Mango Eau de Vie

• Mango eau-de-vie produced in San Cristóbal Lachirioag, Oaxaca, Mexico
• Maestro Destilador Elisandro Gonzalez Molina 
• Distilled from Criollo and Manilla mangos
• Overripe mangoes are peeled, seeded, and then crushed using a stone tahona
• Fermented for over 20 days in open-air pine vats (tinas) using spring water
• Double distilled using traditional copper pot stills
• Waves of sweet, ripe mango with undertones of pineapple, plantain, and faint corn husk preceding a rich, oily palate of low-toned, concentrated mango, roasted corn, celery, apricot, calamansi, and a touch of honeysuckle
• Non-chill filtered; 49% ABV

Having grown up within the Sierra Norte mountains of Oaxaca, Elisandro Gonzalez Molina has been deeply connected with the region’s fruit distillate traditions all his life. Over the past fifteen years, in addition to his work in mezcal, Elisandro has been helping shed light on that local tradition—most notably introducing the work of maestro destilador Jaime Morales Aquino in Yalalag, now a revered icon in Mexican eau-de-vie, to international bottlers and consumers via labels like Mezcal Melate. In return, Elisandro has studied the technique closely with Jaime, as well as with his own cousin, maestro mezcalero Edgar González Ramírez.

Tosba’s mango eau-de-vie is distilled from roughly 90% Criollo mangos and 10% Manila (aka Carabao) mangos and requires 16 kilos (35 lbs.) of fruit to produce a single liter of spirit. Most of the mangos are considered wild and are grown around the distillery, spread among their agave fields and farmland where they also grow sugarcane, pineapple, banana, papaya, guava, plantain, and coffee. The Sierra Norte in general offers a generous garden of these tropical fruits, with such  bounty that locals sometimes find it hard to keep up with harvest in the face of rapid spoilage. Additional mangos for Tosba’s eau-de-vie are sourced from local Sierra Norte farmers, who are paid fair wages to support and strengthen the local economy; alternative uses for these crops, such as distillation, have begun to provide helpful new channels for local agricultural routes—a reflection of Tosba’s larger mission as an indigenous Oaxacan enterprise.

Best of all, it’s delicious.