Mictlan Cocktail Trail: an agave map of Edinburgh

Edinburgh has a cocktail trail running right now that is not your usual round of bars. The Mictlan Cocktail Trail, put on by the UK spirits distributor Spirit Cartel, takes in nine venues across the city from 14 October to 30 November, and the whole thing is built around the Nahua underworld. In Aztec mythology, Mictlan is the journey the dead take through nine levels to reach the house of the lords of the underworld, and the trail follows that path bar by bar.

Each of the nine participating venues stands in for one of those levels, with a tequila or mezcal cocktail built around the stories, landscapes and encounters of that particular stage. Level I, the Place of the Dogs, sits at Voodoo Rooms; Level II, where mountains crash, is at Lady Libertine; Level III, Obsidian Mountain, is at Paz Taqueria; Level IV, the Place of the Wind with Obsidian Leaves, is at Powder Room; Level V, where one becomes a flag, is at The False Widow; Level VI, the Place Where Arrows Are Shot, is at Mother Superior; Level VII, where a jaguar eats the heart, is at DragonFly; Level VIII, the Place of Obsidian Water, is at Hey Palu; and Level IX, the House of Mictlan itself, is at Sköll & Hati.

There is a game to it as well. You pick up a Mictlan Passport from any of the venues and collect a stamp each time you try a trail cocktail, with stamps unlocking rewards along the way. If you make it through all nine stops, you get entered into a prize draw for a trip to Munich, one of San Cosme Mezcal's key hubs, complete with recommendations from the San Cosme team. The trail is timed to lead up to Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, which gives the whole underworld theme its seasonal hook.

Behind the bar, the brands being poured are the ones Spirit Cartel carries: Pa'Todos Tequila, Rosaluna Mezcal, San Cosme Mezcal, Cascahuín Tequila, G4 Tequila, Terralta Tequila and 818 Tequila. San Cosme is worth a note on its own, as it is made from the Espadin agave grown in Oaxaca, Mexico, and takes its name from Saint Cosmas, the patron saint of doctors. David Hood, general manager at Spirit Cartel, has framed the trail as a way to celebrate Edinburgh's cocktail scene and give bartenders a chance to have some fun with agave brands.

This is the first time the Mictlan Trail has run anywhere, and Spirit Cartel plans to take the concept to other UK cities, including London and Manchester, after this. For now, though, it is an Edinburgh first, and with the venues spread across the city, it works as much as a night out as a slow-burn way to work through the agave map over a few weeks. The passport is the easy way in, and the rewards keep you moving from one level to the next.