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Have you seen a 1970s ambulance zooming around Shoreditch lately? It has not been collecting broken-limbed Londoners; its nurses have been offering support of a different kind. Already liked by more than 1,700 people on Facebook, London’s first mobile mezcaleria has arrived.
Having moved on from a pop-up in Hackney last year, this summer Quiquiriqui co-founder and ex-TV producer Melanie Symonds and her drinks recovery team are parking the wagon — known as Catrina after the patron from the Mexican festival Day of the Dead — at food festivals and events in east London. On August 16, you will see it parking up at Hackney WickED art festival.
On the menu is Quiquiriqui’s range of mezcal cocktails: a bestseller called the Blue Steel, made with mezcal and tequila blue margarita, alongside mescal shots (£4), Ocho tequila and the Kampaloma cocktail (£7) created using mezcal, pink grapefruit, soda, Himalayan pink rock salt and the ginseng spirit Kamm & Sons.
Mezcal is a spirit that comes from the agave plant — its older sister tequila is derived from the blue agave only. Unlike the hangover you might get from tequila shots, it doesn’t give you an aching head. Symonds calls mezcal “like a 3-D version of tequila, you get more of everything. Food-wise it goes with anything barbecuey, anything smoky, or anything with a flame grill.”
On her Facebook page, Catrina says she’s “ready to rock’n’roll with all you cocktail lovers out there”. Are you ready to be rescued?
