The Rise of Strange Spirits: Where to Drink Mezcal and Absinthe in Detroit

Sometimes you try and order a cocktail only to find that you don’t recognize half the ingredients in the drink. That’s OK; with Detroit's cocktail revival in full swing, it means that bartenders are getting playful and experimenting with all sorts of obscure and unusual components. It’s a full-time job to try and keep up with the Cynars and orgeats of the world.

But here are two base liquor ingredients you should absolutely know about. They’re hot, they taste great alone or in cocktails, and we even have our very own locally produced versions here in Detroit. Mezcal and absinthe are by no means new to the world of spirits. They each have a storied past, filled with the allure of days gone by; they've just made reappearances on the scene. We’re here to tell you what they are and where to sample them.

Let’s let Andy Mohr, partner at Two James Spirits in Corktown, describe it. He calls it "a smoky, more mature version of tequila with some Scotch." Yep. Imagine tequila and Scotch making sweet, sweet love. That love child was then raised in rural southwest Mexico by generations of traditional farmers and allowed to run free on the hills to soak up all the sun and air it wanted. That’s mezcal. It’s an ancient recipe only resurfacing recently here in Detroit. And although all tequila is mezcal, all mezcal is not tequila: mezcal is usually made from a combination of wild and cultivated agaves, while tequila comes from the blue agave only.

Take Two James’ Dos Jaimes Mezcal Joven. It’s a blend of two wild (tobolá and tepeztate) and one cultivated (espadín) agaves. According to Mohr, "with the wild agave, it gives it a unique flavor profile," because, as with a fine wine, the terroir in which the agave grows is important to the taste and complexity of the final drink. You can sip it just like you would any fine tequila or whiskey, or sample Dos Jaimes in the La Ultima Palabra cocktail, Two James tasting room’s take on the Detroit classic Last Word, made with muddled habanero and Dos Jaimes Mezcal Joven.

And now for something completely different. Having indulged our smoky side with all the mezcal we can handle, let’s switch up to another spirit you’ve surely heard of but may not know much about because you assumed it was illegal in the United States. Absinthe conjures images of languid Gilded Age sippers, drifting through a green-tinged, hallucinogenic fog. It was the drink of choice of last century’s artists and poets, and it got a bad rap as a dangerous drug around a hundred years ago.

In fact, the "green fairy" was banned in the US for most of the 20th century for a couple of reasons: first, the now completely debunked idea that wormwood in absinthe causes hallucinations and seizures. Second, despite the proven lack of dangerous chemicals in most absinthe, its extremely high alcohol content (here in the US, between 90 and 148 proof) paired with its deceptive sweetness means that even one glass of absinthe is more than enough to knock you back a step or two.

Now that it’s available again in the US (since 2007), curious drinkers are learning how to enjoy the rituals associated with absinthe consumption. Since it’s so high in alcohol, and the botanicals in it need some breathing room, most absinthe isn’t consumed straight from the bottle. Instead, an ornate absinthe fountain comes into play. The pure absinthe is poured into its own glass, then covered with a special slotted spoon topped with a sugar cube. Over that, very cold water is gradually dripped so that the anise, fennel, and wormwood can "cloud up" and the glass of liquid turns into a swirling, milky dream.

We’ll end here with a final word of advice from Andy Mohr at Two James on the power of absinthe: “You won’t hallucinate. It’s a great summertime sip drink. You can have more than one, but I’d stop at two.”

Since absinthe is a key ingredient in the classic Sazerac cocktail, you can also hit up your favorite cocktail joint. We recommend Cliff Bell's for jazz, Republic for ambience and happy hour, and Howe's Bayou in Ferndale for the suburbanites.