Drink This: Buckhead Diner’s Crimson Heat
November 7, 2016 The Crimson Heat, Buckhead Diner’s newest cocktail, serves as a reminder that tequila should have a place on your bar cart long after Summer is over. The drink starts with a base of muddled jalapenos and fresh blood orange puree and is topped with tequila, triple sec, and served in a glass rimmed with house-made citrus salt. The result is a drink that strikes the perfect balance of sweet, spicy, and salty. “The goal was to create something seasonal that uses tequila in a non-traditional way. Most people automatically think margaritas when they hear tequila, but with this cocktail we wanted to challenge the idea that to have a great tequila drink you’ve got to also have a lime base. The unexpected flavors of blood orange are really what make the cocktail, and they also let you know that you’ve grown up from a margarita so to speak”, says the drink’s creator Jessica Purdy.
Crimson Heat
2 oz Don Julio
½ oz Blood Orange Puree
1 oz Lime Juice
¾ oz Jalapeno Simple Syrup
1 half slice of blood orange (muddled)
2 slices of Jalapeno (muddled)
Splash of Sour Mix
Splash of Triple Sec
Glass: Highball
Citrus Salt: Equal parts orange, lemon, and lime zest, and coarse sea salt.