RANCH WATER
Three ingredients and two minutes. The desert spirit version of a West Texas standard.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 oz Los Magos Sotol
- .5 oz fresh lime juice
- Top with Topo Chico Lime
Ranch water is West Texas in a glass. Tequila, lime, Topo Chico, poured over ice with nothing else in the way.
Build it with sotol and it gets lighter and a little greener. The mineral water and the desert spirit come from roughly the same landscape, and it shows.
What you need
- 2 oz Los Magos Sotol Blanco
- .5 oz fresh lime juice
- Topo Chico Lime, to top
- Lime wedge and a pinch of sea salt
How to make it
- Fill a highball glass with ice.
- Add the sotol and lime juice.
- Top with Topo Chico.
- Garnish with a lime wedge and a pinch of sea salt.
Go easy on the stir. Two turns is enough, and anything more knocks the carbonation out of it.
Why sotol works here
There's nowhere to hide in a ranch water. Three ingredients means the base spirit is most of what you taste, and a lot of blanco tequila brings a sweetness that argues with the mineral water.
Sotol comes in drier. Our Blanco leads with citrus and black pepper and carries a faint smoke underneath from the volcanic rock pit it's roasted in. All of that reads clean against Topo Chico, and the lime sharpens it instead of covering it up.
The pinch of salt does more than it sounds like it should. It pulls the mineral note forward and makes the drink taste colder.
Questions we get
Can I use regular sparkling water?
Yes. Topo Chico is more carbonated and more mineral than most, so look for something with real minerality if you're substituting.
What proof is Los Magos Blanco?
38% alcohol by volume, 76 proof.
Make it with the bottle it was built for.
Los Magos Sotol Blanco, 750ml. Wild-harvested and triple distilled, with no additives.
