Raicilla de la Reina – the queen of Mexican drinks

Sipping the still-warm spirits of an ancient succulent

Text Sarka Paska Photography Kam Vachon

We wake to a cold morning at the Taberna de la Reina in the hilly Sierra region in western Mexico. Pushing open the wooden planks doubling as windowpanes, we breath in the crisp air still humid from last night’s rain. A fluffy fog caresses the sharp tips of the agave plants outside of our window.

A day earlier we met up with Ana and Juan Pablo, or JP, and together with their young daughter Sarah, escaped the burning heat of the Jalisco coast. They had invited us to visit the distillery where they produce the agave spirits Raicilla La Reina. Without hesitation, we packed our bags and joined them for a three-hour car ride from the touristy coastal city of Puerto Vallarta to the sleepy mountain town of Atenguillo.

On our way inland we speed by countless fields with rows and rows of distinctly blue agaves for tequila production. With every passing hour, the villages shrink in size and number and the clouds seem to get bigger and closer. As the climate changes, so does the landscape. The well-organized blue agave fields give way to uneven hills and rocks of orange clay dotted with thicker, greener plants – the agave maximiliana. To kill time, Ana and JP play a game with their daughter of spotting wild maximilianas hidden behind grass and boulders along the road.

Entering Atenguillo, we feel as if we’ve just arrived at the set of an old Mexican movie: The sun is now high up in the sky, and almost every man of this small town proudly wears his signature cowboy hat and drives, what we’d call, a vintage pick-up truck. Add to that the sounds of tires hitting the cobble stones, beef sizzling on the grill of a taco stand and a sporadic chihuahua bark.

After a quick lunch at Ana’s family home and our first taste of raicilla, which means “little root” in Spanish, we embark on the last stretch of our journey. For another hour, JP negotiates steep and narrow switchbacks, sharp cliffs on one side and a precipice on the other. Reaching the top, we sigh in relief and take in the beautiful land unfolding in front of us: soft green hills covered in corn fields and cow pastures. On we drive to our final destination, the distillery Taberna de la Reina, where we are greeted by the master raicillero Don Julio and his wife, Doña Sylvia. Together with their children and grandchildren, they perform the ancient craft of caring for the agaves and distilling raicilla.

The small Taberna is a simple two-story wooden house with an attached metal roof that covers a wood stove, a dining table and the actual still. For three generations the family of Don Julio has been making raicilla here.

We are handed a small ceramic cup and invited to taste the raicilla dripping from metal tubes coming out of the three distillation barrels. Our cups fill with the translucent liquid still hot from the fire burning beneath the barrels.