Big Trouble in Oaxaca Cocktail

In her new book, Signature Cocktails, from Phaidon, Amanda Schuster tracks the history of 200 classic drinks, including some newer icons, like this Big Trouble in Oaxaca cocktail from Rome's Drink Kong. Here is an excerpt from the book, available now.

Set in a quaint, out-of-the-way town square in Rome, Italy, Drink Kong is the sort of bar that reminds people that drinking is supposed to be fun. Inside, it’s a chic, modern, wraparound venue with an aesthetic that’s a futuristic mashup of late 1970s and 80s arcade kitsch sprinkled with Blade Runner-esque Japanese influences along with King Kong design themes (the Kong reportedly because of the resemblance to hulking, bearded co-owner Patrick Pistolesi, who opened the bar in 2018 with the Jerry Thomas Speakeasy team)—even the ice is stamped with the bar’s Kong-esque logo.

For its opening menu, bar manager Livio Morena created Big Trouble in Oaxaca. As the perfect reflection of the bar itself, the cocktail combines retro 80s neon cheekiness (Midori) with crowd-pleasing yet sophisticated ingredients such as tequila, ancho chili and pineapple liqueurs, and lemon sour, all wrapped in a nostalgic nod to period pop culture; the name references the 1986 action-comedy Big Trouble in Little China, starring actor Kurt Russell.

Pistolesi says that one of the main reasons they used electric-green Midori melon liqueur in the cocktail was because in 2018 it just seemed so dated and weird that it might be the perfect way to attract attention to the bar and also show love for Japanese culture. It worked. Although the bar’s thematic menu changes seasonally, Pistolesi says Big Trouble in Oaxaca has been one of Drink Kong’s best-sellers since the beginning, helping to garner massive international awards in its first year.

“No chains will ever hold that,” as they say in the 1933 original movie.

YEAR: 2018

ORIGIN: Rome, Italy

INVENTOR: Livio Morena

PREMISES: Drink Kong

ALCOHOL TYPE: Tequila; Midori

GLASSWARE: Tumbler or rocks

Big Trouble in Oaxaca

Recipe by Amanda Schuster

0.0 from 0 votes

Servings

1

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

0

minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 oz 1 1/2 (45 ml) tequila blanco

• 3/4 oz 3/4 (22 ml) pineapple liqueur

• 1/2 oz 1/2 (15 ml) Midori liqueur

• 1/2 oz 1/2 (15 ml) green ancho chili liqueur

• 1 oz 1 (30 ml) fresh lemon juice

• 1/2 oz 1/2 (15 g) sugar

Directions

• Shake all ingredients with ice.
• Strain into a short tumbler or rocks glass over a large ice cube.

Notes

• Adapted from Signature Cocktails by Amanda Schuster (Phaidon, US .95, 2023)

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