Three Ways: Ranch Water

A trip to Texas in the height of summer gave Garth Poe, beverage director of Little Coyote in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a taste for Ranch Water. “The experience changed my whole thought process on what the drink could be,” he says of the three-ingredient recipe’s expansive potential. This version, pictured, is a spicy staple at Little Coyote. “It’s fun because it’s close enough to a Ranch Water that people have had before to feel safe, but different enough to be exciting,” he says.

3/4 oz. sotol
3/4 oz. blanco tequila
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. lemon-lime cordial
1/4 oz. Ancho Reyes chile liqueur
3 barspoons saline solution (1 part sea salt to 9 parts water)
2 barspoons jalapeño tincture
2 oz. chilled soda water to top

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: rocks
Garnish: grapefruit peel

Add the ingredients, except the soda water, to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake for 5-6 seconds, then strain into an ice-filled rocks glass and top with chilled soda water. Poe also likes to express a grapefruit peel over the top for aromatics, then use it as a garnish.
Lemon-Lime CordialMix 1/4 cup of sugar with 1/2 barspoon of citric acid and add 1 gram of lemon zest and 1/2 gram of lime zest. Boil 1/4 cup of water and pour over the dry ingredients, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then let steep for 30 minutes. Add 9 grams of fresh lemon juice and 30 grams of fresh lime juice and stir to combine, then strain into a container.
Jalapeño TinctureMix 8 oz. of high-proof vodka or grain spirits with 3 oz. of water, 50 grams
of chopped jalapeños, and 10 grams of chopped habaneros; let steep for 24 hours then strain, bottle, and refrigerate.

Garth Poe, Little Coyote, Chattanooga, Tennessee

At Portland, Oregon, cocktail bar Holy Ghost, bar manager Sid Chi serves a rotating array of Ranch Water versions that feature everything from fig-infused mezcal to verdita, Mexico’s tart jalapeño-pineapple sipper. Despite the longstanding popularity of Ranch Water in and beyond Texas, it remains novel to some cocktail fans, Chi says. “Unfortunately, a lot of people still think ranch dressing is in the drink somehow.” Thankfully, even those unacquainted with the West Texas original can appreciate Chi’s elegantly vegetal #18 Ranch Water.

2 oz. green tea-infused blanco tequila
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
Cold sparkling mineral water to top

Glass: Collins
Garnish: salt rim, lime wheel

Moisten the edge of a chilled Collins glass with a cut lime and dip in coarse salt, then fill with ice. Add infused tequila and fresh lime juice and stir, then top with cold sparkling mineral water. Garnish with a lime wheel.
Green Tea-Infused Blanco TequilaInfuse a 750-ml bottle of blanco tequila with five bags of green tea for 30 minutes, then remove the bags and bottle the infused tequila (keeps up to 2 months).

Sid Chi, Holy Ghost, Portland, Oregon

“I feel like the Ranch Water is one of the few modern-ish drinks that has the staying power to become a classic of our era,” says Morgan Weber, the beverage director and co-owner of Agricole Hospitality, a Houston bar and restaurant group. Eight Row Flint, Agricole’s lively cocktail and taco bar, has four Ranch Water variations on tap. This one features sotol, “a spirit that for hundreds of years has been made in the Chihuahuan Desert,” as a nod to the cocktail’s West Texas roots.

2 oz. sotol
1 oz. fresh lime juice,
1/4 oz. lime simple syrup
1/4 oz. Ancho Reyes Verde
pinch of salt
chilled Topo Chico to top

Glass: Collins

Fill a glass with ice, then add the ingredients, except the chilled Topo Chico, which is added to top off.
Lime Simple SyrupCombine 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of lime zest (approximately 12 limes), and 1 cup of sugar in a large pot over medium heat, whisking vigorously to dissolve the sugar; remove from the heat before the mixture simmers, pour through a fine-mesh strainer, and chill.

Morgan Weber, Agricole Hospitality, Houston