Wondering what to pair with bacanora? Tess Rose Lampert outlines a fun approach to a DIY bacanora tasting, including a competition for the best bacanora cocktail.
When I’m in need of lighthearted entertainment, I like to watch cooking competition reality shows like Top Chef and Next Level Chef. There’s something about the pressure of the competition that brings out people’s creativity in a way that can produce novel and inspiring combinations. Playing around with this theme and structure, I’ve found that building a tasting around a friendly competition is a fun and effective way of teasing out new and unexpected ways to understand and appreciate the spirits.
This format seems especially suited to bacanora, which remains both elusive and oversimplified in today’s wider world of agave spirits discourse. Taking a playful approach helps us dig into this agave spirit niche category from a flavor-based perspective, showing off bacanora’s complexity and variety.
Some background on bacanora
Bacanora is a regional mezcal from the northern Mexican state of Sonora. It has a unique history, agave variety, and culture within the cannon of agave spirits. In recent years, bacanora has become more available than ever in external and international markets, allowing curious sippers to get to know this terroir-driven agave spirit. Bacanora is characteristically approachable when compared to some other subvarieties of agave spirits, making it a suitable option for a tasting among both novices and experienced drinkers.
Choosing the best bacanora for this tasting
For this format, it’s ideal to have 3-4 spirits in total. Some of the most commonly found bacanora brands that would make a nice line-up include Santo Cuviso, Batuq, Kilinga, Mazot, Los Cantiles 1905, Rancho Tepua, and Yoowe. If you happen to have a friend who brought something back in a suitcase, that could be fun to add in as well!
How the bacanora tasting challenge works
The format of this friendly competition DIY tasting can be done in two ways, or by combining both options for two rounds.
Option 1: Challenge participants to make the best pairing bite. Working with the same option of ingredients on a tasting board, each participant chooses a spirit, and creates a custom bite meant to enhance the flavors of the spirit.
Option 2: Challenge participants to create a bacanora cocktail with the same goal of enhancing the flavor of the spirit.
I advise keeping this bacanora tasting challenge on the smaller side, with 3-4 participants, so that everyone gets a chance to try everything. The point is not so much to judge who did the best, but to explore different combinations and how they interact with the flavors of the spirits. The fun and slight frenzy of friendly competition adds a layer of excitement and gamifies the experience of exploring the flavors of bacanora in an in-depth way. If you’re a bar manager, you could do this with your staff and put the best pairing or cocktail on the menu, but it’s just as fun with no prize other than enjoying the experience.
How to set up the bacanora pairing competition
Bites
It’s important to be set up correctly, with ample options to create pairing bites and cocktails. For pairing bites, you’ll need a substantial tasting board with at least two of each in the following categories for variation and options:
- cracker/bread/tortilla
- cheese, fruit preserve
- fresh fruit/veg
- nuts/seeds/chapulines
- chocolate/caramel/sweet
- seasoned salt
- herbs
- Additional options: smoked fish and meats or other charcuterie, cookies/pastries/confection, vinegars, and oils.
Bacanora cocktails
For inventing bacanora cocktails, you’ll want to have plenty of ice, glassware, mixing tins and spoons, as well as two of each in the following categories:
- herbs
- seasoned salts or spice mixtures
- fresh fruit/veg
- syrups
- bitters
- juices
- carbonated mixers
- liqueurs
The goal is to have fun and let the flavors of these spirits guide the experimentation. The result is a surprisingly in-depth understanding and appreciation for the variation to be found in this regional agave spirit. Whether done as a staff training, or a casual event amongst friends, this DIY bacanora tasting is all about combining playfulness with knowledge, with some great sips and bites along the way.
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