RAICILLA : MEXICAN MOONSHINE
Jamie is walking through the tianguis in Puerto Vallarta, suddenly he sees along the roadside, a little bit away from the market, a man in a palapa, Jamie, intrigued, approaches the palapa and and ask the old man, in his 60s, with a faded shirt, a hat and a grey stubble beard.
-Hola, señor
-Señor, replied the old man, nodding
-What are you selling ?
The stall only had a few plastic bottles unlabelled, they look like Coca-Cola bottles without the label and with different screw tops.
-Raicilla, señor
-Raicilla ? Little roots ? said Jamie, intrigued.
-It’s an agave spirit
-Like Tequila ?
-Tequila has to be made with Blue Weber agave and Blue Weber agave only. Raicilla can be made with Angustifolia agave (he is pointing to different plastic bottles), Maximiliana or Rhodacantha for exemple.
Jamie is more and more interested.
-So it is closer to Mezcal then ?
-Yes but Raicilla is made in Jalisco, which is just outside the Mexican states in which Mezcal must be produced. The production is quite similar, the pina are roasted underground in a pit oven. But Raicilla is traditionally distilled only once, unlike Mezcal that has to be double distilled.
While he’s explaining that, he grabs two small shot glasses called caballitos and pours two shots of his spirit.
Jamie is quite amazed by that old man and his little stall.
-What’s your name señor ?
-Esteban, you ?
He hands one of the caballito to Jamie.
-My name is Jamie, nice to meet you. Salud !
They clink their glass and drink.
-It’s delicious, have you made that ?
-Yes, my family has been distilling Raicilla for ages. This spirit has been around since the 17th century.
-Why is it called Raicilla ?
-It means “little roots”. We used to lie to the authorities to avoid paying taxes. Mezcal is taxed but we were saying that it is not mezcal, that instead of using the pina from the agave we were using the roots. Between you and me, that’s why I’m selling it in an unlabelled bottle, it is not 100% legal.
Esteban sips the last drop from his caballito.
-It has less regulation than Mezcal, it is still really traditional and not really suitable for high volume production. Those are made using a clay pot still. Some Raicilla are even distilled in an old tree trunk.
-I’ll get one bottle please señor
Days later,
Jamie walks into that bar in central Puerta Vallarta, still thinking about that old man and his bottles. It looks like a really classic Mexican bar, there are a lot of bottles on the back bar and the cocktails on tables look pretty nice. The bar stools are empty and Jamie loves to sit at the bar. He wonders if they have any Raicilla that is not in plastic bottles.
Jamie gives a shot and asks the bartender :
-Do you have any Raicilla ?
-Of course, señor, here they are, top shelf.
La Venenosa Sur Raicilla, 46.3%
Estancia Raicilla, 40%
Balam Madurado Raicilla, 45%
-What do they taste like ?
-Raicillas can be different depending on the agave that they use but it tends to have smooth flavours of wood, wet earth, herbs, pepper, minerals, and tropical fruit flavours with a citrus finish.
-Interesting. Could you do cocktails with it ?
-Let me try señor.
Raicilla Sour
50ml of Raicilla
12.5ml of lime juice
12.5ml of Lemon juice
12.5ml of hibiscus honey
20ml of Aquafaba or egg white
Garnish with large hibiscus flower and a spray of tamarind essence
Esteban's Highball
40ml of Raicilla
10ml of Sherry
5ml of Ancho Reyes
5ml of lemon juice
Top up with Soda
No Garnish
