Things tend to happen in and around my bar in large quantities. We find new recipes and wind up making a liquor-and-mixers run to find the ingredients that will allow us to make the most drinks with the fewest purchases. A few purchases in theory never materializes in reality, and out of one such spell, the El Diablo was made.

Essentially, this drink is a Moscow Mule made with tequila and splashed with a little black currant for pizazz. It doesn’t taste bad—assuming you like both tequila and ginger beer—but it’s still a drink for the tequila lover first, and the casual drinker last.

2 oz tequila
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tsp creme de cassis
2 oz chilled ginger beer

Add tequila and lime juice to highball glass filled with ice. Drizzle with creme de cassis, top with ginger beer, garnish with a lime wheel and serve.

The tequila, despite the relatively mild flavor of the Milagro, was the showpiece in this mix, overwhelming the ginger and cassis flavors—so much so that I wondered if I had inadvertantly left out some of the creme de cassis. I checked and found I had not, and wound up adding a smidge more to step up the body of the drink. It worked, but I don’t know that I’ll be making El Diablo again.