Thirsty Thursday: Fire in the Belly

First off, I'd like to dedicate this cocktail to Megan since it's her birthday on Friday. She is working very hard on the complete opposite side of the country (far, far away) so unfortunately we can only celebrate with her virtually. This may not have sparkles in it, like most Megan cocktails, but it has fire, which is fitting too! Happy Birthday to our beautiful Megs!

We celebrated my grandfather's 94th birthday at an awesome Korean comfort-food restaurant in Fremont called Revel. The family style food was delicious and they had a great cocktail menu. Here's my dad and spry 94 year old Grandfather who traveled from Danville, CA to join us for the holidays. His secret to health, happiness and longevity? A cocktail a day!

For New Year's Eve, we tried to re-create Revel's tequila based cocktail: Fire in the Belly. Our only issue was that we gathered the ingredients for it about an hour before we left for our party, when in reality we should should have started in on the infused tequila five days earlier. But it was a great first attempt and next time we'll try to actually follow the directions.

The drink is an awesome savory flavor combination of orange, cinnamon, smoke and spice. It's not too hot, but will warm the belly!

Sorry for the lack of a beautiful photo, Curtis was cranking these out as fast as people drank them and serving them in plastic party cups.


FIRE IN THE BELLY

Slow Burn Tequila:
3 oranges, sliced thin
2 cinnamon sticks
2 ruby peppers
3 fresno peppers, sliced
White Tequila

Combine with roughly two bottles of white tequila. Soak for 4-5 days... any more and the spice gets out of hand.

Rimmer:
Combine equal parts:
Smoked Paprika
Kosher Salt
& Sugar
Add in some grated lime zest

Cocktail ingredients (per drink):
2 shots Slow Burn Tequila
1 shot Orange Juice
1/8 Lemon, juiced
1 - 2 tsp. Simple Syrup
10 shakes of Angostura Bitters

The Flair:
Pepper rings, to float
Lemon or lime wedge

Rim each glass with lime juice and dip into the rimmer.

Combine all cocktail ingredients in a shaker with ice. Give it a shake shake (remember to shake your hips while you do it) and pour into the rimmed glass. Drink up and warm up!