Point out Mexican drinks and most of the people will conjure Margaritas and Palomas, tequila and mezcal. The truth is, when the Mexican bar La Contenta opened on Manhattan’s Decrease East Aspect, in 2015, pre-Columbian drinks like tepache (produced from fermented pineapple peels), pulque (the fermented aguamiel, or sap, of sure maguey species) and tejuino (nixtamalized corn, piloncillo, lemon and salt) had been nonetheless largely exceptional and rarely consumed stateside.
Over the previous a number of years, nonetheless, renewed curiosity within the ancestral drinks of Mexico, together with expanded distribution of their ready-to-drink and distilled counterparts, has made it simpler for the Mexican bar group to showcase the drinks that had been as soon as confined to houses, avenue distributors and devoted institutions south of the border.
A part of the drinks’ relative obscurity within the U.S. is by design: Lots of them have traditionally been seen as sacred, and among the elements are unavailable outdoors of Mexico or require pasteurization for distribution, which adjustments their make-up. However, for Alex Valencia, co-founder of La Contenta—one of many U.S.’ first bars dedicated to what he phrases “Mexican mixology”—it was vital to make a concerted effort to boost consciousness round these elements. “It’s turn into my mission to operate as an educator and bridge of connection for my group by making these drinks accessible,” he says. “Many youthful Mexican People have by no means even heard of them.”
Valencia’s efforts have paved the best way for different Mexican immigrants, together with Ignacio “Nacho” Jimenez, a local of Guanajuato and co-owner of the not too long ago opened Decrease East Aspect bar Superbueno, to include indigenous elements into cocktails.
“Regardless of being born and raised in Mexico, I’d by no means heard of tejuino till I met Alex,” says Jimenez, who labored at Ghost Donkey, New York’s late, formative mezcal and tequila bar in 2016. As lead bartender, he introduced drinks like tepache and pinole (made with toasted masa, piloncillo and canela) to this system, they usually have solely grown in reputation since. “It’s actually [only] within the final six to eight years that we’ve seen extra of those drinks on bar menus. It’s as a result of renaissance Mexican eating places and different spirits have skilled in that point, which has helped to widen the notion of Mexican tradition.”
At Superbueno, Jimenez affords a tightly curated meals and beverage menu celebrating Mexican avenue meals and popular culture. “There’s not only one manner of describing Mexico,” he says, noting the nation’s numerous and hyper-regional tradition. “Superbueno is my manner of honoring my journey right here in addition to creating consciousness about our traditions and the best way through which my tradition is perceived.”
The Final Pulque Dons of Apan
A milky, pre-Hispanic brew, pulque—as soon as Mexico’s most prized alcoholic beverage—is amid a revival. Michael Snyder and Andrea Tejeda Korkowski journey to its historic capital searching for pulque’s remaining artisans.
Superbueno’s signature drink is a batched, bottled, carbonated tepache that serves 4. It’s a nod to one of many drinks of Jimenez’s youth, right here made with fermented cucumber as a substitute of the normal pineapple or corn, together with tequila, shochu, yuzu, hoja santa and toasted chile de arbol. As his bar program evolves, Jimenez plans so as to add extra historical drinks to the menu.
The apply of bringing indigenous drinks past Mexico’s borders, nonetheless, is just not with out its detractors. Critics object to the commodification and appropriation of the nation’s fermented drinks, whose inherent probiotic qualities make them engaging to a wellness crowd that is likely to be blind to the drink’s ancestral historical past. Briefly, tepache is “not ‘the brand new kombucha,’” says Luna Vela, a guide from Monterrey on pre-Columbian fermented meals and the previous director of fermentation at Austin, Texas’ acclaimed Nixta Taqueria.
For individuals who wish to introduce these historical drinks into cocktails, bartenders say that producing them in-house is a should. “By making it ourselves, it helps our company perceive what treasured, conventional drinks these are, but it surely additionally reduces our waste and showcases our ancestors’ ingenuity and resourcefulness,” says Blanca Benitez, normal supervisor of Seattle’s Mezcaleria Oaxaca. There, the housemade tepache—a collaborative recipe from the Mexican bar staff—is utilized in a wide range of cocktails together with the signature Margarita de Tepache, a subtly funky, mezcal-based tackle the tequila traditional, and the bar’s latest drink, a Oaxacan-inspired riff on tejate (toasted masa, cacao and mamey sapote pits, also referred to as pixtle), made with blanco mezcal, pulverized roasted blue corn, cacao beans and cacao flowers.
In Sarasota, Florida, Clio Padilla Flores, bar supervisor of town’s Sage/Realm Eating places, is trying past tepache by experimenting with several types of heirloom Mexican masa that she sources from on-line purveyor Masienda. “There’s a lot potential there for deeper, extra complicated profiles,” she says. Her bestselling Masa Dulce is made with tejuino, mezcal, a guajillo-serrano tincture, and a scoop of tequila and lime sorbet. “I needed to actually struggle to get it on the menu in 2015, however now it’s the most well-liked drink,” she says.
“By making [tepache] ourselves, it helps our company perceive what treasured, conventional drinks these are, but it surely additionally reduces our waste and showcases our ancestors’ ingenuity and resourcefulness.”
Introducing pulque to an American bar setting is tougher. Pulque is probably probably the most revered of pre-Columbian drinks as a result of the Aztecs thought of maguey to be the personification of Mayahuel, goddess of fertility. And whereas bartenders in Mexico use pulque and curados (pulque mixed with fruit or different botanicals) in cocktails, the genuine ingredient is unimaginable to supply outdoors of its homeland since it’s unpasteurized and regarded finest within the first few days after its creation, when the unfiltered liquid is barely candy with herbaceous, yeasty flavors.
Although makes an attempt have been made, manufacturing pulque as an RTD beverage dramatically alters its id. “Pulque can not journey,” says Fabiola Padilla, proprietor of San Miguel de Allende bar Bekeb, who sources aguamiel from her uncle’s close by ranch and ferments it in-house. “The fantastic thing about these drinks is that they’re made in a standard manner from native crops utilizing pure fermentation and no components. It’s not simply concerning the finish outcome, however the course of and origin.”
Nevertheless, for U.S.-based bartenders, the provision of distilled pulque, a higher-proof different to the ready-to-drink choices, presents an intriguing new spirit in addition to a platform with which to teach company about its fermented predecessor. When La Contenta opened, the one type of pulque obtainable to Valencia was an inferior canned product. Nonetheless, his Pulque de Guayaba (rum, guava purée, pulque, lemon and vanilla essence) was an immediate hit and has been on the menu ever since. However when Tlaxcala’s Juerte Destilado de Pulque grew to become obtainable in late 2021, Valencia swapped it in, praising the spirit’s lychee notes, grassy nostril and lighter mouthfeel.
Serving pulque—and a distilled model at that—has been extra fraught for Vela, who resides in Texas, on land that after belonged to Mexico. She recounts a current debate with a Mexican adobe activist in West Texas: “He requested me, ‘What would a tlachiquero [a maguey tapper who harvests aguamiel] consider such a factor?’ And I take into consideration that and agree that we have to proceed to ask these sorts of questions of the producers we work with,” she says. “However I additionally really feel it’s vital for me to offer entry to those ancestral drinks, even when it’s a unique expression.”
Whereas Vela admits she experiences inner battle relating to the consumption of pre-Columbian drinks outdoors of their homeland, she believes their growing visibility serves the larger good. “My aim is to symbolize and honor Mexican indigenous traditions and heritage with my drinks,” she says. “I’ve had lots of Mexicans from older generations contact me to say they keep in mind them from their childhood, and tasting them has supplied a connection to their ancestors and homeland.”
Padilla Flores echoes these sentiments, and he or she additionally embraces the chance to showcase what remains to be an underrepresented aspect of Mexico’s drink tradition. “Utilizing ancestral drinks opens the door to create new and thrilling cocktails,” she says. The way in which she sees it, on the subject of Mexican elements, “every part outdated is new once more.”
