Siesta
Blanco tequila against Campari, lime and grapefruit, shaken and strained up.
Serving
Drink spec, per drink
Every figure above is per drink and does not move with the count, which is what makes the two service modes comparable. Sugar per litre, strength and standard drinks stay in the units their own authorities publish, because they are figures for comparing rather than for pouring. Dilution is modelled rather than measured, as a fraction of the poured volume before any ice; dotted figures descend from that estimate.
The red was carmine, a colourant made from insects, until the producer moved to synthetic colourants in the mid-2000s. The European label cached here lists E122, E102 and E133 and no carmine, and the United States bottling uses Red 40; reporting on the change describes it as not having reached every market at once, so which colourant is in a given bottle depends on where it was made.
Diet and allergen labels are computed from the ingredients listed on this page and nothing else. They cannot account for cross-contamination or for the particular product you buy, and they are not medical or safety guidance.
Ingredients
45 ml blanco tequila
23 ml fresh lime juice
15 ml fresh grapefruit juice
23 ml simple syrup
7.5 ml CampariProprietaryInterchangeable by volume at a lower strength and less bitterness, so the drink comes out sweeter and less assertive on the finish, closer to a straightforward tequila sour with a citrus-bitter edge than a genuinely bitter one.flavour: moderate change · strength: minor change · sweetness: minor change
½ lime (5 g)
- 45 ml blanco tequila
- 23 ml fresh lime juice
- 15 ml fresh grapefruit juice
- 23 ml simple syrup
- 7.5 ml CampariProprietary
- ½ lime (5 g)
- ~56 ml water
Glass
Vessel
169 ml of liquid, served without ice, inside the 180 ml the glass holds. The build fails if a recipe ever exceeds its stated vessel.
A batch needs a vessel that closes and fits a fridge shelf.
Method
4 steps · 57sCombine the 45 ml blanco tequila, the 23 ml fresh lime juice, the 15 ml fresh grapefruit juice, the 23 ml simple syrup and the 7.5 ml Campari in a shaker with ice.
Shake hard for 12s.
Strain into a chilled coupe.
Set the ½ lime (5 g) lime wheel on the rim.
Campari sits behind the citrus rather than beside it, closer in amount to a dash than to a modifier. That is enough to read as bitterness on the finish without turning the drink red or pulling it toward an Americano.
Common pitfallGrapefruit juice loses its aromatic top notes within an hour of squeezing faster than lime or lemon do, and a bottled substitute reads flat and one-dimensional against the Campari rather than bright.
Keeping and make-ahead
Batched ahead, this keeps sealed and cold. The water line the engine adds is the dilution figure from the spec panel, not a rule of thumb.
About
A 2006 modern classic built at Manhattan's Flatiron Lounge, swapping the Hemingway Daiquiri's rum and maraschino for tequila and Campari.
The bartender Katie Stipe created the Siesta around 2006 at Flatiron Lounge in Manhattan 1. It is built on the same double-citrus shake as the Hemingway Daiquiri (lime paired against a second, softer citrus, sweetened and shaken), but swaps that drink's white rum for blanco tequila and its maraschino liqueur for a smaller measure of Campari 2. The result is usually described as sitting between three earlier drinks at once, carrying something of the Hemingway Daiquiri's citrus shake, the Paloma's grapefruit and tequila, and the Margarita's base spirit, rather than descending cleanly from any single one of them 1.
Campari's role in the recipe is deliberately restrained: it is present in a small enough measure to read as bitterness on the finish rather than to dominate the colour or the aroma, which keeps the drink closer to a tequila sour with an edge than to an Americano-style bitter cocktail 2. That restraint is part of what distinguishes it from other tequila-and-Campari drinks that lean further toward the bitter side of the pairing.
- 1Siestadiffordsguide.com
- 2Siesta Cocktail Recipepunchdrink.com