Oaxacan Old Fashioned

A groundbreaking modern classic that introduced America to mezcal cocktails. Reposado tequila and smoky mezcal create an agave-forward twist on the Old Fashioned template.

The Oaxacan Old Fashioned was created by Phil Ward at Death & Co on East 6th Street in New York City's East Village in 2007 and became one of the most influential individual cocktail creations of the 21st century — the drink most directly responsible for introducing mezcal to a global cocktail audience. Ward developed the formula by splitting the spirit base between reposado tequila and mezcal, using agave nectar as the sweetener and Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters, finishing with a flamed orange peel. Ward's insight — that mezcal could function in the Old Fashioned framework as a smoky accent in the same way that Islay Scotch functions as a peated float in the Penicillin — produced a drink of genuine conceptual elegance. The combination of tequila's clean agave character and mezcal's smoke created a version of the Old Fashioned with a complexity unavailable from any single spirit. The cocktail spread from Death & Co's menu through the American craft cocktail community with unusual speed, and mezcal's US import volume grew substantially through the years following its rise to bar prominence. Ward subsequently opened Mayahuel, a New York bar dedicated to agave spirits, in 2009.