Welcome to our journal. We’ll talk about all things Mírame, including food, drinks, and culture and more about what is inspiring us to do what we do.
I want to start what is Mírame’s first journal post by discussing our back bar…for those of you not in the biz, the backbar is exactly what it sounds like, the wall of booze that we keep on the back of the bar. At Mirame, our backbar is unique because it is comprised of only Mexican spirits—And I’m not just talking about the usual tequilas and mezcals, we have an amazing selection of Mexican whiskey, rum, and gin, but we’ll get into all of these things in future posts. So much to talk about…But first, Tequila! The tried and true spirit of Mexico.
We have so many people that walk into our restaurant and without opening our drink menu proceed to order one of the typical “popular” tequilas…There are a few that start with the letter “C” that seem to be the most frequently ordered. There’s nothing blatantly wrong with these spirits. Do they taste like agave…sort of-ish, but not really. They taste like whatever flavors are added to the spirit to influence the flavor. I’m not reinventing the wheel by bringing this up, but 100% agave tequila can contain up to 1% of additives that manufacturers can introduce to the tequila according to the Consejo Regulador del Tequila, Tequila’s regulatory agency, and still call it 100% agave Tequila. These are chemicals or flavorings added to influence the sweetness, the mouthfeel, the color, or oak extract to add more barrel taste. So at Mírame, we’ve made the decision to sell brands that only use 3 ingredients: Agave, water, and yeast. The rest of the flavor is determined by the plant, the cooking of the agave, the hand of the maker and any aging of the spirit.
Without additives, the real taste of the agave tends to come through and you get to taste the terroir from which it’s made. Agave spirits are some of the only to mature as they grow with some agave varieties taking up to 20 years before they’re used to make spirits. Blue Webber, the agave used in tequila, is typically harvested after 3-7 years, but compare that to a grain based spirit which matures in only a season.
When you add barrel aging into the mix, there’s a whole other rabbit hole of flavor influence. Sure, we love a good aged tequila just as much as the next spirit nerd, but we draw the line in the sand when it comes to how much that barrel impacts the flavor of the spirit. Do we lose the agave to the overwhelmingly powerful flavors of the barrel? The añejo’s and extra añejos we sell tend to be softened by the barrels but they also pick up new nuances that only barrel age brings out, without crushing the agave’s subtleties out by contact with wood.
Congratulations, if you’re still reading this, you are one of us, you’re a food and drink nerd, a flavor seeker with the booziest of intentions, a curious palleted person on a ‘spirit’ual journey looking for the next flavor fix. You’ve come to the right place because we are ‘spirit’ually curious too, and our backbar is full of bottles that we like to drink. Close your eyes and point at a bottle, and it’s guaranteed that it’ll be something delicious. Or get some guidance from our bartenders and drink your way across Mexico.
Here’s a little bonus video from our recent tasting dinner with Lalo of LALO tequila talking about his brand.
Stay tuned, we’ll get into more fun stuff next time.
Matt
