Si‑Güey Cocktail Recipe

The Si-Güey is a spirit-forward cocktail with a touch of smoke, combining reposado tequila, dry curaçao, orange bitters, topped with a float of peated Scotch whisky. This potent mix of spirits is essentially a variation on a tequila Old Fashioned and is considered a modern classic cocktail. 

Countless modern classics were created at Milk & Honey, the influential New York City bar, often recognized for helping to kick off the craft cocktail movement in the early 2000s. The bar’s founder, the late cocktail visionary, Sasha Petraske, is credited with mentoring a generation of bartenders who would go on to open their own bars and change the cocktail landscape around the globe.

A year after his passing in 2015, the book, Regarding Cocktails, was published in honor of the legendary bar he founded. The publication was to be Petraske’s first cocktail book, but was instead authored by his widow, the writer Georgette Moger-Petraske. The book features many of the groundbreaking Milk & Honey cocktail recipes and stories from the bartenders who worked there.

Though the drink is often credited to Petraske, it’s said to have been created in honor of the late barman. In Regarding Cocktails, former Milk & Honey bartender Michael Madrusan explains why the name of the drink is significant.

“Segue – as in ‘to move, without interruption, from one scene to another’ – is imperative for working in the tight quarters of any Petraske bar. Güey is the colloquial Mexican Spanish way of referring to any person without using his name, and Sí, Güey, was something Sasha and all the bartenders would say to one another at various points of the evening.”

Why the Si‑Güey works

The Si‑Güey shares some DNA with an Oaxaca Old Fashioned, traditionally made up of tequila, mezcal, agave nectar, and aromatic bitters. The Si‑Güey utilizes a different kind of smoke — peated scotch — and incorporates robust citrus zest from dry curaçao, a traditional French orange liqueur, and orange bitters.

Though the recipe calls for Islay scotch, any whiskey that’s been made from malted barley that’s been dried over peat fire should work. This malting process will give the whiskey its distinctive smoky and medicinal flavors. The Scottish island Islay is know for peated single malt whiskies, but this style can now be found all over the world. 

The Si‑Güey is complex, spirituous, bright and citrusy, with a hint of smoke, and one of the easiest modern classic cocktails to make.