# Costa Spirits — full journal > Long-form articles from the Costa Spirits journal, complete bodies for LLM retrieval and citation. > Site: https://www.costaspirits.com > Languages: English text below; every article is also published in Spanish at the same /es/journal/ path. > Total articles: 14. # What curation actually means in spirits distribution URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/what-curation-actually-means Published: 2026-05-01 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: industry Summary: Everyone says they curate. Almost nobody does. Here's the test we apply to every brand before it joins the portfolio. Most distributors say they curate. What they mean, in practice, is that they have a buyer who picks brands. That's selection, not curation. The difference matters. Curation is a point of view, applied consistently, that excludes more than it includes. It costs you opportunities. A real curator turns down brands that would sell, because those brands don't fit the story the rest of the portfolio is telling. Selection is the opposite, bring on whatever will move, manage the case rate later. When we evaluate a new brand for Costa Spirits, we ask three questions. **Does the producer care more about the product than the category?** Empirical Spirits doesn't call itself a gin company or a whisky company. It calls itself a flavor company. That kind of refusal, to be neatly slotted, usually means the producer is making something the category doesn't already have. Those are the brands worth carrying. **Is the design as considered as the liquid?** This isn't aesthetic snobbery. A bottle that looks like every other bottle on the shelf will have to compete on price. A bottle that looks like nothing else gets picked up, asked about, talked about. We want our shelves to start conversations. House of Negroni's RTD line is a case in point, the can does work the liquid alone can't. **Will a bartender pour this and feel something?** This is the one most distributors skip. It's not measurable. But it's the only thing that drives the sell-through. When Alex Kratena, Monica Berg, and Simone Caporale created Muyu, they were solving a problem they had behind the bar, the lack of a liqueur built around perfumery instead of confectionery. A bartender pours Muyu and feels seen by it. Three "yeses" and we sign. Two and we pass. The math of curation is brutal. We get pitched 4-5 brands a month and accept maybe one a quarter. That math is the point. A portfolio that always says yes is a catalog. A portfolio that mostly says no is a perspective. The bartenders, sommeliers, and chefs who anchor our trade business choose us for the perspective. The brands we represent choose us because we say no to almost everyone, which means a "yes" actually means something. That's curation. --- # Empirical Spirits: koji, vacuum, and the right to ignore categories URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/empirical-koji-vacuum-distillation Published: 2026-04-22 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: producers Summary: Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen built a distillery that refuses to call itself a gin company. Here's how they did it. When Lars Williams left his role as head of R&D at Noma to start Empirical Spirits in 2017, the first decision he made was the hardest one: not to make a gin. Or a whisky. Or anything anyone in the trade would recognize as a category. That decision was structural, not aesthetic. The whole business model, what kind of bartender would pour it, how a sommelier would talk about it, where it would sit on a backbar, turns on it. **The koji bet** Empirical's spirits start with koji fermentation, the same fungal process that powers sake and miso. Williams was using koji in a culinary R&D context at Noma; bringing it into distillation meant building a workflow Western distilling literature largely doesn't address. The fermentation produces umami and nutty notes that don't survive traditional pot or column stills. Which led to the second structural call. **Vacuum distillation at 41-59°F** Most distilleries run hot, heating the wash to drive off alcohol and aromatic compounds. The cost is what you lose: delicate volatile aromatics evaporate or transform under heat. Empirical built a custom vacuum system that distills at ambient cold temperatures, around 41-59°F. The result is spirits that carry through the original ingredient's smell in ways that conventionally distilled spirits never could. This is why *The Plum, I Suppose* tastes like marzipan and marigold instead of "distillate." The plum kernels and marigold petals are macerated, vacuum-distilled, and blended without ever being cooked. **Why this matters for the trade** For a bartender, Empirical isn't a base. It's a finishing tool. You don't pour Ayuuk like you pour mezcal, you pour it as the smoky-savory layer in a drink that's already half-built. Soka isn't sorghum vodka; it's a green-apple-and-cut-grass note for a daiquiri-shaped serve. The implication for service is that Empirical lives on the top shelf in volume terms but the working shelf in usage terms. Bars carry it because every weekly menu refresh wants one of its bottles in a featured drink. **The line we represent** In our portfolio, Empirical anchors the "category-refuser" end of the catalog. Pair it with January Spirits (small-batch Greenport gin and amaro) and Muyu (perfume-driven liqueurs) and you have a top-shelf section that turns a backbar into a conversation. --- # Mezcal Sacrvm and the Madrecuishe question URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/mezcal-sacrvm-and-the-madrecuishe-question Published: 2026-04-08 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: education Summary: Not all mezcal is the same, and not all single-variety mezcal is the same either. A short guide to what Sacrvm's expressions actually express. Mezcal, like wine, has variety as its central organizing concept. The agave species, where it grew, how old it was when it was harvested, and how it was cooked are all written into the bottle. A consumer who only knows espadín, the workhorse variety used in commodity mezcal, has effectively tasted one grape. Mezcal Sacrvm out of Oaxaca builds its line around this principle. Each expression is a single agave variety, harvested at maturity (which for slower-growing agaves can mean 12-25 years), cooked in earthen pit ovens, and distilled in copper. The differences between them aren't subtle. **Sacrvm Ensamble**: the ensemble. A blend of espadín and another wild variety, this is the introductory expression. Lightly smoky, broad palate, easy to serve neat or in a riff on a Negroni. The bottle to lead with at a tasting. **Sacrvm Madrecuishe**: the long-game agave. *Agave karwinskii*, harvested at 12+ years, gives an expression that's herbaceous, mineral, and surprisingly low on smoke. Think dry hay, pine, river-stone wet. Madrecuishe is the variety bartenders reach for when they want mezcal's complexity without its campfire. **Sacrvm Shoduba**: a local strain of espadín grown specifically in San Baltazar Chichicapam. The altitude, soil, and microclimate give Shoduba a more citric profile than ordinary espadín, with notes of guava and the field after rain. A terroir that simply doesn't repeat in any other espadín. **Sacrvm 48**: the proof variation, bottled at higher ABV (48%) from a smaller fraction of the run. Tighter, more concentrated, designed for cocktails that need mezcal to assert itself against citrus and sugar. **How to sequence them in service** If you're tasting four guests through the line, run Ensamble → Madrecuishe → Shoduba → 48. The progression is from approachable-and-balanced to expressive-by-variety to assertive-by-proof. Sequencing in the other direction (proof down) blunts the palate by the time you reach Madrecuishe, and Madrecuishe is the bottle a curious drinker is most likely to ask to take home. **What we get wrong about mezcal at retail** The biggest mistake a buyer can make is treating mezcal as one category with multiple price points. The price differences across Sacrvm's expressions aren't quality grades; they're the cost of waiting 12 years for an agave to mature versus six. A guest who orders "the cheapest mezcal" doesn't want the cheapest mezcal, they want espadín. A guest who wants to learn wants Madrecuishe, regardless of price. Train your team to lead with variety, not price. The check average follows. --- # The Negroni that broke a 100-year-old recipe, with Mancino Kopi URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/negroni-mancino-kopi Published: 2026-03-15 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: cocktails Summary: What happens when you swap the sweet vermouth in a Negroni for one infused with Indonesian coffee. A surprisingly grown-up after-dinner drink. The Negroni is a 1-1-1 cocktail. Gin, sweet vermouth, Campari. Conte Camillo Negroni made it (or didn't, depending on which historian you trust) in Florence around 1919, and the proportions have held for a century because the geometry works. That said, the most interesting Negroni in our portfolio right now isn't a Negroni at all, it's a Negroni with Mancino Vermouth Kopi standing in for the sweet vermouth, and it changes everything about when you drink it. **Mancino Kopi: a sidebar** Mancino's Kopi is a Torino-style vermouth infused with Sumatran coffee extract. The base wine is Italian white; the bitters are classic Piedmontese; the coffee shows up not as a roasted note but as a tannin and a dark-bitter finish. It tastes more like Italian sobremesa than like a flat white. **The build**: 30 ml dry gin (we use January Spirits, clean juniper, low botanical noise), 30 ml Mancino Vermouth Kopi, 30 ml Campari Stir over ice for 20 seconds. Strain into a chilled rocks glass over one large cube. Orange peel, squeeze the oil over the surface, then drop the peel in. **Why it works** The standard Negroni uses sweet vermouth as a sugar source and a wine-acidity hinge. Kopi replaces the sugar with coffee tannin. The drink is drier by about 30%, and the bitter profile that Campari already contributes meets a second bitter line in the vermouth. It's a Negroni built for the end of dinner, not the beginning of one. Service note: this drink wants a heavier glass and a colder room. Don't shake it. Don't dilute it with citrus. Let the coffee tannin do the structural work the citrus would otherwise do in a sour. If you want to push further, try Mancino Vermouth Sakura (cherry-blossom infused) in a Negroni Bianco, gin, Sakura, dry white vermouth, over a clear ice spear. Spring drink, not winter. --- # Empirical Cilantro, one botanical, two camps, one polarizing spirit URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/empirical-cilantro-arrives-in-florida Published: 2025-09-12 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: producers Summary: Empirical's single-botanical cilantro spirit is now distributed in Florida by Costa Spirits. 38% ABV on a light French-wheat base, built for bartenders who want to serve something that splits the room, in a good way. Cilantro is one of the most divisive ingredients in the kitchen. About 14% of the population carries an OR6A2 gene variant that makes the herb taste like soap. The other 86% reach for it the way the rest of us reach for salt. Empirical Spirits, never a brand to avoid the polarizing call, distilled a one-botanical spirit around exactly that herb. **Empirical Cilantro is available across Florida through Costa Spirits**: and since landing on Miami back bars in 2025, it's become one of the bottles we get the most repeat orders for. **What's in the bottle** Cilantro is a single-botanical distillation. The base is light French wheat. The liquid is built around the leaf, stem, and aromatic top notes of fresh cilantro, distilled vacuum-style to preserve the volatile compounds that get destroyed in a traditional hot still. There's bright citrus aromatics, a clear green-tomato and tomatillo-stem note, lime through the middle, and a touch of vinegar at the back for lift and balance. At **38% ABV**, it's crisp and unexpectedly clean. Not a syrupy "flavor liqueur", a proper distillate that drinks like a herb-driven gin without any of the juniper baggage. **How to use it behind the bar** Cilantro is built to be a *finishing tool*, the layer that turns a familiar serve into something a guest will ask about. Where to start: - **Over ice with soda and a squeeze of lime.** The simplest possible expression, lets the herb sing. - **In a margarita** as a partial split with the tequila or mezcal. Adds green, garden-fresh depth without losing the silhouette. - **In a martini or sour** for a savory, dimensional finish. Surprisingly good against gin and Lillet. - **Paired with tomatillo, yuzu, cucumber, or chili**: the cuisine-of-origin pairings that the Empirical team developed at Noma. **Why it works** Empirical doesn't approach spirits like distillers, they approach them like chefs. The brief for Cilantro wasn't "make a cilantro liqueur." It was "what does cilantro actually smell like, and how do we capture that?" The answer is a spirit that doesn't just *taste* like cilantro. It captures the whole garden experience, leaf, stem, sunshine, the green snap that turns a cocktail from good to memorable. And yes, they know cilantro is divisive. That's the point. **Available now in Florida** Costa Spirits is the official Florida distributor of Empirical Cilantro. To add it to your backbar or schedule a tasting, contact info@costaspirits.com. --- # The Shelborne by Proper, Miami's Art Deco anchor, one year in URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/shelborne-south-beach-reopens-by-proper Published: 2025-05-01 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: industry Summary: South Beach's 1940 Art Deco landmark reopened in May 2025 after a $100M renovation as The Shelborne by Proper. A year on, Pauline by Abram Bissell and Little Torch are reshaping how the strip drinks. **The Shelborne by Proper** reopened on Collins Avenue in May 2025, the freshly-renovated Art Deco landmark that's been part of South Beach's skyline since 1940. A $100 million restoration by design studio ADC Atelier returned the hotel to circulation as Proper Hospitality's Florida debut, the brand's first East Coast property after a run of West Coast successes in LA, Austin, Santa Monica, and Downtown LA. A year on, the property has settled into the rhythm of the strip and the F&B program is the part that matters. **A balance between Deco preservation and contemporary design** ADC Atelier's brief was to keep the building's soul intact while making it work for the next half-century. The restored pool and original 1950s diving board stayed. So did the lobby's geometric Deco detailing. The new: 251 rooms, suites, and villas with sweeping ocean views, custom furnishings, handwoven textiles, and the considered mid-century finishes Proper is known for. A private beach club, full wellness program, and access to Proper Club's curated events round out the guest experience. **Pauline and Little Torch** The F&B program is the part that's lived up to its press. **Pauline**, the signature restaurant, is led by Michelin-starred chef **Abram Bissell** (ex-NoMad NYC), seasonal coastal cuisine that reads as a kitchen with a point of view, not another celebrity-chef Miami import. **Little Torch**, the cocktail bar, has become the destination locals quietly recommend for a serious drink in a city that often confuses spectacle with quality. **Why this matters for the trade** Miami's hospitality landscape has been consolidating around design-forward, programming-led properties, Faena, Casa Tua, Soho House, and now Proper. For brands like ours, that means more buyers paying attention to story and provenance, not just price. The Shelborne's first year confirmed the thesis: the bars that took their spirits programs seriously are the ones that built repeat clientele. The ones that didn't are already rotating menus. The Shelborne by Proper · 1801 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL --- # When Isolation Proof Ramp Gin met Itamae, a Miami residency, in retrospect URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/isolation-proof-ramp-gin-at-itamae-miami Published: 2025-04-10 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: industry Summary: Looking back at the Itamae residency at Maty's Midtown, and the Ramp Gin cocktail that turned a six-week wild-leek window into a portfolio moment. Spring 2025 produced one of the more memorable spirit-meets-kitchen pairings of the year in Miami. **Chef Nando Chang** brought the original **Itamae** concept back as a limited residency at **Maty's Midtown**: a homecoming run that followed his sister Val Chang's 2024 James Beard win and Nando's own nomination that cycle. The residency closed months ago. The cocktail it featured is still worth talking about. The kitchen revived Itamae's Nikkei dishes with a refined edge: smoked and grilled fish collars, makis, nigiris, bold, clean flavors, ingredient-forward. Service ran Wednesday through Saturday evenings and Sundays during the day, alongside Nando's omakase concept **Itamae Ao**. **A Ramp Gin cocktail you couldn't get anywhere else** Costa Spirits had **Isolation Proof Ramp Gin** on the residency's cocktail list, paired with **yuzu** and **fresh cilantro** for a savory-citrus profile that lived next to Nando's bright Nikkei plates without crowding them. The pairing only worked because ramps and Nikkei share a vocabulary: brine, alliums, a green snap that doesn't read as garnish. Isolation Proof is distilled in the **Western Catskills of New York** from forest-foraged botanicals. Ramps, wild leeks, have a six-week window, and the brand bottles them at peak. That math is what made the residency work as a timing exercise: a six-week pop-up serving a six-week harvest, served by a chef whose name was on the year's most-read Beard list. **Why it mattered** A spirit like Ramp Gin doesn't get the floor at most restaurants because most beverage programs aren't built to feature one bottle for six weeks and rotate it out. Itamae's residency was the opposite, a kitchen and a bar program in lockstep around peak ingredients, on both plates and in glassware. Those are the rooms our portfolio is built for. The Itamae residency is gone. The model, programming-led, terroir-honest, short on hesitation, is what we're still tracking, and what we expect to see more of as Miami's serious operators sort themselves from the spectacle. --- # Empirical Spirits in Florida, eighteen months in, the case for category-refusing distillates URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/empirical-spirits-launches-in-florida Published: 2024-11-05 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: producers Summary: Costa Spirits has been the Florida distributor for Empirical since late 2024, the Copenhagen distillery from Noma alums Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen. Ayuuk, Soka, The Plum, and the rest of the line have settled into the rooms we expected: cocktail bars that build menus around ingredients, not categories. **Empirical Spirits**: the Copenhagen distillery built by **Lars Williams** (former head of R&D at Noma) and **Mark Emil Hermansen** (Oxford-trained food anthropologist), has been in the Costa Spirits portfolio in Florida since late 2024. A year and a half in, the bottles that bartenders reach for most are the ones we would have bet on at launch: Ayuuk for the smoky-chile slot, The Plum for the marzipan-stone-fruit slot, Soka for the green-apple-cut-grass slot. The line did exactly what we promised it would do. **Flavor first, category last** Empirical doesn't make gin. They don't make whisky. They don't make vodka. They make *flavors*, built ingredient-first, distilled with culinary techniques (vacuum distillation at 41-59°F, koji fermentation, unconventional botanicals) that conventional producers don't use. Their philosophy: if you start from the agave, the apple, or the chili and let *that* drive the process, you end up somewhere category labels can't follow. **The line, in brief** - **Ayuuk**: a single-chili spirit built around smoked **Pasilla Mixe** from Oaxaca, aged in Oloroso sherry. Smoky, fruity, savory, alive. Drinks like a mezcal that went to culinary school. - **Soka**: distilled from **sorghum cane juice and syrup**: fresh-cut-grass and green-apple aromatics from the juice, autumnal honey and hay from the syrup. American Heartland captured in a Danish bottle. - **The Plum, I Suppose**: built around **plum kernels and marigold petals** macerated in koji-based base spirit. Marzipan and floral notes, named after a Robert Frost poem. - **Charlene McGee**: elegant smoke and complexity from **smoked juniper**, a love letter to coastal forests. - **The Plum, the Basil, and the Tomato**: a tribute to **Danish summer gardens**, with all three components distilled separately and blended. **Why this matters for Florida bars and restaurants** For a bar, Empirical isn't a base, it's a finishing tool. You don't pour Ayuuk like you pour mezcal. You pour it as the smoky-savory layer in a drink that's already half-built. Soka isn't sorghum vodka, it's a green-apple-and-cut-grass note for a daiquiri-shaped serve. This means Empirical lives on the **top shelf** in volume terms but the **working shelf** in usage terms. Bars that take it on carry it because every weekly menu refresh wants one of its bottles in a featured drink. **Where to find it** Empirical is now available across Florida through Costa Spirits. To schedule a tasting, request samples, or order for your account: info@costaspirits.com. --- # Mezcal in the Costa Rica mountains: where altitude meets agave URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/mezcal-in-the-costa-rica-mountains Published: 2024-07-19 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: education Summary: From Talamanca to Monteverde to Tilarán, mezcal drinks differently at altitude. A short note on pairing place with pour. Costa Rica is famous for beaches. But the mountain country, Talamanca, Monteverde, the Tilarán range, is where mezcal makes the most sense. **Why altitude changes the drink** At elevation the air is cooler and drier. Aromatics open faster. The smoke in a Casa Sacrvm Espadín that takes a minute to develop on a Pacific beach blooms instantly at 1,500 meters in Monteverde. The agave's mineral character meets thin air and reads more clearly. It's also a temperature question. Mezcal is a winter spirit in spirit, even when it's distilled in Oaxaca's sun. A 65°F night under a cloud forest canopy is the right context for sipping. A 90°F midday on the beach is not, that's Mezcalita territory. **Three mountain settings, three pours** - **Talamanca**: wild, remote, cold at night. **Casa Sacrvm Madrecuishe**: same wild altitude as the agave's origin. - **Monteverde**: cloud forest, mossy, hushed. **Casa Sacrvm Ensamble**: complex enough to match the surroundings. - **Tilarán / Arenal**: open ridges, wind, lake views. **Shoduba** with one rock and an orange slice, on a porch. **Get it where you are** Costa Spirits delivers Casa Sacrvm anywhere in Costa Rica, including the mountain towns. Order from our [products page](/products) or call **+506 8506-5999**. Read our [four expressions guide](/journal/casa-sacrvm-four-expressions-guide) if you're trying to decide between Sacrvm bottlings, or our [mezcal essentials](/journal/tequila-vs-mezcal-essentials) post for the broader category context. --- # Tequila vs. mezcal: how to talk about agave spirits without faking it URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/tequila-vs-mezcal-essentials Published: 2024-06-12 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: education Summary: Both come from agave, both are Mexican, both are protected by Denominación de Origen, and that's about where the similarities end. A working guide for buyers, bartenders, and anyone who serves agave spirits to guests. Tequila and mezcal are both **Mexican agave spirits with Denominación de Origen (DO)** protections. Both are regulated, both are traceable, both come from the same plant family. After that, the differences are large enough that pretending they're the same does both categories a disservice. **The agave** - **Tequila** can only be made from **one** agave species: **Agave tequilana var. azul** (blue Weber). One plant, one region (mostly Jalisco, plus parts of four other states), one DO. - **Mezcal** can be made from **dozens of agave species**: espadín most commonly, but also tobalá, madrecuishe, tepeztate, arroqueño, cuishe, and more. Mezcal's DO covers nine states; **Oaxaca** produces ~85% of the volume. This is the single most important fact. A "mezcal" might be a quick-growing espadín or a 25-year-old wild madrecuishe, and the price, flavor, and complexity will differ accordingly. **The cooking** - **Tequila** producers cook the agave in **autoclaves or stone ovens**, often steam-fired. Clean, repeatable, scaled. - **Mezcal** producers cook the agave in **earthen pit ovens** lined with hot rocks and covered with palm fronds and dirt. The smoke from the wood fire is what gives mezcal its signature savory-smoky character. There's no autoclave equivalent in traditional mezcal production. **The proof** - Tequila's Mexican legal minimum is **35% ABV**, but bottles exported to the US are required to be **40% ABV or higher**: so virtually every tequila you'll see in a Florida bar lands at 40%. - Mezcal is traditionally **45-48% ABV** or higher, and high-proof variants (like Sacrvm 48) can run into the high 40s without water reduction. **The character** - **Tequila blanco**: bright, vegetal, peppery, citrus-driven. Clean. - **Mezcal espadín**: balanced, lightly smoky, herbaceous, accessible. - **Mezcal madrecuishe**: mineral, dry hay, pine, surprisingly low on smoke for the category, the variety for people who say they "don't like mezcal." - **Mezcal tobalá**: floral, citrus zest, tropical fruit, expensive (12+ years to maturity in the wild). **Where we land in the portfolio** We carry **Mezcal Sacrvm** because it represents what mezcal can be at its most considered: single-variety expressions, traditional pit-cooking, copper-distilled, named for the agave rather than the marketing concept. If you want to actually train your team on mezcal, not just stock it, Sacrvm is where to start. 📚 **Want to go deeper?** See our companion piece on the [Sacrvm line](/journal/mezcal-sacrvm-and-the-madrecuishe-question) for a breakdown of each expression and how to sequence them in service. --- # Casa Sacrvm: a guide to the four expressions URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/casa-sacrvm-four-expressions-guide Published: 2024-05-08 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: education Summary: Shoduba, Ensamble, Madrecuishe, and Sacrvm 48, four very different mezcals from one Oaxacan distillery. Here's how to choose. Casa Sacrvm makes four mezcals. Each one is a different conversation. If you're new to the brand, or to mezcal, here's the map. **Shoduba, 100% Espadín** The introduction. Espadín is the agave behind ~90% of all mezcal, and Shoduba is what a well-made espadín tastes like: smooth smoke, herbal middle, a soft minerality on the finish. If a guest tells you they don't like mezcal, this is the bottle that usually changes their mind. Best for: Mezcalitas, Negronis, sipping neat with an orange slice. **Ensamble, Espadín + Madrecuishe** A blend. Espadín gives the structure, Madrecuishe adds depth and a wild edge. The two agaves are fermented and distilled separately, then assembled, hence *ensamble*. The result is more complex than Shoduba, more approachable than straight Madrecuishe. Best for: Old Fashioneds, stirred drinks, the conversation pour after dinner. **Madrecuishe, 100% wild Madrecuishe** Wild-harvested from the Oaxacan mountains. Madrecuishe takes 12-15 years to mature in the wild, and the agave's slow life shows up in the glass: earthy, mineral, intense, with the kind of length that lingers. Best for: Slow sipping. Don't mix it. A small glass, a cold night, one ice rock if you must. **Sacrvm 48, Madrecuishe at 48% ABV** The connoisseur's pour. Same wild Madrecuishe as the standard expression, but bottled at 48% instead of the usual 45-ish. The higher proof opens up oils and aromatics the lower-proof version can't reach. Best for: The end of the night, with someone who'll sit with it. **How to choose** - **First mezcal ever?** Shoduba. - **Have a Negroni habit?** Ensamble, it's built for stirred drinks. - **Already love agave?** Madrecuishe. - **Building a serious bar?** All four. They cover the range. All four expressions ship nationwide in Costa Rica via Costa Spirits, order from our [products page](/products) or call **+506 8506-5999**. --- # Mezcalita: a tropical mezcal margarita built for hot coastal nights URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/mezcalita-recipe-sacrvm Published: 2024-04-22 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: cocktails Summary: A pineapple-forward mezcal margarita that holds up to humidity and citrus heat. Mezcal Sacrvm, fresh lime, fresh pineapple, agave, tajín rim. Three minutes, no shaker required. The classic margarita is built for room temperature. On a Costa Rican beach in March, with 85% humidity and a 2 p.m. sun, you need something rounder, sweeter at the edges, with more body to outlast the ice melt. **The Mezcalita**: a pineapple-and-lime mezcal margarita, does exactly that. **Ingredients** - **2 oz** Mezcal Sacrvm (Espadín or Ensamble, save the Madrecuishe for sipping) - **1 oz** fresh lime juice (about 1 medium lime) - **1 oz** fresh pineapple juice (about 1/4 cup pineapple) - **1 oz** agave syrup (50/50 agave nectar + water) - **Tajín** for the rim - **Lime wheel + pineapple wedge** for garnish **Build** 1. **Rim the glass.** Run a lime wedge around the lip of a rocks glass, then dip in tajín. Set aside. 2. **Shake.** Combine mezcal, lime, pineapple, and agave in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake hard for 10-12 seconds, the pineapple needs the agitation to integrate. 3. **Strain.** Pour over fresh ice in the rimmed glass. 4. **Garnish.** Slip in a lime wheel and a pineapple wedge. **Notes** - **Use fresh pineapple juice.** Canned tastes flat, the bright tartness only comes from fresh. If your bar doesn't run a juicer, pulse pineapple chunks in a blender and fine-strain. - **The agave syrup ratio matters.** 50/50 is right for fresh pineapple; if you're using canned, drop to 0.75 oz syrup because canned juice has added sugar. - **Crushed ice is better than cubes** for the pour. Heavier dilution holds the drink together longer in heat. **Why it works** Espadín mezcal has enough smoke to cut through pineapple's sweetness without bullying the citrus. Tajín on the rim is the bridge, chili and lime in dry form, so each sip is a chili-citrus-fruit-smoke chord rather than four ingredients shaking hands. The drink reads as Mexican but lives on a Costa Rican beach as comfortably as a piña colada. **Order Sacrvm in Costa Rica** Casa Sacrvm is available for retail delivery anywhere in Costa Rica, call **+506 8506-5999** or order via our [products page](/products). --- # Naked and Famous, Joaquín Simó's modern classic, built around Mezcal Sacrvm URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/naked-and-famous-recipe-sacrvm Published: 2024-03-08 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: cocktails Summary: Equal parts mezcal, Aperol, yellow Chartreuse, and lime, the cocktail Joaquín Simó invented at Death & Co. We build ours with Mezcal Sacrvm Espadín, where the smoke does the work the bitterness needs. **Joaquín Simó** invented the **Naked and Famous** at Death & Co in 2011. It was, in his words, "the bastard love child of a Last Word and a Paper Plane", four equal parts, perfectly balanced, mezcal-driven. The cocktail has aged beautifully because the geometry is right: smoke, bitter aperitivo, herbal complexity, citrus. Nothing wasted. We build ours with **Mezcal Sacrvm Espadín**: an entry-level expression for the line but a serious mezcal in its own right. Espadín gives us enough smoke to hold up against Aperol and yellow Chartreuse without overpowering either. **Ingredients** - **30 ml (1 oz)** Mezcal Sacrvm Espadín - **30 ml (1 oz)** Aperol - **30 ml (1 oz)** yellow Chartreuse - **30 ml (1 oz)** fresh lime juice **Build** 1. **Combine** all four ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. 2. **Shake hard** for 10 seconds. Hard, not gentle, the citrus needs the aeration. 3. **Double-strain** into a chilled coupe. 4. **No garnish.** The drink doesn't need it. (Some bartenders flame an orange peel; we don't think it improves it.) **Notes** - **Equal parts is non-negotiable.** Joaquín built the geometry; respect it. - **Yellow Chartreuse, not green.** Green is too forward, too herbal, it'll swamp the mezcal. Yellow's lower proof and softer botanical profile is the right partner. - **Fresh lime, always.** Bottled juice killed more good cocktails than bad spirits ever did. - **Espadín, not madrecuishe.** Madrecuishe is too restrained on smoke for this build, it'd disappear under the other three. **Why it works** The Naked and Famous is an **equal-parts cocktail with two bitters** (Aperol's orange-rhubarb-cinchona bitter, Chartreuse's herbal-cathartic bitter) and one citrus (lime). Mezcal is the only assertive ingredient, it has to be smoky enough to be the spine, but not so smoky that it bullies the bitters. Espadín hits exactly that mark. The drink is mezcal's gateway for guests who say they "don't like mezcal." Put it in front of them. They like mezcal. **Order Sacrvm in Costa Rica** Casa Sacrvm Espadín is available nationwide in Costa Rica via Costa Spirits, call **+506 8506-5999** or order from our [products page](/products). --- # Casa Sacrvm mezcal: nationwide delivery across Costa Rica URL: https://www.costaspirits.com/en/journal/mezcal-sacrvm-nationwide-delivery-costa-rica Published: 2024-02-14 Author: Costa Spirits Team Category: producers Summary: As exclusive importers of Casa Sacrvm in Costa Rica, we deliver bottle by bottle to every coast and city, from Tamarindo to Santa Teresa, Manuel Antonio to San José. Casa Sacrvm is the mezcal we built the Costa Rica portfolio around. Artisan-distilled in Oaxaca, no shortcuts, no industrial yeast, just agave, fire, copper, and time. The result is a spirit with the kind of depth that rewards slow drinking on a slow afternoon. **Where we deliver** Anywhere in Costa Rica. Coastal towns, Tamarindo, Jacó, Manuel Antonio, Santa Teresa, Nosara, are on our regular routes. San José, Heredia, Liberia and the Central Valley get next-day in most cases. If you're somewhere remote, call us and we'll figure it out. **How to order** Two paths: - **Online**: order from our [products page](/products) and we ship to your door - **Phone**: call **+506 8506-5999** and we'll walk you through the lineup Every bottle ships in protective packaging with insurance against breakage. If anything arrives damaged, we replace it. **Why Casa Sacrvm** Four expressions, each a different conversation. **Espadín** is the introduction, smooth, smoky, the classic agave. **Ensamble** blends Espadín and Madrecuishe for complexity. **Madrecuishe** is wild-harvested from the Oaxacan mountains, intense and earthy. **Sacrvm 48** is the connoisseur's pour at 48% ABV, robust, layered, made for unhurried evenings. Read our [mezcal essentials guide](/journal/tequila-vs-mezcal-essentials) for the broader category context, or try the [Mezcalita](/journal/mezcalita-recipe-sacrvm) and [Naked and Famous](/journal/naked-and-famous-recipe-sacrvm) recipes for ways to drink it. ---