Montego Slay

At New York City's Overstory, bar director Harrison Ginsberg manages to regularly surprise and delight patrons in a city that has no shortage of craft cocktail bars with stunning views. The Montego Slay (which we've adapted here slightly for the home bartender) is a fairly simple mixed drink that packs a ton of flavor, and calls for just one base spirit that you likely already have at home.

When it comes to choosing the right bottle of tequila, you'll want to use blanco tequila instead of reposado, which is aged for between two months and 364 days, or añejo, which sees at least a year of rest. A muddled yellow bell pepper adds an unexpected herbaceous notes to this cocktail that's otherwise dominated by apricot liqueur and mango juice, two ingredients that we firmly believe in using as often as possible. While we typically advocate for using freshly squeezed juice whenever possible — as is the case with the lime juice in the Montego Slay — we suggest using Goya mango nectar in this cocktail.

While our recipe calls for garnishing this drink with a lime wedge, you'll have a slightly different experience if you make it into Overstory, where you'll find a multicolored mango meringue perched atop each drink. The bar version also calls for husk cherries, which can be difficult to source, but add a tart, almost tomato-esque note that's surprisingly welcome here. The meringue garnish is made in collaboration with the pastry teams at SAGA and Crown Shy (both of which are housed in the same building, and are part of the same hospitality group), and Overstory's bar team works to incorporate pastry elements into several other signature cocktails, like a sesame brittle finish, or white-chocolate strawberry tuille garnish.