"Mexico isn’t just for tequila anymore. Launched in 2020 by Casa Lumbre (which also make Montelobos mezcal), Abasolo honors the importance of heritage corn in Mexico. Slightly sweet and extremely smooth (this is not a corn-based moonshine!), Abasolo is made from an ancestral corn called cacahuazintle that has fat white kernels and is grown in the mountains of Mexico. To get even more flavor depth, the corn is first nixtamalized—a 4,000-year-old process where corn is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution before it is dried, roasted, and then ground. Nixtamalized corn is used to make authentic corn tortillas and has never been used to make whiskey before. In the case of Abasolo, the nixtamalized corn is combined with a little bit of malted corn, slowly fermented before it is double distilled in copper stills, and then aged in oak barrels at the distillery in Jilotepec at an altitude of 7,800 feet, making it one of the highest distilleries in the world. The result is a smooth sip with notes of vanilla, honey, black tea, and roasted corn." - Devorah Lev-Tov
