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Margarita de Bacanora Sonorense
Created by
Sonora's margarita built on bacanora, the agave spirit prohibited for 77 years, with fresh lime, sour orange, agave nectar, and a salt rim crusted with wild chiltepin from the sierra.
Beverages
Mexican
Dinner Party
Outdoor Dining
Celebration
10 min
Active Time
0 min cook•10 min total
Yield2 cocktails
This is from Sonora. Not the margarita that Cancun bartenders pour for cruise ship passengers, not the slushy lime-green thing they serve at chain restaurants in the north. This is a Sonoran cocktail built on bacanora, and the spirit is the entire point.
Bacanora is not mezcal. Let me say that again because the bartenders in Mexico City still get it wrong. Bacanora is made from agave Pacifica (Agave angustifolia variety Pacifica), grown wild in the sierra of eastern Sonora, roasted in earthen pits, fermented, and distilled in copper. It carries a Denomination of Origin that covers 35 municipalities in the state. From 1915 until 1992, it was illegal. Seventy-seven years underground. The men and women who kept distilling it through prohibition, in the ranches above Bacanora, Sahuaripa, and Arivechi, are the reason this spirit exists at all. Treat it that way.
The chiltepin on the rim is the wild chile of the Sonoran desert. Birds eat the berries from thorny bushes and spread the seeds across the sierra; harvesters pay for those chiles by the gram because nobody farms them. The salt comes from Bahia de Kino, where the Sea of Cortez evaporates in flat pans on the coast. The agave is the family of the spirit. The lime is the brightness that wakes everything up. Nothing in this drink is decorative. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and Sonora pours from the desert into the glass.
My mother never made this. She was from Jalisco and she drank tequila like a Jalisciense. I learned bacanora from a senora named Dona Rosario in Sahuaripa, who poured me a glass at three in the afternoon and told me to taste the smoke before I said anything stupid about it. I have not said anything stupid about bacanora since.
Bacanora takes its name from the town of Bacanora in eastern Sonora and has been distilled in the sierra since the Spanish brought copper stills in the 17th century, though the indigenous Opata people fermented agave Pacifica long before distillation arrived. In 1915, Sonoran governor Plutarco Elias Calles, later president of Mexico, prohibited the production and consumption of bacanora as part of a broader temperance campaign, and the ban remained in effect for 77 years until 1992; producers who continued distilling during that period faced fines, imprisonment, and the destruction of their stills, yet the practice never died in the mountain ranches. Bacanora received its Denomination of Origin from the Mexican government in 2000, restricting production to 35 specified municipalities in Sonora, and is recognized as legally and botanically distinct from mezcal despite both spirits sharing agave roasting traditions.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
bacanora blanco
Quantity
4 ounces
from the Sonoran sierra (Cielo Rojo, Rancho Tepua, or Sunora)
fresh Mexican lime juice
Quantity
2 ounces
about 4 to 5 limes
agave nectar from agave Pacifica
Quantity
1 ounce
the same agave the bacanora is made from
naranja agria (sour orange) juice
Quantity
1/2 ounce
or equal parts fresh orange and lime juice
flaky sea salt from Bahia de Kino
Quantity
2 tablespoons
dried chiltepin
Quantity
1 tablespoon
crushed coarsely between the fingers
lime wedge
Quantity
1
for rimming the glass
ice cubes
Quantity
plenty
thin slices of lime (optional)
Quantity
2
for garnish
whole chiltepines (optional)
Quantity
a few
for the surface of the drink
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| bacanora blancofrom the Sonoran sierra (Cielo Rojo, Rancho Tepua, or Sunora) | 4 ounces |
| fresh Mexican lime juiceabout 4 to 5 limes | 2 ounces |
| agave nectar from agave Pacificathe same agave the bacanora is made from | 1 ounce |
| naranja agria (sour orange) juiceor equal parts fresh orange and lime juice | 1/2 ounce |
| flaky sea salt from Bahia de Kino | 2 tablespoons |
| dried chiltepincrushed coarsely between the fingers | 1 tablespoon |
| lime wedgefor rimming the glass | 1 |
| ice cubes | plenty |
| thin slices of lime (optional)for garnish | 2 |
| whole chiltepines (optional)for the surface of the drink | a few |
Equipment Needed
- •Cocktail shaker, preferably a two-piece Boston shaker
- •Hawthorne strainer and fine mesh strainer
- •Heavy rocks glasses or short tumblers
- •Mexican lime squeezer (exprimidor) in cast aluminum
- •Small plate for the chiltepin salt rim
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the chiltepin salt
Crush the dried chiltepines coarsely between your fingers onto a small plate. Do not grind them to powder. You want flakes you can see, pieces that bite when they meet your tongue. Combine with the flaky sea salt and rub the mixture together with your thumb to release the heat. The salt should turn the color of rusted tin. Chiltepin is the wild chile of the Sonoran sierra, harvested by hand from thorny bushes in the rainy season. It is not interchangeable with chile de arbol or cayenne. Use the chile that grew in the same desert as the agave.
Wash your hands the moment you finish crushing the chiltepin. The heat clings to the skin for hours and it will find your eyes. - 2
Rim the glasses
Run the cut side of a lime wedge around the rim of two heavy rocks glasses or short tumblers. Press the wet rim into the chiltepin salt at an angle so the salt catches only the outer edge of the rim, not the inner wall. The salt should sit where your lips meet the glass, not where the drink meets your tongue. Set the glasses aside. No me vengas con atajos: a sloppy rim ruins a clean cocktail.
- 3
Build the cocktail
Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds full with ice. Pour in the bacanora, lime juice, naranja agria juice, and agave nectar. The agave nectar is not optional and it is not sugar syrup. Bacanora is made from agave Pacifica grown wild in the sierra and the cocktail wants to be sweetened by its own family. If you cannot find naranja agria, the orange-and-lime mix is a compromise. It is not an upgrade. Sour orange grows in every Sonoran backyard for a reason.
- 4
Shake hard
Seal the shaker and shake hard for 15 seconds. Hard. You want the ice to break, the cocktail to chill below freezing, and a thin layer of crushed ice crystals to form on the surface when you strain it. A polite shake gives you a polite cocktail. Bacanora is not a polite spirit. It carries smoke and earth and the heat of the desert, and the drink should feel like that on the tongue.
- 5
Strain and serve
Strain through a fine mesh into the prepared glasses over a single large ice cube or fresh cubes. The surface should hold a thin scrim of ice crystals when it lands. Float a thin slice of lime on top and drop two or three whole chiltepines onto the surface. They will sit there like punctuation. Serve immediately. The cocktail does not wait, and bacanora is not a sipper that gets better as it warms. Drink it cold or do not drink it. Asi se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •Use bacanora blanco, not reposado or anejo, for this cocktail. The unaged spirit carries the smoke and the mineral edge of the pit roast cleanly. Aging mutes what you want to taste. Save the reposado for sipping after dinner.
- •Chiltepin is not chile piquin and it is not generic Mexican pepper. Piquin is cultivated; chiltepin is wild. If you cannot find true chiltepin sonorense, order it directly from Sonoran specialty vendors before you settle for a substitute. The chile vendors in the Mercado Municipal de Hermosillo sell it by the gram, the way it has always been sold.
- •Do not freeze bacanora. Cold blunts the aromatics that make this spirit worth drinking. Shake the cocktail over abundant fresh ice, strain hard, and serve it cold but not numb.
- •Naranja agria is the bitter Seville orange used across northwest Mexico and Yucatan. It is not the same as a sweet orange. If you cannot find it, the orange-plus-lime substitution gets you about 75 percent of the way there. Acknowledge the compromise.
Advance Preparation
- •The chiltepin salt can be mixed up to one month ahead and kept in a sealed jar in a cool, dark place. The salt actually improves as it absorbs the chile oil.
- •Juice the limes and the sour orange no more than two hours before serving. Fresh citrus oxidizes quickly and turns dull-tasting. A cocktail with two-hour-old lime juice is a cocktail with two-hour-old lime juice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 110g)
Calories
180 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
580 mg
Total Carbohydrates
14 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
12 g
Protein
0 g
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