Parts: Ancho Reyes – Imbibe Journal

Chilies, each recent and dried, are a strong device for offering depth, richness, and warmth to Mexican delicacies—and plenty of peppers are two sides of the identical chili coin. The chipotle, as an illustration, is transmogrified via drying and smoking from the brightly spicy jalapeño. The benign poblano—massive, inexperienced, and delicate—when dried turns into the ancho, booming and daring. And ancho, in fact, is the star ingredient in Ancho Reyes Chile Liqueur, a product launched in 2014 although impressed by a recipe hailing from 1927.

Ancho Reyes appeared like a flash and all of a sudden was ubiquitous. Two years later, Ancho Reyes Verde made a equally starry entrance, displaying a zingier, extra natural character thanks to a couple tweaks in manufacturing. For Verde, poblanos are harvested whereas nonetheless inexperienced after which hearth roasted, as opposed to the late harvest and sun-drying course of which absolutely converts the refined poblano caterpillar into the vibrant ancho butterfly.

For the reason that liqueur’s debut, bartenders have had time to discover its potentialities. Some mixing companions are apparent: Simply as how meals from a explicit place tends to pair with its regional wines, the liqueur’s smoky and spicy notes—so acquainted from Mexican delicacies—are a pure slot in cocktails with tequila and mezcal. “Ancho Reyes pairs significantly properly with its sister agave spirits,” says Amanda Swanson of High-quality & Uncommon in New York Metropolis, who riffs on a well-known method utilizing mezcal, Ancho Reyes, apple cider, and ginger beer to make her Otoño Mule. “The deep, smoky taste of the peppers in Ancho Reyes performs very well with conventional fall spices, but additionally provides a component that steers these flavors away from conventional expectations,” Swanson says. “While you convey Ancho Reyes into the fold, the taste develops in a novel approach.”

However the pairing potentialities lengthen past agave. “When Jessica Gonzalez and I did the primary Llama Inn menu, we seen that pisco might go together with spice in nontraditional methods,” says Lynnette Marrero, bar director at Llama Inn in Brooklyn. For her Chica en Fuego, Marrero mixes pisco and Ancho Reyes with the richness of crème de cacao and the brightness of pineapple and lemon. “I’m flavors like they do within the kitchen.” 

For a cocktail with Ancho Reyes Verde, Lauren Paylor O’Brien, proprietor of LPDrinks in Washington, D.C., started working from a base impressed by her favourite dessert: Bananas Foster. The liqueur amplifies tequila’s vegetal, herbaceous qualities, with mole bitters accenting the spice and offering a chocolate word to pair with banana liqueur. “I’m a sucker for something that includes chocolate and banana, and has just a little chew,” she says.