They Didn’t Burn Rome in a Day

This drink appears to be a bad clone of the Employees Only drink "Ready Fire Aim" (widely published four months before this recipe was shared with the Times). The original version of this calls for making a pineapple-peppercorn syrup. It's time-consuming but results in a greater depth of flavor and richer texture than this recipe is able to produce.

I would suggest substituting half an ounce of honey liquor for the honey. ( I used Bärenjägers). I also used plain pineapple juice, because running fresh pineapple through a food processor was just too much work. I’m sure it would have tasted superior, but it was more than I wanted to get into.

Given its use of mezcal I tend to refer to the cocktail as ‘They Didn’t Burn Tenochtitlan in a Day’. Nevertheless, I modified it with muddling a slice of jalapeño or serrano pepper prior to shaking and straining—saving the crushed pink peppercorn for only garnish at the end. The smoke of the mezcal and the fire of the jalapeño or serrano pair fantastically with the pineapple juice.