“My first thought was: Don’t make a spicy margarita,” said Trenchermen bartender Jonah Frank. Challenged by Dan Smith of Barrelhouse Flat to make a drink with pimenton, Spanish smoked paprika, Frank initially found himself tossing around “a bunch of awful ideas.” But eventually he hit upon an approach he hoped would yield a drink not just tasty but restorative.
The name of his cocktail is another take on the Corpse Reviver, which made him think of Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday commemorating friends and family who have died. An ofrenda, “offering,” is a memorial to a departed loved one— “a little morbid,” Frank said, but nothing to do with salt or parrots.
Frank has challenged Griffin Benko of Lone Wolf to make a drink with schmaltz, which he says “can go with anything or on top of anything.”
