The M&M shot isn’t a secret anymore. The 50/50 combo of Amaro Montenegro and mezcal, sometimes referred to as a “Managers Meeting,” once circulated exclusively among service industry folks and those in the know. Now, it’s not unheard of to see the M&M and its analogues actually printed on bar menus. And of late, the smoky-bittersweet blend seems to be entering a third phase: not only gracing menus, but now fashioned with bells and whistles.
Take the Frozen M&M, a recent addition to the cocktail list at Shinji’s Bar in New York’s Flatiron neighborhood. The summer treat combines Derrumbes San Luis Potosí mezcal, characterized by its vegetal notes and an absence of smokiness; Montenegro; and grilled-orange juice, prepared by grilling the flesh of an orange until it’s blackened, then juicing and straining it.
The inspiration for the Frozen M&M came on the heels of Shinji’s wildly popular Hot Cold Toddy shot, which bifurcates your tongue with dueling hot and cold sensations when you down it. “We wanted to figure out a shot that would be just as amazingly experiential, and something people had never had before,” says Shinji’s beverage director, Jonathan Adler.
The final product, a frozen mold imprinted with the Shinji’s logo, comes served in a metal dish with a handle so you can slide the sorbet-like shot into your mouth. That’s after the concoction has undergone a multistep science project involving hydrocolloids, a Pacojet, a blast freezer, and just enough time thawing in the service freezer “so it dissolves in your mouth, but it’s still frozen,” explains Adler.
At Corima, a Mexican restaurant on New York’s Lower East Side, lead bartender Edward Hardebeck created a mezcal and Montenegro milk punch he calls Vaquera Tears, sweetened and clarified with dessert-staple tres leches: condensed milk, evaporated milk and regular whole milk. For Hardebeck, the M&M was an obvious building block: It’s “very smooth and drinkable, [and] goes down easy as a shot,” he says, which works well with the milk punch format. He also notes that the spice in Montenegro channels the cinnamon in a tres leches dessert.
Bar Benjamin in Los Angeles similarly uses the M&M format—and the help of high-tech contraptions—in its Peanut M&M, which blends mezcal and Montenegro with peanut butter, clarifies it through a Spinzall, then freezes off and strains any remaining oils for a salty-sweet finish.
According to Erick Castro-Diaz, host of the Bartender at Large podcast, the M&M is “a master class in economy” that’s earned its place in the cocktail pantheon alongside minimal-ingredient classics like Negronis, Old-Fashioneds and Martinis.
Plus, the flavors are catching on. Castro-Diaz notes more and more folks ordering classic M&Ms at the San Diego bar Gilly’s House of Cocktails, which he co-owns. Mezcal and Montenegro are trending in cocktails across the continent, from kicked-up rum punches to twists on the Oaxaca Old-Fashioned and spicy Margarita, elevated spritzes available on draft, or as a shot served alongside pancakes.
The recognizability of the pairing allows for room to riff. “[The M&M] really does not require an explanation anymore,” says Patty Dennison, head bartender at Grand Army Bar in Downtown Brooklyn.
For its MTA-themed menu, the bar created two iterations: A “jazzed-up M&M” called The Local pairs Derrumbes San Luis Potosí mezcal and Montenegro, with Grand Marnier to bring out the latter’s orange notes, and La Cigarrera manzanilla sherry to round it all out; The Express, a more potent concoction, subs in higher-proof Zucca in place of Montenegro, plus a splash of pasilla chile and passion fruit liqueurs.
For Castro-Diaz, it’s obvious why bartenders are getting creative with Monte and mezcal: “The flavor combination is so good, it lends itself to endless permutation,” he says. “Amaro and agave are a match made in heaven.”
