
Contemporary style, citrus-forward, clean and almost transparent.
- ¾ oz
Cointreau
Not a generic triple sec. Specifically Cointreau.
- ¾ oz
Fresh lemon juice
Bright, direct, cold.
A half-bar-spoon of fresh cucumber water — juice extracted by blending cucumber and straining through muslin. Its absence, once you have had it, is immediately apparent.
Method
Place cucumber rounds, cilantro leaves, and jalapeño slices in the base of a shaker.
Muddle gently — not aggressively. The goal is persuasion, not destruction.
Add gin, Cointreau, and lemon juice.
Add ice. Shake hard — harder than seems necessary, then harder than that.
Double strain through a fine mesh strainer into a chilled coupe. Strain with patience. Do not press.
Garnish with a single whole jalapeño rested across the rim. It is observed whether you take it.
The drink is, as advertised, beyond smooth. Members have described the first sip as "the moment before you realize it has already started." The jalapeño on the rim has been taken by six members across its history. Three of them took it again.