Naked & Famous

A blend of mezcal, yellow Chartreuse, Aperol and Myatt's Sours. Joaquin Simo made this at Death & Co in New York in 2011: the Last Word with mezcal in the gin's place. The smoke of the mezcal, the herbal weight of the Chartreuse, the bittersweet of the Aperol and an acid line cutting through all of it, in a way that has no right to be as elegant as it is. There is no fresh citrus in ours. Fresh juice in a bottle browns and flattens within hours, so the acid is Myatt's Sours, made here, giving the same brightness every time. That is the only way a drink like this survives being bottled at all. Straight up in a chilled coupe. No garnish. One of the most complete drinks of the past twenty years.