This Mezcal-Green Tea Strong Palmer is going to be your favorite weekend cocktail

Serves: 1

Hands On Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

Lemonade

1 cup sugar

1 3/4 cups water

4 large, juicy lemons

Green Tea

2 green tea bags

4 cups water

Cocktail

Ice cubes

3/4 cup Green Tea (above)

1/2 cup Lemonade (above)

1 to 2 ounces mezcal

1/2 ounce Lemon Simple Syrup, plus more to taste (from Lemonade, above)

Lemon round, for garnish

Instructions

To make the lemonade: In a small saucepan, combine the sugar with 1 cup of water. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the peel from one of the lemons. Add the peel to the sugar mixture. Place the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. As soon as the mixture comes to a boil, remove the saucepan from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Once cool, remove the lemon peels.

Meanwhile, halve the peeled lemon and the remaining three lemons. Squeeze the juice out into a medium pitcher; you should have about 1 cup of juice. Stir in the remaining 3/4 cup water. Once the syrup is cool, stir 3 tablespoons of the syrup into the lemonade. Add more, to taste, if desired. Reserve the remaining syrup for the cocktail.

To make the green tea: Place the tea bags in a medium teapot or heatproof pitcher. Bring 2 cups of the water to a boil; pour the boiling water over the tea. Let steep for 5 minutes, then remove the tea bags. Stir in the remaining 2 cups water and let the mixture cool to room temperature.

To make the cocktail: Fill a Collins or other tall glass with ice. Add the tea, lemonade, mezcal and lemon syrup and stir to combine. Taste, and add additional simple syrup, if desired. Garnish with the lemon round and drink immediately.