The Devil Made Me Do It……

So I was watching an episode of Bones,and Booth made Bones a cocktail featuring tequila,cassis,and lime juice. He called it a “B&B”. Now Bones tends to screw up everything about Washington DC,so I wanted to see how close they got on this. A quick internet search found that the B&B actually stood for Benedictine and Brandy. However,there actually was a cocktail that used tequila,cassis,and lime,and it was created by none other than Trader Vic himself. So since I just posted some tequila Tiki drinks,I’d be remiss in my duties if I didn’t post this one.

Originally called the Mexican El Diablo,the recipe first appeared in Vic’s 1946 book,Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink,but reappeared with the name shortened to ‘El Diablo’ in the 1968 Trader Vic’s Pacific Island Cookbook. The recipe used in four of his books was as follows:

El Diablo

1oz tequila
½ a lime
1/2oz creme de cassis
ginger ale

Squeeze lime into a 10 ounce glass over ice cubes;add spent shell. Add tequila and creme de cassis. Stir. Fill glass with ginger ale. Serve with straw.

Many folks believe the drink was created for a Mexican restaurant called Señor Pico’s,a lesser known establishment in Vic’s pantheon that has pretty much faded into history. But Señor Pico’s didn’t open until 1964,almost 20 years after its first appearance in a TV book. So this was just Vic making a tequila Tiki drink.

Ginger ale back in the day tended to be spicier than it is now,closer to ginger beer. So modern recipes use ginger beer,with the following amounts:

El Diablo(modern)

1.5oz reposado tequila
1/2oz lime juice
1/2oz creme de cassis
3oz ginger beer

Shake everything except ginger beer with ice and pour into glass. Add beer and stir.

There is also a version that uses ginger syrup and soda water as a substitute for ginger beer. Since I was out of ginger beer,but had a bottle of syrup that I had yet to crack open,I decided to make the syrup version:

Mix #129 El Diablo(w/syrup)

1.5oz reposado tequila
3/4oz ginger syrup
3/4oz lime juice
1/2oz creme de cassis
3oz soda water

Shake everything except soda with ice and pour into glass. Add soda and stir.

Very tequila forward with a bit of berry and ginger. Tequila fans will no doubt like this as you can really taste the tequila’s flavor.

(Now,as a community service,I need to post a warning. I’ve previously used Pratt Standard ginger syrup without issue. I recently switched to The Ginger People Fiji ginger syrup,because the Pratt Standard doesn’t keep as long and has to be refrigerated after opening. But I found out that ginger can have a,shall we say,’negative effect’ on one’s digestive system. As a result,I’m switching back to the other syrup,as it always agreed with me. No idea why the Ginger People stuff did what it did,but figured you’d appreciate the heads up.)

Be careful with that tequila folks.