Secret drink

The Chandelier

Cosmopolitan Las Vegas

“Had been recommended here by alot of people. Including Kim Kardashian’s makeup artist who i met at the saddle ranch the week before, he told me about this secret drink not on the menu that numbs your mouth, so we had to order it! So interesting, i dont like ginger but the numbing helped and did change the flavours of the drink throughout.”

The Verbena is made with tequila, Yuzu sour, ginger syrup, lemon verbena leaves and garnished with a Szechuan button, an edible flower that speeds up your salivary glands. It numbs your mouth and intensifies everything you consume for five minutes or more. Let the spirited experiments begin.

The secret ingredient is the Szechuan button flower (Acmella oleracea), which somehow electrifies the taste buds while deadening the tongue like an anesthetic. It’s a unique sensation you won’t soon forget.

“It’s our secret cocktail that’s not on any menu, just served on that floor, and we sold 30,000 of them last year alone,” Mercer says. “It’s a lemon-verbena-ginger margarita essentially, garnished with a Szechuan button, one of nature’s gems.”

• Peta’s recommendation: The Verbena (Don Julio Blanco Tequila, Lemon Verbena, Yuzu Sour, Fresh Lemon Juice, and Ginger Syrup, with a trio of Szechuan Flower-buds).  Wow!