Beyond Tequila
POPULAR SPIRITS LIKE BOURBON OR GIN HAVE A LOT OF THINGS GOING FOR THEM: CONSISTENT, EASY-TO-FIND, AND A WHOLE CATALOG OF TIME-TESTED COCKTAIL RECIPES. But sometimes, you want something a little (or a lot) off the beaten path—a way to have a little adventure in a drink.
Take the case of Mexico’s lesser-known spirits. Tequila and Mezcal are well-known for a good reason: they’re delicious and pretty easy to find. But if you focus only on those two spirits as embodying what Mexico has to offer, you’re missing out. There’s a whole world beyond what you can find on a typical supermarket shelf—and top bartenders across the nation are taking notice.
Often made in small quantities and in tiny batches, spirits such as Sotol or Charanda may be harder to track down, says agave expert Jen Len, one of the lead bartenders at Honolulu’s Encore Saloon, but the pay-off is worth it. “I’m a little obsessed right now,” she says about Raicilla, an agave-based spirit from Jalisco, noting she ferries bottles back in her suitcase from San Francisco if she can’t find the selections on-island. But she’s always looking to build out the selection at Encore Saloon too, which is already well-known for having one of the best Mezcal sections on island. I asked Len to share some of her favorite lesser-known Mexican spirits, below.
To get the full experience of these spirits, Len recommends sipping them neat with a side of ripe tropical fruit—think juicy mangoes—as an accompaniment. She also recognizes that sometimes an occasion calls for cocktails, though, and in that case, her advice is to keep it simple. “[Try a] margarita version using tropical fruits or use savory items like chili and spices,” she says. “All of these spirits are very savory and it enhances the whole experience of eating.”
SOTOL
If you’re already into the adventure of hunting small batch Mezcal, you’re going to love the adventure of Sotol. Made in a similar fashion but from the desert spoon plant (Dasylirion wheeleri) instead of agave, the spirit offers a whole universe of flavors. “The flavor spectrum is so wide,” says Len, noting it’s not uncommon to find notes of chocolate, chili, or earthy minerals—sometimes with a dash of funk. “It reinforces the idea of terroir. The place that it grows and climate has such an influence on the flavor,” she says. Endemic to Northern Mexico and parts of the Southern U.S., the limited quantities of the plant plus its long maturing time means the spirit is made almost exclusively in small batches and in tiny quantities, which should be a siren call for those for a penchant for rare bottles.
BRANDS TO TRY:
POR SIEMPRE
Len says this bottle, which they stock at Encore Saloon, is very approachable and works well in cocktails, describing the flavor as earthy, funky, with a hint of sour and floral notes.
LA NIÑA DE MEZCAL
For a lighter bodied pick, Len recommends this Sotol, which is earthy and bold with some notes of citrus.
RAICILLA
This category is cheating a little bit, since it’s actually Mezcal, just under
a different name. In the 1780s, when Mezcal was becoming extremely popular, local Jalisco officials decided to rename their state’s version to avoid Spanish taxes—and the name stuck. What makes Raicilla especially notable says Len, is the amount of biodiversity in the Jalisco state means that producers can create wildly unique—and often very rare—bottlings. Len recalls chasing down an especially unique (and pricey) offering from La Venenosa in Hong Kong. “[The Etnica Tutsi] is one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever tasted: almost cheesy tasting with notes of jalapeno jam, chocolate, spearmint,” she says.
BRAND TO TRY:
LA VENENOSA
This label was created by chef Esteban Morale to feature small batch, high-quality Raicillas made by the best producers in Jalisco. The Tabernas bottling is a good entry-point Raicilla.
CHARANDA
Rum in Mexico? It’s more common than you might think, but makes sense, given all the sugarcane grown since the Spanish introduced the plant in
the 1500s. Aguardiente is the catch-all name for sugarcane-based spirits in Latin America and Charanda, which must be made in Michoacán, is a subset of that. Charanda, which means “red-colored soil” in the Purépecha language, gets its name from the volcanic soil in the region.
BRAND TO TRY:
URUAPAN
This is one of Len’s favorites because of their attention to detail. “They know exactly which varietals they are using,” she says, about the operation, which has been in around since 1907. The Blanco is distilled from 50 percent sugarcane juice (think Agricole rum style) and 50 percent molasses.