The boy and his poison: The Amante Piquant

I'm a firm believer in alcohol-based incentivisation. Never has this been more true than during the last couple of weeks, where a boozy carrot has been my only salvation from the stick of burning the midnight oil. The question is, if your nightcap has to obliterate the pain of coming home from work at 2am, how do you balance rewarding flavour with a method even an exhausted zombie can shake? Enter the Amante Piquant.

The first appeal of this drink is the base spirit Tequila which, due to my live-in cocktail taster's mortal aversion to the stuff, is strictly black-ops and a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. The second appeal is how the simplicity of the drink belies its incredible flavour. It may be a chop of this and a muddle of that but essentially it's a cinch to make and the green tabasco and lime will happily slap your tastebuds into submission and make you smile like a loon. In fact after one of these I guarantee a 110% improvement on any evening. Which isn't bad for a handful of coriander and a bit of lime.

You'll need:

• 50ml agave tequila
• 25ml lime juice
• 2 slices of cucumber (extra for garnish)
• 2 dashes Green Tabasco Sauce
• 1 squeeze of agave nectar
• 1 sprig of coriander

Make it:

• Muddle the coriander and cucumber in the base of a shaker with the lime, agave and tequila
• Add a handful of ice and a couple of dashes of tabasco
• Shake for 10-15 seconds
• Strain into a coupe glass
• Garnish with a slice of cucumber