I love mezcal cocktails. I am not sure about this particular recipe. A few tips (based on my own preference)

• Orange juice is too watery for my taste, and doesn’t work with a margarita style drink. If you want the drink more orangey, use more triple sec and less syrup, or add some orange bitters. Shake well with ice and strain into a chilled margarita glass or an old fashioned glass on the rocks to keep the drink very cold and high in alcohol/ low on water. That’s what makes the flavor concentrated. Use more lime if you need it more citrusy.
• if you have any good anejo and reposado tequilas, you can always experiment mixing tequila with mezcal. Like instead of 1.5 mezcal, use 1 reposado tequila and 0.5 mezcal for a more rounded flavor.
• get some ancho reyes liqueur, it is smokey and spicy, works great in margaritas. You could reduce the triple sec a bit and add 0.5 ancho reyes for a slightly drier and chili infused version.
• try a few different mezcals, they can be surprisingly smooth and rich tasting. I like Madre Espadin for mixing, it’s not crazy expensive but quite nice.
• I agree that chamoy and tajin are unnecessary, distasteful, and can only ruin drinks, I wish bars would stop doing it. Rubbing half of the rim with a lime wedge and sprinkling on some flakey serving salt can work nicely, but the point is to save a good portion of the rim for actually drinking the drink.

Cheers!

The orange juice definitely made the drink lighter than a traditional margarita. I tried a mezcal margarita before (classic recipe with mezcal instead of the tequila), and it was way too smoky for me. If I find some reposado I will definitely try though!

I was looking to try ancho reyes liquor, but I didn’t find a place to buy it unfortunately. I do plan to try a margarita with chili pepper though.

Thanks for the suggestions, I don’t know much about tequila/mezcal, but it’s a lot of fun to try it out :)