For Valentine’s Day, Casa Oaxaca in Adams Morgan is serving a special romantic cocktail made with damiana, a Mexican flower the Mayans and Aztecs believed to be an aphrodisiac, effective for both men and women. Does it really make you horny? Y&H special cocktail correspondent Alex Baca reports from the scene:

5:05 p.m.: My date and I arrive at Casa Oaxaca and take our seats at the bar. “So I hear you have a drink with some sort of aphrodisiac in it,” I ask the bartender. He explains that, yes, the restaurant is serving the “Besamo Mucho,” a cocktail that, according to a press release, uses damiana liqueur. Damiana is a flower from Northern Mexico. Legend has it that the stuff makes you horny. We’ll see. My dining companion and I each order one.

5:07 p.m.: The bartender asks us if we’d like to try some of the damiana liqueur. It’s sweet and reminiscent of passion fruit. That’d be sexy, except the smell of passion fruit more immediately recalls Herbal Essences shampoo, which isn’t quite as orgasmic as the TV commercials would suggest—at least in my experience.

5:13 p.m.: Our drinks are served. I’m usually averse to sugary, tropical cocktails but, hey, this isn’t bad. White tequila, passion fruit juice, lime juice, and rose petal powder are subtle additions to the damiana.

5:15 p.m.: Not horny yet. Hungry, though. So we order tacos.

5:20 p.m.: The bartender asks if we’re feeling anything. Not me. My dining companion says he’s not, either. We all laugh, because what the hell else are you supposed to do when sitting in an empty bar with a drink that may or may not make you want to jump someone’s bones?

5:28 p.m.: Our tacos arrive. I am grateful for a reprieve from analyzing whether or not my drink is making me horny.

5:30 p.m.: Oh my God, these tacos are so good. Perfectly moist and roasted in a garlic-guajillo sauce, the food might be making me more amorous than the drink.

5:40 p.m.: Still nothing. I suppose it would’ve been helpful to have a buck-wild libido during rituals involving life, death, and possible transcendence into afterworlds. But I don’t know how those Mayan and Aztec priests were able to raise, um, spirits using this stuff. Maybe they had a better recipe. I’m no more turned on than I would be after any other one drink. (Keyword: one.)

5:50 p.m.: Verdict: No tingling sensations anywhere. But who says you need liquid Viagra to get lucky, anyway? The guy I’m with is pretty handsome. Hey, wanna get out of here?
Photo courtesy of Casa Oaxaca