How To Stay Au Currant
I wrote about this style of drink in my Mixology Crash Course, in which I discuss the use of whole fresh fruits. Indeed, there are bloggers who have built their entire oeuvre on this one drink formula. And why not? Drinks in this format are delicious, unchallenging, and appealing to almost everyone. The key is to use fresh, high quality seasonal produce.
Your local Safeway/Albertsons/Vons sells low-tier produce that's been designed and bred for appearance and durability at the expense of flavor. If I may step on a soap box for a second, it's garbage-in, garbage-out, and the berries, stone fruits, etc., at most supermarkets are bland and awful. Farmer's markets and grocers that stock foods from local farms are integral to the success of fruit-based drinks.
The greatest chef in the world will struggle to make a good sauce, if constrained to mediocre industrial produce. A perfectly ripe peach, picked at the height of its season, needs no adornment to be a match for the finest meal from a 3-starred Michelin restaurant.
How To Stay Au Currant
2 oz reposado Tequila
A handful of black currants
.5 oz simple syrup
.5 oz fresh lime juice
1 dash of Absinthe
Muddle the currants, shake it all over ice, and then pour over crushed ice into a large glass.
Garnish with red or black currants.
The astute observer will recognize this as a twist on the classic El Diablo, though I have rendered it according to my own taste. I have omitted the ginger beer, and replaced it with a dash of absinthe, to serve as the herbal element. Anise and fennel are a natural complement to black currant, and this substitution exploits the combination.
Ginger beer is a bully that crowds out everything else in the glass, which is why it is ideally suited to the Moscow Mule, and why its presence in the original El Diablo is suboptimal.
Instead of creme de cassis, I used fresh black currants, which yield both lovely pink color and a sweet earthy flavor that pairs beautifully with vegetal, smokey tequila. I found that I had to make several.
Cheers.