One of my summertime go-tos has always been a rum and coke with lime, aka the Cuba Libre. Gently boozy rum sweetness, tart lime juice, a touch of bitter citrus peel, effervescent Coca Cola. It’s more work than popping open a cold beer (or a canned cocktail) but it satisfies in much the same way. Plus that little kick of caffeine is often what’s needed to keep it together on a sweltering, nap-inducing day.
Recently, a similar drink has worked its way into my summer rotation: the Batanga. Think of it as Mexico’s tequila-fueled answer to the Cuba Libre. It turns out the earthy and vegetal sweetness of tequila is as lovely a companion to Coke as rum.
I have to come clean here, however. While I like to give the impression that my drink discoveries come solely from visiting bars across the country, I learned about the Batanga from TikTok. I tend to avoid social media cocktail trends as they usually skew more bizarro click-bait (Hot Dog Martinis!) than sound and sane drink-making. But the Batanga is straight and simple.
You take a highball, salt the rim, add a ½ ounce of lime juice, 1 ½ ounces of tequila, top it off with Coke. It’s then stirred and served with the knife that was used to cut the lime, probably the only thing you could accuse as being trendy about the drink. A big visual accoutrement like that can go a long way with making a drink pop on Instagram.
This little flourish has history to it, though. Ask any bartender who has visited the Jalisco valley in Mexico, and they will likely tell you about how they visited La Capilla, a small cantina where owner Don Javier Delgado Corona would serve the drink, which was more commonly known as the Charro Negro, by stirring the drink with a knife. (Corona passed away recently.) If the knife was previously used to chop tomatoes or avocados, all the better. Corona considered that seasoning. If you want to be a stickler to the original version, use El Tequileño tequila as La Capilla does.
An even better riff is adding a bit of Fernet. (Together, Fernet and Coke are magic.) I popped into Superbueno, one of my favorite NYC bars, one hot afternoon, and on the happy hour menu was an Improved Batanga. How is it improved? Superbueno co-owner Nacho Jimenez adds a quarter ounce of the Mexcian Fernet-Vallet liqueur to round out the drink, in addition to house-made citrus salt.
And in true Batanga style, it is also served with a knife. The knife garnish is a bit silly. I say skip it when you’re at home. (It's one less thing to wash.) But no matter how you cut it, the Batanga itself is cool and easy fun.
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