Ancho Reyes Original Chile Liqueur

A traditional Spirit from the city of Puebla.

In the 1920s in the Barrio del Artista neighborhood of the city of Puebla, Mexico, artists and thinkers would meet in bars to exchange ideas and sip on menjurjes, homemade Liqueurs. One of the most popular was the one made by the Reyes family from ancho chiles, dried and smoked poblano peppers. And would you look at that: the recipe for the offering before you is based on an old Pueblan recipe by the same Reyes family from that exact era and there are two versions available: Ancho Reyes Original and Ancho Reyes Verde.

For Ancho Reyes Original, the chiles are harvested later when they’ve turned red and they’re hand-selected for their maturity. Master Distiller Lupita Garcia sources the peppers from local farmers who grow the peppers sustainably in the region’s volcanic soils. Then, the chiles are sundried for 15-20 days to become ancho chiles with their rich, smoky, and fiery flavors. The ancho chiles are then scissor-sliced by hand and soaked for 6 months in small vats of neutral cane spirit from Veracruz, Mexico. The final juice is hand-blended and delivers flavors of cinnamon, oak, apple, coffee, mixed herbs, and plums. Sip neat or mix it up and make a Spicy Mexian Mule, a spicy twist on an Old Fashioned or Daquiri.