The 6 Best Pox Cocktails

Pox (pronounced Posh) is still flying under the radar outside Mexico. But that should not stop you from trying it and mixing it into delicious Pox cocktails.

At this point, there are only a few known Pox cocktails. With a taste resembling a mix of whiskey and rum, it works nicely as a substitute in existing drink recipes. So, there are plenty of ways to integrate this novelty into your home bar menu.

Pox Cocktail Recipes

Here's the list of our favorite cocktails with Pox. Let us know in the comments which ones you tried and how you like them.

1. Pox Negroni

That is a beautiful twist on a classic Negroni. Usually, I stick to using equal measures for all Negroni ingredients, but it is different with this recipe. To properly showcase the Pox, I prefer a 3:2:2 ratio.

Ingredients

1.5 oz Siglo Cero Pox
1 oz Campari
1 oz Carpano Antica Formula

Preparation

1. Add all ingredients into a mixing glass with plenty of ice.
2. Stir well until the drink is chilled.
3. Strain into a glass and garnish with an orange peel.

2. Mai-Tai Chiapas Style

This little twist on a classic Mai-Tai is an excellent example of how Pox can work in Tiki cocktails. It replaces the white rum in the original recipe.

Ingredients

1.5 oz Pox
0.75 oz Orange Curacao
0.75 oz Lime juice
0.5 oz Orgeat
0.5 oz Dark aged rum

Preparation

1. Put all ingredients except the aged rum into a cocktail shaker with crushed ice.
2. Shake it gently for 2-5 seconds.
3. Pour it into a double old fashioned glass.
4. Add your garnish, and your Pox Mai Tai is ready to be served.

3. Pox Sour

The Pox Sour is a fantastic Pox cocktail. The corn syrup in the recipe picks up the slightly sweet corn taste of the Pox. Yet, if you don't have corn syrup, you can always use regular simple syrup instead.

Ingredients

1.5 oz Pox
0.75 oz Fresh lemon juice
0.75 oz corn syrup
one egg white

Preparation

1. Add Pox, lemon juice, egg white, and syrup to your cocktail shaker. Dry shake for 10 seconds.
2. Add ice to the shaker and shake again for another 5 - 8 seconds.
3. Strain over ice into a chilled sour glass.
4. Optional: Add three drops of Angostura bitters to the eggwhite foam

4. Pox Summer

This one is an original recipe from Siglo Cero Pox. I found it on their Instagram account, tried it, loved it, and it had to go on this list.

Ingredients

0.75oz Siglo Cero Pox
0.66oz (20ml) Coconut Pulp
1oz Banana smoothie
Fresh Pineapple Juice

Preparation

1. Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice.
2. Strain the mix into a chilled Margarita glass and fill it up with pineapple juice.

5. Mateo Pox Cocktail

Here's another recipe from Siglo Cero - an intriguing mix of Pox, whiskey, and Mexican herbs.

Ingredients.

2 oz Siglo Cero Pox
0.5oz whiskey
2 tbsp Hierba yerba mate
1oz simple syrup

Preparation

1. Add all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice.
2. Stir well until the drink is chilled.
3. Strain and serve in a Martini glass.

6. Hala Ken Cocktail

I also want to include the famous "Hala Ken" Cocktail from Fifty Mils Bar in Mexico City, but I don't have their recipe and still am working on figuring out the exact measurements.

If you're up to some experimenting, it's made with:

• Ancho Reyes liqueur
• grapefruit
• avocado leaves
• fresh lime juice
• hoja santa bitters

Hoja santa is a Mexican herb that translates to "sacred leaf" and is a common ingredient in Mexican cuisine.

Ingredients to Use in Pox Cocktails

A good, traditional Pox has some smoky notes and a sweet corn flavor. Usually, it's served neat with a side of orange slices lightly dusted with coffee grounds plus some cacao bits. 

It really is a unique liquor. Until recently, Pox was exclusively available in the Chiapas region. Thus, the people from Chiapas have by far the best knowledge about ingredients that work well with Pox.

The most popular ingredients to use with Pox among the Chiapas are

• citrus fruits
• pineapple (grilled)
• and tamarind

Pineapple works perfectly with rum, while citrus is a regular ingredient for many whiskey cocktails. Tamarind, in contrast, is rarely used in cocktails.

If you're new to Pox and don't know what it is, you can read more in this article about the Mayan spirit. Overall, it really is a versatile spirit and works with all sorts of ingredients.