Dram co-founder teams up with Zacal mezcal for canned Zacalita cocktail

Mezcal brand Zacal has launched a canned cocktail, the Zacalita, developed with Chris Tanner, co-founder of the now-closed Soho bar Dram, and Rory Shepherd of the Paris bar De Vie. The 200ml can, priced at £7, is on sale now through the brand’s website, and represents an attempt to bring bar-made drinks into the ready-to-drink category.

The Zacalita is a variation on the margarita that substitutes mezcal for tequila. It is made with Zacal’s triple-distilled Manso Sahuayo mezcal, fresh lime and High Fidelity Triple Sec, a product co-created by chef Ashley Palmer-Watts, co-founder of Soho restaurant The Devonshire. The recipe also includes a distillate of black cardamom, and the drink is lightly carbonated. It is bottled at 7% ABV, lower than many canned cocktails currently on the market.

Dram closed its Denmark Street premises around six months ago and is on hiatus while its founders look for a new site. The bar occupied three floors of a 17th-century Grade II listed building and operated as a daytime coffee and food venue before switching to a bar in the evenings, with a tapped cocktail programme, two bars, a whisky shop, a terrace and a private pool room. It was founded by Chris Tanner, Simo Simpson and Jack Wallis, all previously of the Soho whisky bar Milroy’s. The same team runs All My Gods in Bethnal Green.

Tanner developed the Zacalita recipe with Shepherd, co-owner of De Vie on Rue Saint-Sauveur in the Montorgueil quarter of Paris. Shepherd previously worked at Little Red Door, also in Paris.

“We wanted to make something that tasted like it had come from behind the bar, not off a production line,” Tanner noted.

“The mezcal does a lot of the work; being triple-distilled, it’s smooth and complex enough to carry a cocktail in a way most mezcals aren’t. Every ingredient is there to elevate the serve – the triple sec was co-created by the acclaimed chef Ashley Palmer-Watts, and the black cardamom is the real point of difference, giving it a smoky, savoury lift that isn’t expected from a can. Getting that level of detail into a format people can grab and go was the whole challenge and it’s what makes it genuinely less ordinary.”

Zacal was founded by four UK-based co-founders in partnership with third-generation mezcalero Milton Ochoa, who distils the spirit at his family’s vinata. The mezcal is produced in the volcanic highlands of Michoacán rather than Oaxaca, the state most commonly associated with the category, and undergoes triple distillation, whereas most mezcals are distilled twice. The brand’s core range comprises Zacal Manso Sahuayo and Zacal Ensamble, sold through its own site and the retailer Master of Malt.

The can’s design references Parícutin, the Michoacán volcano that emerged from a cornfield in 1943 and is described as the youngest volcano in the world. The packaging is fully recyclable.

Food Desk

For further information and to purchase, visit the Zacal’s website here.