Grandma Celfa (my mom's mom), used to make ponche at least once a month for special occasions, parties, and welcoming friends to her home. The images I have of this tradition still stick with me today. Every time, she would put a piloncillo stone on top of the pot where she made the ponche. This stone would slowly melt, lending sweetness and flavor to her drink.
This has always reminded me that gastronomic culture is often rooted in family tradition that makes it unique, and your own.
As someone who leans toward experimentation,
I’m always looking for new ways to experience and engage with these traditions. In my activity as an artist, as well as with my alter-ego ̈La Princesa de Etzatlán, ̈ I have tried to experiment — sometimes obsessively — to satisfy my curiosity and discover new ways of creating. Since 2011, I have experimented constantly, researched a lot, and learned how to make ponche and liqueurs. My personal vision is expressed in PAJAROTE. Thanks to all the people who have walked with me on this journey. Thanks to all of those who have shared PAJAROTE in good company: with friends of their soul, with their partners, or just sitting with a good book.
- Mónica Leyva
OMA ARTISIANAL DELIGHTS
OMA Workshop allows for the creative freedom, experimentation, and learning required to make the best quality beverages with the best ingredients.
CLOVE & CARDAMOM
(22% Alc. Vol)
The CLOVE & CARDAMOM liqueur is a direct result of our obsession with the smell of clove. This spice combined with cardamom explodes in your mouth and finishes with a spicy and fine aftertaste, warming your whole body. Clove and cardamom are put to maceration in cane distillate for months on end. Like the Ginger Liqueur, this maceration is blended with our homemade piloncillo syrup to find our desired balance of alcoholic richness and profile.
GINGER (22% Alc. Vol)
The Ginger Liqueur took a full year’s worth of process to capture the spicy essence of its namesake root.
The process begins with selection, and then several months of ginger maceration in cane distillate sourced from Zapopan, Jalisco.
After maceration, it’s blended with our own homemade piloncillo syrup, where the proof is reduced to the desired level. Here, its sweetness, balance, and body is effectively packaged with the explosion of acidity and freshness so characteristic of ginger.
ARANDAS GRAPEFRUIT & AND ROSEMARY LIQUEUR
(22% Alc. Vol)
In Jalisco, there are several wild grapefruit and orange varieties that when peeled reveal a lot of white skin and very sour flavors. Because of these flavors, they are not often used. The few uses for these seasonal fruits are to make fresh water infusions, or some marinated pork stews. Almost always, you can find them lying on the ground, crushed and only serving to aromatize and purify the air of a polluted city.
In the town of Arandas, Jalisco, at the distillery where Siembra Azul Tequila is made, there is a large family of grapefruit trees that works as natural fencing for the factory’s fermentation area. The trees are used merely as an ornament, and their fruits have the same fate as those in the city.These grapefruits are always present near the agaves of the region, thus becoming an important part of the botanical family of the area.
One day, David Suro, director of Siembra Spirits, told La Princesa of Etzatlán how he uses the dehydrated peels of these grapefruits when tasting his tequila, expanding the sensory experience. This sparked the idea that we could make a liqueur that was part of the Siembra family, and express from another perspective the botanical environment of Arandas. This is how the Arandense Grapefruit & Rosemary Liqueur (Suro & Leyva) was born.
Arandense Grapefruit & Rosemary Liqueur is made by slowly and carefully peeling the grapefruit shells, during which you slowly but surely get drunk on the fragrant oils they emit. The husks will then macerate for a few months inside our cane distillate.Over time, the shell starts to lend its aromas and colors to the distillate. When it’s time, the rosemary is added, which brings freshness and balance to the maceration. This combination opens the nose to an almost therapeutic experience that invites you to clear your mind and enjoy.
Finally, natural colorants extracted from the achiote and cochineal are added. This process generates sediments that we like to preserve and present in the bottle.
I suggest for this liqueur to be tasted with Siembra Azul blanco tequila to better understand the botanical environment, and to be gastronomically transported to the beautiful agave fields where Siembra Azul tequila is made.
Tamarind Ponche!
(15% Alc. Vol) 750 ml
Tamarind is an essential fruit in Mexican gastronomy. Despite the tamarind tree is native to Africa, we have adopted and embraced it as our own in Mexico.
This bittersweet punch is an ode to tamarind chili candies. Designed to satisfy our eternal craving for something that sets us tingling from our taste-buds to our toes.
GUAVA is one of our favorite fruits!
(15% Alc. Vol) 750 ml
Little by little, we make the basis of this drink with natural guava pulp. The pulp of this punch is super aromatic and full of flavors. Then we add sugar cane syrup and natural water. We finally mix everything with cane alcohol to achieve the perfect sweet and sour balance on the palate of our guava ponche.
CHOCOLATE!
(15% Alc. Vol) 750 ml
This punch contains Mexico’s oldest treasure: cacao, a luxury item, and a means of exchange among our ancestors.
The cacao we use comes from “La Broma de Teo” a sister project, founded by Luciana Helguera. She works with Mexican producers who cultivate the cacao and extract the very best beans using artisanal methods.
It was in the Oaxaca markets where La Princesa de Etzatlán tasted the first time chocolate en agua (a traditional Oaxacan drink made from chocolate and purified water): that inspired her to create this punch.
That is the reason why the recipe is so simple: Cacao and sweetened water with Mexican brown sugar, “piloncillo”.
This punch is so natural, you can notice how the cacao sediments can settle in the neck of the bottle. Just give it a quick and fast shake, then here you go, enjoy a full taste of the chocolate in every sip.
DIX (30% Alc. Vol)
Is the artistic pseudonym, of Gertrudis, Mónica Leyva´s grandmother who inspired her since childhood to have a broader and riskier vision of life. A position she holds to this days.
The spirit of grandma Dix is present in this artisanal liquor made from the maceration of aromatic herbs and grapefruit peel, with highlights of laurel, clove and mint.
