Raicilla Las Perlas comes from Nikhil Bahadur and 5th-generation raicillero Santiago Diaz Ramos, whom Nikhil encountered while doing business in tequila. The taberna is near the Diaz Ramos hacienda in the small pueblo of Las Guásimos (pop. 42), located inland from the Pacific coast, south of Puerto Vallarta, on the Cabo Corrientes peninsula.
“Perlas”, Spanish for “pearls”, is what raicilleros call the bubbles that form when your pour a raicilla (or a mezcal) into a cup (here a xicara, half a small gourd). The more, and the longer lasting, the higher the alcohol content. It’s a kind of ritual ceremony when you’re buying some mezcal directly from the distiller. more about Las Perlas
Las Perlas
LAS PERLAS Raicilla de Jalisco Chico Aguiar:
Single small batches distilled from wild chico aguiar, usually listed as rhodacantha but in this area more likely an unclassified hybrid of wild rhodacantha and wild angustifolia. The pinas are small. It took 21 pounds of agave to make each of the 216 bottles. Focused flavors: herbaceous fruit and a sweet mineral spiciness. Very well made: worth the price. Scarce.
LAS PERLAS Raicilla de Jalisco Costa:
The most carefully made agave spirit we know of, by Santiago Díaz Ramos near Las Guásimas, on the coast just south of Puerto Vallarta. Hand- crushed using mazos; the fermentation is 3-4 weeks. The top of the copper still is a hollow tree trunk, lending a soft moistness to the spirit: beyond ancestral. Wild and semi-wild agave angustifolia and rhodacantha harvested, distilled, and bottled one batch at a time: about 650 bottles. Fresh, clean, full-bodied, very easy to drink. Scarce.