The elusive ‘Drop of the Desert’ cocktail

Simon Haslam

What does it take to produce the winning cocktail in a competition held in Byron in the middle of summer?

A fair bit of thought, and what some would call hard work. Jono Samuelsson, bar manager at Loft Byron Bay, has certainly had a lot of cocktail-making practice, but the minimalist tequila-based creation he dubbed ‘Drop of the Desert’ isn’t the sort of cocktail he’d normally serve over the busy bar, being a bit more on the ‘serious’ end of the scale, as he puts it.

‘When it comes to creating cocktails, I like to work with our chefs, who have a wealth of knowledge about flavour pairings,’ says Jono. ‘They also know how to best extract the flavours from different vegetables or fruits. This competition was sponsored by Pernod Ricard, using their Altos Plata Tequila, and our Head Chef Juan suggested, in keeping with the Mexican theme, that I use a special cactus, the Nopales, which I sourced from local exotic fruit growers Picone Exotics, and then clarified.’

‘The cactus, when it’s cooked, reminds you of green beans or asparagus, but its uncommon, subtle, slightly bitter flavour really comes together very well in balance with the rest of the ingredients. The Altos range also includes a reposado,