Mike's Mix: The Shagarita
Every Friday, Mike Augustyniak picks up a new cocktail recipe from a local mixologist. This week, he headed over to Shag Sushi for a cocktail that's a full-body experience: not just taste but sight, sound, smell, feel.
The Shagarita
1.5 oz Jose Cuervo silver
½ oz Sho Chicu Bai sake
1 oz house made ginger syrup*
½ oz Patron Cirtronge
½ oz fresh squeezed lime
Combine all ingredients and shake, over ice.
Strain & serve in a cocktail glass with a salted rim (a shiso-salt rim is used at Shag).
*To make ginger syrup, combine in a saucepan:
1 cup water
1 cup of sugar
1/3 lbs of roughly chopped, unpeeled ginger
1/2 squeezed lemon
1/2 squeezed lime
(toss squeezed lemon/lime halves into the mix, too)
Over heat, whisk mixture until sugar has completely dissolved.
Bring to a boil stirring occasionally.
After several minutes, remove from heat, and let cool to room temperature.
Strain and use, or refrigerate to store.
Tast Test
If the Margarita is the most popular drink in the world (as some claim), and Asia is the most populous continent in the world, why hasn't an Asian-inspired margarita happened yet?
Well, with the opening of Shag Sushi, Wok, Bar in Minneapolis's North Loop, it has.
This is a smoother-drinking margarita than I'm used to, and a little more viscous to boot. Bar manager Dan Newkirk attributes those qualities to the ginger simple syrup, which he said is the ingredient that brought the entire cocktail together.
The sake adds an earthy flavor that works with the earthiness of the tequila, and the ginger adds that familiar tangy Asian flair.
"The offerings are brash and bold. The space is glittering and gold in a way you'd half expect to spot Telly Savalas in the corner booth. The vibe is pure Vegas in the North Loop."
