Tequila and mezcal are more popular than ever, and other Mexican spirits are also coming on strong. For this episode, we turn to this year’s Imbibe 75 for two perspectives on agave and other Mexican spirits: mezcal envoy and “Heritage Mezcal” podcast host Chava Peribán, and Nacho Jimenez, a partner and master of ceremonies at Superbueno in New York City.
Tequila and mezcal are booming in American bars, and other Mexican spirits are making their way to the mainstream. For this episode, we explore this growing part of the drinks world with Salvador “Chava” Peribán, host of the Heritage Mezcal podcast and one of this year’s Imbibe 75 People to Watch; and Ignacio “Nacho” Jimenez, a partner and master of ceremonies at Superbueno in New York City, one of this year’s Imbibe 75 Places to Watch.
Radio Imbibe is the audio home of Imbibe magazine. In each episode, we dive into liquid culture, exploring the people, places, and flavors of the drinkscape through conversations about cocktails, coffee, beer, spirits, and wine. Keep up with us at imbibemagazine.com, and on Instagram, Threads, and Facebook, and if you're not already a subscriber, we'd love to have you join us—click here to subscribe.
Episode 92 – Agave and Beyond, with Chava Peribán and Nacho Jimenez
Paul Clarke
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Radio Imbibe from Imbibe magazine. I am Paul Clarke, Imbibe’s editor in chief. And if you follow booze news on any level, then you're probably aware of how massively big tequila and mezcal have become over the past 20 years or so.
Just last week, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, in their annual overview of the spirits industry, noted that the agave spirits category is currently ranked second only to vodka in terms of overall sales, and is gaining fast. Which is great news in a way, if you're a fan of agave spirits. But tequila and mezcal also come with special challenges in the rush to add brands to the market and to capitalize on the demand issues of sustainability and economic disparity, as well as questions of quality and authenticity, are increasingly subjects of conversation.
In this year's Imbibe 75, we included several people and places who are making their own imprint on the agave spirits category, and are opening our eyes to the bigger stories related to these spirits, and to Mexican spirits overall. For this episode, we're talking to two people who are playing big roles in the agave conversation. Salvador Peribán and Ignacio Jimenez. Salvador, who goes by Chava, lives in Mexico City, and is the host of the Heritage Mezcal podcast. And over the course of his career, he's worked in every aspect of the mezcal industry, aside from sales. And Ignacio, who goes by Nacho, lives in New York City, where he's the master of ceremonies at Superbueno in the East Village, a bar that's introducing a whole new crowd to the joy that can be found in exploring Mexican spirits.
We're kicking things off with Chava Peribán, in a conversation about his wandering path into the mezcal world and why the spirit holds such fascination for him.
[music]
Paul Clarke
Chava, welcome to Radio Imbibe.
Chava Peribán
Paul, it's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for making the time for me.
Paul Clarke
I'm so happy to have you on the podcast for a couple of reasons. First off, as I mentioned in the intro to this episode, you're included in our Imbibe 75 for 2024 in our January-February issue because of the many ways you've worked with mezcal over the years and the perspective you share on agave spirits on your podcast, Heritage Mezcal. And I spoke with you for that issue several months ago, and I recall thinking at the time, “Man, we should really do this for the podcast. This is awesome.” So I'm glad that we were able to make this happen. And when talking about mezcal and you, you kind of took a circuitous route to getting into working with mezcal. How did that happen? Walk us through your history.
Chava Peribán
And I was just talking with someone about this, and they're like, “This is the most ridiculous story I've heard in a long time.” You know, when I think about it, too, it's sort of bizarre because I started industrial design, you know, very early on. I was fascinated about the objects of the world. And, you know, I used to be like, take a pen. And I was like, wait, why is this pen the shape that it is? Why did they use these materials? Why is, why do we write in black and blue and red? Right? Why didn't the world choose orange or any other thing? So for me, that was very appealing, I think.
At the beginning, I thought about being an architect. But then, like, I think I'm just afraid of big things. I was like, I want to be related to things that I can hold in my hands and they can make millions of them. So I went into the major, thinking that it was going to be something very different and very early on, I realized that it was packed with people that were very interested in decorating. So everybody wanted to make like the prettiest car you have ever seen, the prettiest piece of furniture. I was like, “Yeah, this is not what I had imagined.” And I really was more interested in fabrication. I don't know for you, but like, the first time I walked into a factory, the first time I walked into a studio in a place where they're making things, I remember feeling the chills.
Paul Clarke
Right.
Chava Peribán
I remember like, that has been the most mystical experience ever had in my life. I was like, I don't deserve to—I feel like I was having access to, like, the most precious secrets in the world. So I started going to studios in Oaxaca and eventually I got hired to design a high temperature ceramic kiln that could work with alternative energies. And if there's a complicated thing to do in this world, it is definitely that project. It was supposed to. Yeah. Like, can you imagine? I mean, I was like, I haven't even finished my major. I had, like, I was doing a social service there.
Paul Clarke
Right.
Chava Peribán
So what originally was meant to be six months became seven years of living in Oaxaca and what was supposed to start and end in ceramics became a trip through ceramics and glass and glassblowing. It's I mean, it's a fascinating, beautiful thing to do. And I specialize in combustion systems. So basically how to make fire,
Paul Clarke
Mm hmm.
Chava Peribán
Because people see the oven, and they see this big thing and they believe that is the hard thing to do. But the combustion system is really where we're like a big part of the complexities. And at the time we used to make a lot of mezcal bottles. Mezcal was still, I mean, still tiny, to be completely honest. But it was even tinier at the time. Yeah. Like 2000, 2012, 2014. And people were starting to realize that they had to scale some of these factories of mezcal. Well, when they tried to go to the tequila land and hire engineers there, every engineer was like, “You know what, guys? We don't work with direct combustion.” I mean, I saw some pictures on your Instagram because I'm a great gossiper and you have this beautiful picture of a Armagnac still.
Paul Clarke
Right, Right.
Chava Peribán
It's beautiful piece of equipment and I think the most interesting part about it is there's direct fire.
Paul Clarke
Yeah. They’re shoving wood into the compartment at the time that they're making Armagnac. Yeah.
Chava Peribán
And like, that changes the experience. No, you go to a distillery and you see fire on your face and you're like, suddenly that spirit is way more precious. Well, at least for me. And so it was like, yes, this sounds like a great thing to develop. So we ended up spending two years developing ways into using direct combustion for distilling mezcal in a way that mimicked wood, because at the time there was also this big problem and I’m getting super technical Paul and I apologize for this, but it was like a lot of people were using like what I call a carnitas burner. Have you ever seen the carnitas boiling pot?
Paul Clarke
Oh, right, right, yeah.
Chava Peribán
They were literally appropriating that to distill mezcal, and that was like not really the smartest way because you didn't have like a very cozy, like nicely distributed amount of heat to have the whole body to have the same temperatures. And we spent years trying to solve that problem and we installed that first system in Sombra. And then after that was installed, nobody in the town wanted to use it because they're like, “this is not worth this. This sounds, this looks extremely bizarre.” And I got hired to distill for a year in Sombra. And I think, like that's when I really got like not only my feet and my hands into the process, but I was literally sleeping in that factory maybe three, four nights a week.
Paul Clarke
Right.
Chava Peribán
And we had bunk beds. And I just like, yeah, this this is going to be, I guess, part of my life now.
Paul Clarke
Right, right. And, you know, getting into it kind of accidentally, but you found something engaging about mezcal, about the people you were working with and about everything. About the process. What encouraged you to think this is the direction I'm going to go? I'm not going to be designing cars. I'm not going to be doing glass studios. Mezcal is the direction I'm going to go.
Chava Peribán
Well, like to be absolutely honest, I think that at the time I couldn't think of anything more mysterious. As I was telling you, like walking into workshops for me was like getting access to the most precious secrets of the world. But then, you know, like, things are objects. You see them, you know, like you get what you see, you see a bottle, and that's all there is. With mezcal, even if you do it yourself, there's information there that it's not even clear to the maker. It's the ultimate pack of mysteries. So for me it was like, okay, it's not only understanding the processes and the technologies and everything that is related to what I'm doing, but it's even, once it's done, I don't even have right now the tools to understand the thing. And then Mexico, I like to say it's not a country, it's a continent. It's the ultimate place of diversity. So it's like I can actually spend the rest of my life traveling around tasting stuff, and there's just not an end, I cannot even to this day see the horizon of where this can end. So for me, that was just the expansiveness of the medium that really grabbed my heart.
Paul Clarke
And somewhere in there, you also started being one of the voices of agave, first through Agave Road Trip and now with Heritage Mezcal, which launched last year. How did that transition take place, or how did that addition take place from working as a designer and distiller into sharing voices and these perspectives on mezcal?
Chava Peribán
Well, like, I mean, as you can see, I talk a lot and like, that's been a characteristic of mine all my life. And I think that mezcal, unlike, say, Armagnac and like most of the European traditions of spirits, it's not very—I mean, it's not documented at all on paper. Like if you want to know what was the wine served in Louix XIV’s coronation, there are pieces of paper that will tell you which grape was used, the processes, how it was served, how many bottles they drank. We don't even have documentation of how possibly mezcal tasted like in the 1800s.
Paul Clarke
Mm hmm.
Chava Peribán
Everything is, it's information that's passed through the words. It's oral. And I think that also keeps it amazingly interesting and vibrant and changing all the time. So when I was thinking like, okay, there's not that much information that I can find out about mezcal. Of course, there's like some academic papers and whatnot, but not like what people are thinking on the ground. I knew that it had to be through voices and through talking to people. And I guess like also, like doing the translation that I could with my own voice. I think that that was why that medium like ultimately was the one that, that I chose.
Paul Clarke
And, you know, nowadays everyone seemingly is drinking and talking agave spirits. And there's a massive boom in the U.S. and worldwide. Looking at what's going on globally with agave spirits and looking close to home for you, with the people you work with and talk to on a daily basis, what did you hope to bring to this bigger conversation, this wider conversation about agave and about mezcal with your podcast?
Chava Peribán
I mean, the first part, I was thinking about this the other day, and I think it's super funny. I think I am the only podcast on mezcal that is done by a Mexican who lives in Mexico.
Paul Clarke
Huh, wow. Okay. Yeah.
Chava Peribán
Which is—I mean, it's a very basic thing, right?
Paul Clarke
Right, right.
Chava Peribán
But I think that and I don’t want to make that—like, I think there's voices of people from the outside that are extremely valuable because sometimes as an insider you get myopia. So you need somebody from the outside to actually see things that you can’t see. But at the same time, I'm on the ground every day, like every time, even when I'm going out to party, even when I'm trying to have a good time, I get to see the tiny shifts from like, I think what an eighteen year old is drinking and what a 45 year old is drinking at a fancy restaurant. And if there's a change of perception of how they are seeing agave in Mexico as Mexicans, and for me, that's very important, because even if it becomes a global phenomena, which it has already in a way, even though the sales of mezcal are still tiny. But tequila, yeah, that's a juggernaut these days. I think it's very important for us as the people that sustain this and that believe it and that have a like direct connection of history with that, to try to understand what does it mean for us and what it has meant to our families. Like when I talk with my parents about mezcal, my father has the most ridiculous stories about it. And it's lovely, you know, in a way, it's like these voices that I don't, or the stories that I don’t think that, if you're not from here, if you live here, you wouldn't be able to encounter that easily. So I think that's the little part that I try to do.
Paul Clarke
For people who haven't checked out your podcast yet, let's share a little light. The name has mezcal in it, obviously. And yes, there's mezcal in the podcast. And you talk about things like agave age and market growth and the yeast that factors into making mezcal. But mezcal is about much more than just what's in the bottle or in the glass in front of you. Because you talk about baseball, and Mexico as a brand, and venturing into fruit spirits and rum and fermented coffee. As you've explained to me before, all of these kind of come back to mezcal and the heritage part of the podcast name that's also in there. How do you do that? How do you, how do you look at this subject of mezcal and agave spirits and bring in such a wide ranging conversation and range of topics?
Chava Peribán
So, I mean, I think it's very connected to what I was saying before in the sense that I think that I, I was very interested in mezcal, but later on—first, I was very interested in Oaxaca. First I was very interested in rural Mexico. First, I was very interested in these places that I couldn't quite grasp. I knew I love them. I knew I had the best, like, I knew that I love a three-day wedding, you know, like that. That was some of the best parties I’ve gone to in my life.
But then I understood that mezcal was almost like the connective tissue, or it was one of the connective tissue to all of this. But as you cannot understand mezcal without understanding the three-day wedding party, or baseball, or how they cook carnitas, or how they think about a baptism or a quinceañera, I think that that is like its heritage, its context. And I think in the other spirits that it's sort of better understood, you know, like I think people in Cognac or in France, they’re like, in order to understand the spirits, you need to understand what French-ness means, whatever the hell that is. Right. Like whoever knows what French-ness means, you're my hero. But so whatever.
And I thought that there's not that much information about that in Mexico. You know, it's bizarre because we—and I think we're the biggest offenders, and that we sometimes create cartoons out of Mexico. And it's almost like we flatten ourselves. And I think like another part of the missions that I want to do is to say, like, “we are such complex groups of people and there's all these—within this galaxy, I'm trying to be like, okay, that's the very bright star that we have never seen.” And just trying to tell more of those stories because I think the more people understand that, the more they are going to understand why this is one of the most complex spirits in the world.
Paul Clarke
Right, Right. And at the time we're having this conversation, it's early 2024. And part of the goal of our Imbibe 75 is to look ahead and the kinds of progress and contributions and projects people are taking on. For you and your podcast, what can we anticipate in the months ahead?
Chava Peribán
Oh, good Lord, I wish I knew. But I know, like, you know, it's so funny because my sound editor, Roy, which honestly, I wouldn't be able to do the show without him because he's a genius of sound. And as you may know, sound is also very challenging thing for me. I love video. I can do video every day of the week because it's visual, you know, So you get what you do. But with audio, I think you need a very trained, you know, skill in order to do a good job. Otherwise it’s horrifying. And I was having conversation with him and he's like, “I think that finally you're starting to find your voice. I think that finally you're starting to get the direction, what you want to do with this.” And I think the last episodes that I've been doing, I started with a very short format, right? It was 15 to 20 minutes. I wanted to make it fast and furious. And then it turns out that consistent with everything that I've been saying, turns out that these things need longer conversations, it needs, because a lot of people don't know anything about this. Sometimes I don't even know anything about this. You're like fruit spirits and we're asking like, Have you ever met anybody who’s distilled mango in Mexico? And I mean, we have some of the most delightful mangoes in the frickin world. And to think of an alcohol that comes out of that, and it's mind blowing. And then I go to a lot of weddings similarly, not really, but now has happened. I was driving through Culiacán del Norte of Mexico, and they pass like a sugarcane factory processor. And there's so much sugarcane production in Mexico and sugarcane spirits, but nobody really talks about it as a thing, maybe Charanda. They made it in some places, but it's almost like a generic product, like if you were talking about sugar. So when you talk to people from those factories, “hey, have you ever thought about the alcohol that you guys make?” It's like, “why would we think about it, it’s just generic?” And you're like, “No, no, no. I know you have no idea you're making—
Paul Clarke
“No, it's really cool…”
Chava Peribán
Yeah, like this is a sugarcane spirits made of juice, of fresh juice of sugar. And you know how special this is? They're like, “man, this is like very generic stuff.” So I think that for me now, I mean, a long answer for something very simple in a way. It's like, again, like trying to look closer to a lot of the lost opportunities that I see around Mexico. And a lot of that I think, is going to translate into many of the spirits that have been neglected historically in this country.
Paul Clarke
Right? Right. Are there any final thoughts you'd like to share with us as we head toward the exit here?
Chava Peribán
Yeah, I mean, I think that it's very interesting what you were saying in the sense that a lot of people, mostly in the industry, see agave as this extremely booming force and that everybody loves it and that it's making so much money and that all of the people that were involved with it, we're like doing great.
But it's an interesting thing because a lot of attention—yes, the big guys are doing amazingly because they're selling way more. They're opening new markets. But I think something that I would like to say to a lot of the people in the industry is like, yes, but if the small brands don't get a benefit out of this, this can get very boring very fast. Because a bunch of the small kids, a bunch of the small brands, they are not really seeing this explosion in sales because they're not getting into wells. You know, they're that like $30 for the that bottle is going to last for three months.
And I think this is a great moment still for us to make something about that. I'm for making, for keeping this interesting because really in ten years this can be as boring as many of the other generic things that are out there. So if there's a way to protect this, the interesting parts of this industry, it’s making sure that the guys who are making the interesting products get also a part of those sales, and it's just not all concentrated in the well mezcals that, I mean, they're needed and I celebrate them. But let's diversify a little bit off of those profits and of that growth.
Paul Clarke
Right. Yeah. Those well mezcals can be a beginning, but they should be just the beginning.
Chava Peribán
And I love the idea of super complex wells. You know, I know that maybe it's prohibitively expensive sometimes in the in the context of a bar, but there's a bar that I love in Guadelajara called Rita Perez and they do like the funnest like hair of the dog hangover cocktails with super complex spirits. And they found a way to make that sense economically. So people that will have never thought about complex mezcal. So only they're trying, you know, like one of super beautiful agave in something that is like a hair of the dog cocktail.
Paul Clarke
Right?
Chava Peribán
And they're like, Oh, this can be fun. This is not only like for the snobbish kids that want to make alcohol part of their identity, something like, games like that can also help a lot.
Paul Clarke
Right, right. Absolutely. Well, Chava, it's always great to talk to you. Thanks so much for being on the podcast, and I'm looking forward to seeing you again very soon. Hopefully.
Chava Peribán
Paul, and I really can't stress enough how honored I am to be in that list. I was looking at the resumes of everybody in there. I was like, “Everybody here is an overachiever and I'm just, you know, a silly kid trying to do something with mezcal.” And I really, really appreciate it.
Paul Clarke
Absolutely. You know, you're doing great work and we appreciate it. I can't wait to see what you have coming down the pike in the future.
Chava Peribán
Awesome. Paul, it's always a pleasure, hope to see you pretty soon.
[music]
Paul Clarke
Head online to HeritageMezcal.com to listen in on Chava’s podcast, and head to SalvadorPeriban.com to learn more about Chava and his work.
Now, Nacho Jimenez is no stranger to the pages of Imbibe magazine. We've been pleased to have him on board in the past in his former role in Ghost Donkey in New York City back in early 2020. And last year, Nacho opened his own place in partnership with Greg Boehm, Superbueno in the East Village. Superbueno is one of our Imbibe 75 places to watch this year, which Robert Simonson wrote for us for this issue. Here's our full conversation with Nacho about what it means to run a Mexican American cocktail bar, and the many ways he translates agave spirits and the wider range of Mexican spirits for his guests at Superbueno.
[music]
Paul Clarke
Nacho, Welcome to Radio Imbibe.
Nacho Jimenez
Hi, Paul, thank you so much for having me.
Paul Clarke
Absolutely. And you know, I'm excited to have you on the podcast because we're currently going through our Imbibes 75 coverage for 2024 in which we feature your bar, Superbueno. And this is the second time we've had a bar that you've been affiliated with on the list. So welcome back to it, we're happy to have you back. Superbueno, of course, is your bar in New York City, that we featured in a piece from Robert Simonson. And in that piece you refer to Superbueno as a Mexican American cocktail bar, which seems straightforward in a way, but also something that you thought about a bit. What do you mean by that? And how do you want guests to experience that during a visit?
Nacho Jimenez
Well, the best possible way to explain is it's a Mexican American bar in the sense of the cultural experience from both worlds. Where we live, there’s Superbueno inside, which is the New York experience and the American experience. And, you know, my heritage of where I come from, which is the Mexican experience, so it’s the combination of both cultures into one. So you will see that throughout the entire menu, the entire cocktail list, throughout the entire food menu, throughout the entire spirit list, and even through our staff members and through some of the decorations and ambiance, which has a little bit of both from both worlds.
Paul Clarke
Right, right. I want to get into your spirit list here in a minute. But before we do that, Superbueno’s approach to cocktails goes far beyond the standard Margaritas that we’re accustomed to. Let's talk about a couple of examples from the menu. Maybe the Dashi Papi, could we introduce that one and just tell us a little bit about that and what's your approach to do drinks like that?
Nacho Jimenez
Yeah, well the approach was always to create the cocktail list that reflected that very much like any other cocktail list from any other cocktail bar. My cocktail menu, it's only ten cocktails with a very short menu, which means that you know, while not everything is for everyone, you will definitely find something that you will love within the menu.
And my approach to the cocktail menu is having a base of, either a classic cocktail that is inspired and then our take on it usually using iconic Mexican ingredients, or a cooking process, a dish, or it could be inspired by a serving. So in this case, Dashi Papi, it's basically a boilermaker. We wanted to have a boilermaker on the menu to pay homage to the previous space that existed in the space that is Superbueno, which it was coincidentally called Boilermaker. And that was when I thought about having a boilermaker. I had an opportunity of serving some friends at a French restaurant that I used to work, and they would one day ask me for shot of whiskey. And we used to sell an amazing French onion soup. And they said, like, “can we call a shot of whiskey and a French onion chaser?” And I'm like, “That's a brilliant idea.” I can Mexicanize that, you know, and you tell you kind of the structure. Boilermakers aren't something that you drink in Mexico. Boilermakers are something that you drink in America. And the way to do it, we were already thinking on our menu to have a birria grilled cheese. So my idea was to use some of that broth from the birria grilled cheese and serve it with a little bit of raicilla and then also with beer from Mexico. So it was very straightforward, but it also relies so much on the flavor of the birria, the complex rich spiced pepper on it, and then complemented by the funkiness of the raicilla, and then you can kind of all wash it down with the beer. So in itself, it’s like a little bit of a deconstructed cocktail with a lot of thought behind it.
Paul Clarke
I think that's that sounds delicious, by the way. That sounds really, really good. And it sounds fascinating.
Nacho Jimenez
It's amazing.
Paul Clarke
It sounds fascinating because as you mentioned, you're bringing in all of these kind of culinary influences and ingredients and flavors from Mexican cuisine, things like mango and roasted corn into the cocktails that you serve. Overall from the drinks on the menu. where you’re doing this, what do you hope guests will take away from that experience?
Nacho Jimenez
Uou know, I had already had the concept of Superbueno and what I wanted to do for the past three years before I opened, and this is before I entered the partnership with my partner, Greg Boehm. I already knew what I wanted to do. Two years into thinking about and developing that concept, I already had a name and the one thing that I struggled the most is how to define what I wanted to do. I didn't want it to be a tequila mezcal bar. I didn't want it to be a cantina. I didn't want it to be a restaurant. And then finally the answer was in front of me all these years, which meant that, my best friend Masa has a Japanese American bar. And I said to myself, like, you know, I've been going to Katana Kitten since it opened and I have a very close relationship to him. So he was there all the time. I said, like, “I can just call my bar, our Mexican American bar?” And within that, I find a lot of freedom of being who I am.
If you say you're a Mexican restaurant? Because there are all of these factors in which you have to follow in, you know, all this preconception of what a Mexican restaurant is, the dishes that you offer, how you're presenting that, and there's definitely a little bit more bigger acceptance of what you can do. There have been numerous Mexican restaurants who have pushed the boundaries into what a Mexican restaurant can do.
I still find myself trying to kind of fill in the box the same way that goes with mezcal and tequila. If I wanted to call myself a tequileria and mezcal, and wanted to keep like some other spirits that I like behind the bar, I felt like that was too narrow for me. So in essence, what we try to do is broaden the perception in which our culture can be perceived. With that said, you know, broaden the versatility of flavors and how can these be used in the way that they can be presented to you as well. For instance, we have the Huitlacoche Margarita, which is an ingredient that's usually made into stews or, you know, served most typically in the most typical representation, it's on a quesadilla. For us, it was to show the versatility or flavor of a mushroom integrated into a very iconic American classic, which is the Margarita, and offer something different. And within that, you know, broaden your vision or your perception of what Mexican culture is. You know, like many other cultures in this time of this day and age, exposed to many other different factors. And we can, adapt to anything.
Paul Clarke
I'm happy that you brought up the question of, you know, how you want to go in a different direction from doing like a tequila-mezcal bar, because I want to talk about the spirits selection that you have at Superbueno. And yes, you obviously, you have tequila and obviously you have mezcal, but you also have a more expansive selection and you plan to expand that even more this coming year. What kinds of things do you hope guests discover about Mexican spirits and the range of Mexican spirits when visiting the bar?
Nacho Jimenez
Mexico on its own, it is and it has always been a culinary destination. You know, while there's definitely a development within that, within the past 15, 20 years, there has always been the passion, the excitement of creating new things within Mexican culture. You can see them in the ever-evolving cuisine culture of this. In Mexico, we're always creating something, you know, whether it's a way of serving a ceviche, we're never taking anything for granted.
So in the same way that we talk about, food, we can talk about the many opportunities distillers are creating out there for themselves. Obviously, Mexico, it's country rich in resources. We're closer to the equator. So that means that we have a lot of availability of fresh fruits and vegetables. So there's a little bit of a movement, a small movement of Mexican mezcal producers already trying to create and work with fruits and veggies to create distillados of different fruits ,and then we're trying to focus on that a little bit, just bring in a few more of those distillados.
We feature one of them in our Mango Martini, which is distillado de mango from my friend Elisandro from Tosba Mescal. And then we feature another company who's also doing more, not so much distillados but eau de vie in that sense, with fruits that are native to Mexico, or fruits that are available in Mexico. I like that. You know, I like the idea of never taking anything for granted. And then, you know— there's the corn movement and Mexico ha,s I don't know how many expressions of corn or a species of corn, but there's so much availability. And you can already see, you know, brands like Abosolo taking kind of a step forward and creating whiskey that is very unique. and within that you will begin to see a revolution of Mexican whiskey in that sense. So it's just a matter of like, you know, we can be a culture that develops beyond tequila and mezcal and there will be, you know, many other spirits come in within the years as we feel more comfortable enough this industry develops and grows more within the country.
Paul Clarke
We're heading toward the end of this episode now. Are there any final thoughts or aspects of Superbueno that you'd like to make sure that guests know about or that you share with us?
Nacho Jimenez
We have been very lucky to start at a moment in time where the opportunity and the acceptance of the people towards cultural expressions are so—cultural expressions from bars are so heavy. I just want to be thankful for everyone that has taken the time to be open and to experience Superbueno. I know that we don't offer your typical margarita menu or, you know, your typical taco service.. But everyone is being so open and so welcoming. So I just want to take this time to say thank you for all the support and all the love shown through the past few months and just come in and, either enjoy, you know, a nice, amazing meal or come and dance with us later on at night, as well.
Paul Clarke
Nacho, thank you so much for taking the time to share all of this with us and to talk to me today. And you know, I'm way overdue for a visit to Superbueno. I need to get in there and see you sometime.
Nacho Jimenez
Please, please, please reach out any time you want to stop by. We can't wait to have you over.
[music]
Paul Clarke
Head to superbuenonyc.com for more details on the bar and be sure to check it out when you're in New York. And you can find Nacho on Instagram @hopignacio. Just follow the link in this episode's notes to get there.
And that's it for this episode. Be sure to subscribe to Radio Imbibe on your favorite podcast app to keep up with future episodes. We've got plenty of recipes, stories, and our full back catalog of podcast episodes on our website at imbibemagazine.com. Keep up with us on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Threads for all of our social media activity. And if you're not already a subscriber to the print and or digital issues of Imbibe, then here's your opportunity to change that. Just follow the link in this episode’s notes and we'll be happy to help you out.
I'm Paul Clarke. This is Radio Imbibe. Catch you next time.