The basic recipe for the Paloma, a classic cocktail hailing from Mexico, is simple: tequila, grapefruit soda, and lime. However, if you ask any professional bartender, choices of ingredients and spirits — like Tequila Ocho, a single estate tequila from the multi-generational Camarena family in Jalisco, Mexico — are important factors for any variation.
That said, the attention to ingredients in craft cocktails might not have been the case with Diego Livera, at least in his yesteryear living in the small Mexican city of Cuernavaca — ages before he became a cocktail professional, tending bar at The Dead Rabbit, or at his current post at The Cabinet in New York’s East Village.
Immeasurable Amounts
“At the table during the whole celebration, it was a bottle of tequila and a bottle of Squirt, and we’re like, okay, that’s what we’re gonna drink tonight,” Livera said, reminiscing about Mexican family gatherings. “And it was not good. It was sweet, well, because we didn’t measure it. We didn’t put any ice in it, so it’s room temperature. It was bad. So for a while I was like, I’m not a fan of Palomas.”
Things changed of course, when his family emigrated to New York City, settling in Queens, where Livera worked his way up the ranks of the service industry and got his feet wet in bartending and cocktail creation, which motivated him on a path that ultimately led him to tend bar at The Cabinet. It’s there where he’s made peace with the Paloma — it’s Spanish for “dove” after all — and crafts a version that is leaps above his old concoction from Cuernavaca.
“Something I learned from the Paloma is it has to be simple,” he asserted. He’d experimented with the extraneous addition of different herbs, but came to the conclusion that the best Paloma, his “Paloma Querida,” is simply made of fresh, homemade grapefruit “sherbet” consisting of pulpy, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and an oleo-saccharum of grapefruit peel, mixed with lime juice, soda water, and Tequila Ocho — a spirit he’s really embraced after hearing about its backstory.
“When there’s a value of family, there’s always going to be something good, right? When it’s passion and family values and respect — all of those are good things,” he said. “Also, you can taste the minerality, and it’s beautiful, it’s delicious. And I think with that minerality note and the right sugar level, with the cocktails, they complement each other.”
Meanwhile, In California
Closer to Mexico, another cocktail craftsman has embraced Tequila Ocho: Christian Siglin, owner of Happy Medium in San Diego’s North Park.
“Tequila Ocho is my go to tequila when making cocktails because it stands up to other ingredients in the drink,” Siglin explained. “It can be the star of the show, but if it needs to take a back seat, it just helps everything taste better.”
A San Diego native, Siglin spent his formative years as a typical Californian kid surfing and skating, but it wasn’t until his travels in his 20s that his cocktail curiosity really started to take form. Exposed to the cocktail craft and the lifestyle of bars in New York and San Francisco, he was motivated to excel in the industry, open a bar with his business partner Eric Johnson, and create his own concoctions, including his now stand-out Cobra Clutch, with mezcal, tequila, lime, pineapple, cane syrup, and absinthe.
“Being in San Diego, all people want is refreshing drinks,” he said. “So, I wanted to do my take on what a summer Paloma would taste like. To me, watermelon is the perfect summer fruit.”
His seasonal cocktail, the Nude Beach — inspired by San Diego’s famed, clothing-optional Black Beach — takes the base Paloma recipe using Tequila Ocho, and adds in two dashes of serrano bitters and ¾ oz. of a housemade syrup made with equal parts fresh watermelon juice and white sugar.
“Tequila Ocho is a really important ingredient in this drink because the agave really shines through and complements all the flavors in the drink,” he said. “Ocho always has a really vibrant vegetal quality from the agave, and the serrano bitters really help bring out the green in the cocktail.”
Tales from a New York Lolita
While Marshall Minaya is a self-proclaimed gin enthusiast on his Instagram profile, he’s embraced all kinds of craft spirits in his cocktail career. After leaving his hometown in Pennsylvania, he worked his way up the ranks of the New York service industry with a resume that includes The Meatball Shop, April Bloomfield’s Salvation Taco and Salvation Burger, and Da Capo, a cocktail bar on the Upper West Side. Today, he’s beverage director and partner of three adjacent establishments in Midtown: Art Deco-inspired Valerie, subterranean lounge Madame George, and the artful, Mexican-inspired Lolita — where the “Lolita Paloma” takes residence.
At a glance, its recipe appears to be simple, until you dissect the preparation of its ingredients: a housemade cordial with grapefruit zest, tequila, water, sugar, citric and malic acids; grapefruit juice clarified with a method using Pectinex, Kieselsol, Chitosan, and distilled white vinegar; and a salt blend that includes dehydrated grapefruit zest and beetroot powder. Perhaps the simplest addition to all of this alchemy is straight Tequila Ocho Plata, which shines amidst the other ingredients and the forced carbonation.
“That earthy, grassy, vibrant agave note that you’re getting opens up the whole pocket,” Minaya explained, after having experimented with other tequilas with Lolita’s lead bartender Carlos Kennedy Lopez. “It’s wild. It’s beautiful how different it is.”
Lolita proudly has a 100% additive-free agave portfolio, in which terroir and sense of place of a spirit is valued. “We’re bringing in the discussions of what every distillate, whether it be the agave or the sugarcane, brings to the table,” he said. “Where the sugar cane was grown, where the agave was grown — it’s the reason why we like working with Ocho so much. Because it’s this single estate varietals of agave that’s bottled and telling its own story.”
As beverage director, Minaya embraces other tequilas, but discerns the nuances of each one, knowing each has its place on the recipe roster — and it’s always Tequila Ocho when it comes to the house paloma.
“It’s a banger,” he beamed. “For me, I think it’s one of the best palomas in the city.”
This article is sponsored by Tequila Ocho.
