Mixed Results

Above: From a chokecherry cocktail to a green-chile–infused take on the Bloody Mary, this New Year we celebrate the flavors of New Mexico.

"DON'T CRY BECAUSE IT'S OVER. Smile because it happened.” This time of year, this anonymous proverb seems to go viral. New Year’s Eve muddles me up. Sure I have regrets, but I’m excited about what’s to come, and I want to talk with friends about both. Turns out I’m not alone. Three mix masters of New Mexico, from north to south, promise to soothe our spirits with cocktails and mocktails made with local ingredients.

If you’re in the mood for special spirits, the place to go in Santa Fe is the recently refurbished Secreto Bar & Loggia, in the Hotel St. Francis, an easy-upscale venue where you can unwind from holiday hustle. Here, mixologist Chris Milligan is at your service. Garnishing Milligan’s bar are fresh green herbs and vibrant limes and oranges, all waiting to be elixirfied.

Secreto’s menu offers an array of seasonal cocktails. The drinks are made with the season’s best-tasting ingredients, many sourced from the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market—one of the best in the country, according to the Daily Green (www.thedailygreen.com), a popular how-to website for going green. Likewise, Milligan’s palette of cordials, syrups, tinctures, and some bitters are made in-house.

With his nearly 20 years behind the bar and a keen interest in the history of libations, this dean of drink entertains patrons with his intriguing cocktail lore and thirst-quenching stories. Milligan also keeps folks informed and entertained with his blogs, “The Santa Fe Barman” (http://santafebarman.wordpress.com) and “The Booze Blog: Drinks Without the Hangover” (http://blogs.forbes.com/booze).

For El Farolito, his wintery cocktail delight, Milligan mingles fresh lime juice, añejo (aged) tequila, chokecherry syrup (made from the chokecherry trees abundant in northern New Mexico), sweet vermouth, sprigs of sage, and Mexican mole bitters. One sip has me singing. Milligan’s festively fashioned but alcohol-free Rompope de Santa Fe (a sort of Mexican eggnog) warms a party like a round of “Auld Lang Syne.” Try his tips for bar-perfect results: “Practice, taste, and make drinks a couple times before you plan to entertain. Flavor is affected by how you mix, just as much as it is from the ingredients used.”

In Albuquerque, at the swank Q-Bar Ultra Lounge in the Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town, mixologist Dan Pinzon stirs primo cocktails. This New Mexico State University alumnus has eight years of experience. His mentor was certified mixologist Michael Trujillo, of the Albuquerque-based beverage distributor Southern Wine and Spirits of New Mexico, who taught Pinzon the art of crafting cocktails, from proper balance and taste to perfect presentation.

Pinzon’s unique flair for integrating into his creations the region’s fruits and vegetables impresses the clientele of this posh nightspot. And there’s more to celebrate: Pinzon was recently nominated to represent New Mexico at Shake It Up, a prestigious mixology competition held annually by Southern Wine and Spirits of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The harmonizing flavors in Pinzon’s Old Town Martini, a cool cocktail muddled with fresh basil and New Mexican plum, will wet your whistle this New Year’s Eve. In fact, the origin of the name Albuquerque is the Arabic al-barquq, meaning apricot or plum. Splashes of fresh-squeezed orange and grapefruit juices are mixed into this tasty treat, which is served topped with a second leaf of fresh basil. Pinzon’s tongue-tingling Albuquerque Quencher, free of booze, incorporates such locally grown finds as the lemon cucumber (in season), a sweeter, yellow cucumber grown in New Mexico gardens and found at our farmers’ markets. These cukes have a nostalgic meaning for this local boy: “Lemon cucumbers were introduced to me by a New Mexico State University agriculturalist while I was in college.” A fine strainer, Pinzon notes, helps keep pulp out of the glass and the cocktail clean; he suggests also investing in a good bar spoon, a lime press, and a muddler.

Down south, next to Las Cruces in Old Mesilla, the Double Eagle Restaurant’s elegant Imperial Bar is known for its margaritas and being the winner of the 2002 Margarita Shake Up. A sixth-generation New Mexican, Charles Winfield “Win” Ritter II always has a tasty concoction. Ritter grew up in the state’s hospitality industry—his father owned two New Mexico hotels, The Lodge at Cloudcroft and the Holiday Inn in Las Cruces, both home to famous saloons and cantinas: Rebecca’s and the Red Dog Saloon in the former, and the Billy the Kid Saloon and Pancho Villa’s Cantina in the latter. Celebrities from Dolly Parton to U2 patronized these hotspots.

Ritter’s father later opened an Irish tavern, O’Ryan’s Brewery, in Mesilla Valley Mall, where Win worked, and the beers served there earned a following. “We were known as the Beer Gods,” he reflects. In 2001, Ritter left brewing and moved to Old Mesilla.

These days, at the Imperial Bar, this beverage guru gets in the mood to make Bloody Marys and (what else?) margaritas. Ritter’s trademark style is infusion: “I take a classic cocktail and jazz it up with a local flavor that people love.” For example, he fire-roasts farm-fresh Big Jim green chiles from nearby Hatch to create an infused vodka that gives his much-praised Old Mesilla Mary a spicy Southwestern taste, complete with a salted glass rim and a wedge of lime.

Now, as fireworks herald 2011, a toast to a flavorful New Year!

Cocktail and mocktail by Win Ritter II, food and beverage director, Imperial Bar, Double Eagle Restaurant, in Old Mesilla.

EL FAROLITO

Chris Milligan’s must-try cocktail combines well with classic New Mexican food and can be found on the winter bar menu of Santa Fe’s Secreto Bar & Loggia, in the Hotel St. Francis. Bitter End Mexican Mole Bitters are available at Susan’s Fine Wines and Spirits in Santa Fe, or online at www.bitterendbitters.com.

YIELD:
1 COCKTAIL.

Ingredients