Death & Co opened in the East Village in January 2007. Phil Ward was behind the bar, and the Oaxacan Old Fashioned — also spelled the Oaxaca Old Fashioned, the name under which Ward first logged it — was his answer to a problem the cocktail world did not yet know how to solve: how do you use mezcal in a drink without the smoke taking over everything?
Mezcal was barely available in the US in 2007. Del Maguey had been importing artisanal Oaxacan expressions since 1995, but the spirit had no template in cocktail culture. It was too intensely smoky to use the way bartenders used whiskey or rum. Ward’s solution was to stop treating it as a base spirit and use it as a modifier instead: 1½ oz of reposado tequila does the heavy lifting; ½ oz of mezcal — a quarter of the total pour — provides smoke, earthiness, and complexity at a level that registers clearly but doesn’t dominate. Agave nectar links both spirits (they’re both agave-derived), and a couple dashes of bitters tie it together — 2 dashes of Angostura in the printed cookbook recipe, or the chocolate-cinnamon-chili Bittermens mole bitters the bar is reputed to pour, which nod to Oaxacan culinary tradition. A flamed orange peel finishes it with a caramelized citrus aroma that arrives before the first sip.
The drink costs approximately $36 at Death & Co’s East Village bar now. At home with quality spirits, each glass costs $4–6.
The Technique That Makes or Breaks It
The Oaxacan Old Fashioned is easy to stir together. The gap between an acceptable version and a bar-quality one is almost entirely in the orange garnish.
Hold a wide strip of orange peel skin-side toward the glass, with a lighter flame between the peel and the drink. Heat the skin for two to three seconds — this warms the essential oil pockets just under the surface. Then pinch the peel sharply. The pressure forces the oils through the heated skin; they briefly pass through the flame, caramelizing slightly, and land as a fine aromatic mist on the drink’s surface. You’ll see a small flare if the geometry is right.
Run the expressed peel around the rim of the glass. Drop it in. The caramelized orange oil is what you smell before the first sip, and it is the specific detail that makes the drink feel like something you ordered somewhere serious.
Skip the flaming and the cocktail still tastes of tequila, mezcal, and bitters — good, but flat. The technique is quick to learn and takes about thirty seconds.
Which Spirits to Buy
Tequila (1½ oz): Any 100% blue agave reposado. El Tesoro is the original spec. Olmeca Altos Reposado and Espolón Reposado are reliable at lower price points. Fortaleza Reposado is excellent if you’re spending more. Avoid silver/blanco tequila (too clean, reads as thin alongside the smoke) and añejo (too much barrel character crowds the mezcal and bitters).
Mezcal (½ oz): Del Maguey Vida is the standard accessible choice — espadín agave, artisanal small-batch production, reliable smoke without being overwhelming. The original spec calls for Del Maguey San Luis del Rio, a more expensive and harder-to-find expression; Vida is the correct substitute for home use. Wahaka Espadín and Montelobos are other solid options. At a ½ oz pour, avoid very heavily smoked or rarefied single-village expressions — the nuance is lost in a stirred cocktail with sweetener and bitters.
Mole Bitters vs. Angostura
The recipe as printed in the Death & Co cookbook calls for 2 dashes of Angostura — the bitters most home bartenders already have — and that version is fully authentic. The bar itself is widely reputed to pour Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters instead: chocolate, cinnamon, and faint chili pepper. If you want the house version, add 1 dash of mole bitters; they run about $18 at most specialty liquor stores and online, and are worth owning if you make mezcal cocktails regularly. If you don’t have them, make the printed recipe with the 2 dashes of Angostura and pour with confidence — it’s the original.
Do not substitute orange bitters. They shift the flavor toward citrus and thin the spirit-forward structure of the drink in the wrong direction.
The Non-Alcoholic Version
Replace the tequila with 1½ oz of a good non-alcoholic agave spirit (Lyre’s Agave Blanco is the most widely available) and the mezcal with a small amount of smoked simple syrup for the smoke note: dissolve ½ cup sugar in ½ cup of strongly brewed lapsang souchong tea, cool, and use 1 teaspoon in place of the ½ oz mezcal. Keep the agave nectar; use alcohol-free aromatic bitters. Stir, strain, flame the orange peel exactly as the original. The result lacks the caramel depth of barrel-aged reposado but keeps the smoke, the bitters complexity, and the aromatic finish from the peel.
