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Cocktail stories: Mirror Margarita
Making agave spirits accessible is what Hacha is all about and the bar’s Mirror Margarita should appeal to the most hesitant Tequila drinker.
Founder of London agave spirits bar Hacha, Deano Moncrieffe
“I’ve made a few decent cocktails over the years, but hands down the Mirror Margarita is the best,” says Deano Moncrieffe, founder of agave spirits bar Hacha. The London drinking den opened in May and has since found fame with its signature serve – a perfectly clear twist on the Margarita.
Made with a blend of blanco Tequila, cane syrup, malic acid and a citrus oil solution, Moncrieffe says the cocktail combines aspects of the classic Margarita and the Tommy’s Margarita to “represent everything the Margarita is”.
While creating the cocktail, Moncrieffe says selecting the right souring agent was a challenge, and he found himself on a “mission to clarify”. Soon he found traditional lime juice would be too inconsistent so went in search of alternative acids. He says: “I found out that the agave plant itself naturally produces malic acid at night time. So I thought that was the key – it seemed like the obvious choice.”
Once the malic acid was in place, Moncrieffe needed something sweet to balance out the cocktail. He wanted to honour the spirit that he says would have been used to create the first Margaritas – mixto Tequila. “In mixto Tequilas, nine times out of 10 a cane spirit is the second spirit used. That’s why I wanted to use the cane syrup instead of agave syrup.”
Moncrieffe says finding the balance between sweet and sour, and incorporating the Cointreau and citrus flavours synonymous with the cocktail, “took ages”. But now it is on the menu, he says the Mirror Margarita is “the cocktail that has given [him] the most pleasure in watching people drink. The first reaction is always ‘it looks like water’. The second is ‘oh my God, that is amazing’, and the third is people saying ‘I could drink a few of those’.”
Click through to the next page for a list of ingredients and how the Mirror Margarita is made.
Hacha’s Mirror Margarita
Ingredients
50ml Don Julio Blanco Tequila
20ml Hacha Sour Mix
1 spritz of citrus oils
Method
Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass, fill with ice and stir to chill. Strain over cubed ice and garnish.