Cocktail of the week: Cinco’s El Padrecito – recipe | The good mixer

Good-quality ingredients are integral to good health, and we can pretty much say the same for good drinks. Inspired by one of our favourite modern classics, the penicillin, our take is a remedy for ailments of all kinds; it’s also damned good.

El Padrecito

Serves 1

For the honey and ginger liqueur (to serve 4)
75ml vodka
20g fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced
25g honey

For the drink
35ml mezcal – we use Pensador’s espadín
30ml honey and ginger liqueur – see above and method
7½ml Bitter Truth Pimento Dram liqueur, or Amaro de Angostura, Giffard Piment d’Espelette or Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Aromatic Bitters
15ml fresh lemon juice, plus 1 strip lemon zest, to garnish

Put the vodka and ginger in a clean kilner jar or similar, seal and leave at room temperature to steep for 48 hours. Strain out the ginger solids, return the liquid to the jar, then stir in the honey and 13ml cold water (about two and a third teaspoons), until the honey dissolves (the water helps smooth out the consistency). Seal and store in the fridge for up to four weeks.

To build the drink, measure all the liquids into a shaker, add ice, then hard shake. Double-strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice, garnish with the lemon strip, and serve.

• Richard Lopes for Corrochio’s Cinco, London N16