Search
Brazil
Antarctica
Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Guyana
French Guiana
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
Germany
Austria
Belgium
Croatia
Denmark
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Finland
France
Greece
the Netherlands
Hungary
Ireland
Iceland
Italy
Luxembourg
Norway
Poland
Portugal
the United Kingdom
the Czech Republic
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Bermuda
Canada
the United States
GreenlandMexico
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
the Dominican RepublicTurkey
South Africa
Egypt
Australia
Fiji
New Zealand
Papua New GuineaFlavors · Chihuahua
Desert distilled spirit made from the heart of the sotol or sereque plant, which is not agave — roasted, fermented and distilled. It has a denomination of origin and is the drink most closely associated with Chihuahua, which produces the majority of it.
Traditional drink from Chihuahua
Also known as: sotol de Chihuahua
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Click a photo to enlarge it.
Sotol — Chihuahua, Mexico
Sotol is the distilled spirit of the Chihuahuan desert. It comes from the plant called sotol or sereque, of the genus Dasylirion, which grows on the dry slopes of northern Mexico. Unlike tequila and mezcal, it is not made from agave. The plant’s head, also called the piña, is roasted in earth or stone ovens, crushed, fermented and distilled, and the spirit has earthy and smoky flavors.
The Sotol denomination of origin covers the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Durango. The request was made by the government of Chihuahua in 2001, and the protection declaration was published in 2002 after the inclusion of the other two states. Chihuahua accounts for most of the production.
The denomination document attributes more than a thousand years of sotol tradition to the people of Chihuahua, with the plant’s use by desert and mountain communities. Distillation arrived with the Spanish. For decades production was persecuted and carried out secretly by families of vinateros, as the producers are called, and it only became established with official protection.
Sotol is classified as blanco, reposado or añejo, depending on time spent in oak barrels. It is usually drunk neat, in small servings, and also appears in cocktails. Consumption should be moderate.
Chihuahua
Distillate with a denomination of origin requested by the government of Chihuahua, the state that concentrates most of the production.
Head (piña) of the sotol or sereque plant (Dasylirion), roasted, crushed, fermented and distilled.
Neat, in small servings, at room temperature; also in cocktails. Drink in moderation.
Year-round, at festivals, gatherings and to accompany northern Mexican food.
Your questions
No. Sotol comes from the sotol or sereque plant, of the genus Dasylirion, which is different from the agave used for tequila and mezcal.
In the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila and Durango, covered by the denomination of origin. Chihuahua concentrates most of the production.
Generally neat, in small servings, at room temperature. It also appears in cocktails.
Flavors of Mexico
Round sweet bread with strips of dough shaped like bones, scented with orange or anise and topped with sugar or sesame. It is the offering bread of Día de Muertos and is made throughout Mexico, with shapes and recipes that vary from region to region.
Chicken pieces browned and slowly cooked in a tomato, onion, and garlic sauce seasoned with cinnamon, clove, and oregano, which in many recipes includes dried fruit. It’s the dish associated with the Feria Nacional de San Marcos in the city of Aguascalientes.
Layers of corn tortillas with black beans and shredded cazón, cooked with epazote, topped with tomato sauce and habanero chile. Despite the name, it does not contain wheat bread. It is considered a symbol of Campeche cuisine.
Salted, dried beef — tasajo — cooked in a thick sauce of ground pumpkin seeds, with tomato and rice. It is the celebratory dish of Chiapa de Corzo, served especially during the January Fiesta Grande, the Parachicos festival.
Tacos of pork seasoned with a chile adobo, roasted on a vertical spit (the trompo), and served in a corn tortilla with pineapple, onion and cilantro. They descend from the tacos árabes brought to Puebla by Middle Eastern immigrants and took their current form in Mexico City taquerías.
Pozole made with pork and hominy cooked until nearly no broth remains, served on a plate (not in a bowl), with tostadas, lettuce, radish, onion and lime. It’s Colima’s version of pozole and one of the state’s signature dishes.
Refreshing drink made from coconut sap, harvested high in the palm and served chilled with peanuts and pieces of fruit. It arrived with Filipino influence and is the street drink most closely associated with Colima.
Hearty beef broth with chile pasado — a long green pod pepper roasted, peeled and sun-dried — plus tomato, garlic and onion. It’s Durango’s most representative dish, served in a bowl with tortillas.
White fish taco coated in a light batter and fried until golden, served on a corn tortilla with cabbage, tomato-and-onion salsa, mayonnaise or cream, and lime. It originated around 1960 at the stalls of the Mercado Negro, the fish market at the port of Ensenada.
Sandwich made with birote bread, a hard-crusted loaf, filled with carnitas and drenched in tomato sauce, with a spicy chile de árbol sauce on the side. A symbol of Guadalajara’s cuisine, which dedicated a municipal day to it on September 10.
Corn tortillas dipped in a guajillo chile sauce and fried, filled with cheese and onion, served with boiled potato and carrot, lettuce and pickled chiles. A typical dish of the city of Guanajuato, which tradition links to the wives of the silver mine workers.
Broth of cacahuazintle corn and pork thickened with a green sauce made from pumpkin seeds, tomatillo and herbs, served with many accompaniments. Dish from Guerrero, where Thursdays are pozole day.
Whole fish butterflied, marinated in achiote paste with sour orange and spices, grilled over charcoal and topped with tomato and onion. A Maya-origin dish from the Yucatán Peninsula, it’s a specialty of Isla Mujeres.
Almejas chocolatas, a large brown-shelled mollusk from the Sea of Cortés, arranged on the ground and cooked under a fire of dry branches, served with lime and hot sauce. It is the dish most closely associated with Loreto in Baja California Sur.
Thin, crispy batter cooked on a round griddle and rolled like a tube, filled with queso de bola, a cheese of the Edam type. A street sweet from Mérida, created by a family of ice-cream makers in the city and sold at night from carts in the plazas.
Whole fish butterflied open, seasoned with a chile sauce and grilled over coals secured in a double-wire grill, the zaranda, which gives it its name. An official publication places its origin on the island of Mexcaltitán, on the northern coast of Nayarit.
Large, thick corn tortilla taco topped with red rice and a stew-like filling such as chile relleno, milanesa, or boiled egg. It originated in Morelos and is the taco most associated with the state, from Cuautla to Cuernavaca.
Milk-fed kid opened, salted and slowly roasted on an iron stake beside the embers, in the shepherds’ style. It is the best-known dish of Nuevo León, present on the state’s traditional gastronomy routes, from Monterrey to the northern municipalities.
The darkest of Oaxaca’s moles: a thick sauce of chiles toasted almost to the point of burning, including the chilhuacle negro, with chocolate, seeds and spices. A celebratory dish of the state, prepared mainly in the Valles Centrales.
Poblano chile stuffed with a meat-and-fruit picadillo, topped with a white walnut sauce and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds and parsley, in the colors of the Mexican flag. A seasonal dish from late summer, associated with the city of Puebla.
Thick, dark sauce made from several dried chiles, spices, seeds and chocolate, traditionally served with turkey. Tradition links its creation to the kitchen of the old Convent of Santa Rosa in Puebla, the city that gives it its name.
Corn tortillas dipped in a guajillo or ancho chile sauce, filled with fresh cheese or chicken, folded and topped with crema and cheese, served with fried potato and carrot on the side. They are Querétaro’s typical dish.
Pork slowly cooked in its own lard in large pots until tender inside and golden outside, served in tacos. Quiroga, near Lake Pátzcuaro, is called the capital of carnitas: families in the town have been making them for more than a century.
Baked wheat-dough pastry shaped like a half-moon with a braided edge, filled with potato and meat or other stews. It arrived in Real del Monte with miners from Cornwall in the 19th century and became Hidalgo’s best-known dish.
Sweet wheat bread fermented with pulque, the agave fermented drink, instead of common yeast, and sweetened with piloncillo. It is Saltillo’s traditional bread in Coahuila, a legacy of the meeting between Spanish wheat and pulque.
Small corn masa tortillas dyed red with dried chili, filled with cheese and onion, folded into a half-moon and griddled on a comal. They are the most representative dish of San Luis Potosí, declared a state heritage.
Raw shrimp butterfly-cut and cured in lime with chiltepín chile, served with cucumber and red onion. It originated in the mountains of Sinaloa as a meat broth with water and chile and reached the coast, where shrimp took the place of meat. It is presented as the state’s most representative dish.
Distilled spirit from Agave angustifolia, roasted in an earth oven, fermented and distilled in the Sierra of Sonora. It is named after the town of Bacanora and has a denomination of origin exclusive to Sonora since 2000.
Freshwater fish with a long snout, grilled whole over coals and eaten with tortilla, lime, salt and chile amashito. It lives in the rivers and lagoons of Tabasco and is one of the state’s most representative dishes, with roots in pre-Hispanic cuisine of the southeast.
Distilled spirit from blue agave named after the city of Tequila, in Jalisco, surrounded by agave fields. It has a designation of origin since 1974, and the agave landscape and the region’s old industrial facilities are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Salad of romaine lettuce leaves with a dressing of egg, lemon, garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese, served with croutons. It was created in Tijuana by the Italian cook Caesar Cardini on July 4, 1924, according to Tijuanan historian José Fernando Escobedo de la Torre.
Dark, thick mole made from dried chiles thickened with corn dough, with pork, served in clay bowls with long tamales. It is the festival dish of Tlaxcala and an intangible cultural heritage of the state.
Red snapper cooked in a tomato sauce with olives, capers, garlic, onion, herbs and pickled chiles güeros or jalapeños. A coastal Veracruz dish, from the Gulf of Mexico, considered one of the country's best-known fish recipes.
Pork marinated in achiote and bitter orange, wrapped in banana leaf and slowly cooked in an earth oven, the pib. A Sunday family dish from Yucatán that combines the pig brought by the Spaniards with a Mayan cooking technique.
Pork stew in a thick sauce of dried chilies fried in lard, with orange, chocolate, cinnamon and clove. It is the wedding dish of Zacatecas and the most important dish in the state’s cuisine.
