Mijenta, the award-winning sustainable tequila from the highlands of Jalisco, has collaborated with acclaimed Mexican chef, Alan Delgado, to create a singular menu of contemporary Mexican dishes celebrating Dia de los Muertos.

“Family is truly the overall inspiration for the menu — celebrating the people that made an impact on my life that aren’t with us anymore,” says Chef Delgado. “I wanted to recreate dishes that I grew up eating with my mother and my grandmother, to honor them and pay it back.”

Chef Alan Delgado

Chef Delgado’s story is a tale of self-discovery through the food of his ancestors. His parents met in their native Mexico, and migrated to El Paso, TX, raising their children between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and nearby El Paso. Fast forward, Alan most recently worked as the director of recipe development at Brooklyn’s Michelin-starred Oxomoco, where he was able to explore his passion for creating modern, vegetable-centric dishes using traditional Mexican techniques.

Chef Delgado and Mijenta connected over the importance of community and were thrilled to collaborate around Dia de los Muertos, a holiday that celebrates family, loved ones and those closest connections. He says, “growing up with a Mexican family, you have a strong sense of community. This always rings particularly true on Dia de los Muertos, when we gather to cook a massive meal and get a little bit closer to everyone around us. Community is what I grew up with and what I will continue to celebrate.”

The tequila company whose ethos is built around the idea of community as well — Mijenta is a variation of mi gente, meaning my people. Through the Mijenta Foundation, the brand works hand in hand with local businesses and communities, directly re-investing a portion of profits, offering healthcare assistance, and providing support for team members and their families.

In honor of Dia de los Muertos, Chef Delgado built off of the deep flavors of Mijenta’s Blanco and Reposado expressions to develop a menu of contemporary Mexican dishes inspired by his childhood. Pairings include Potato Flautas topped with pepitas and habanero cream, which is best enjoyed with Mijenta’s Tengo Prisa cocktail, Pozole Verde with The Amoroso cocktail using Mijenta Blanco Tequila, Gorditas de Chile Colorado alongside a beverage with notes of orange and chocolate called Ladron, Zucchini Tamal in Salsa Verde paired with Mijenta’s Remolucion, and finally a dessert of Calabaza en Tacha with Vanilla ice cream and salsa macha with a warm Atole Mijenta.

The collection of recipes is available on the Mijenta website. Juan Coronado, Jose Cardenas and Elisa Lopez creatively collaborated on the cocktail pairings.

CRAFT
Each element of Mijenta’s unique tequila crafting journey is carefully calibrated to create the offering’s signature aromatic palette. The brand exclusively uses fully mature, certified Blue Weber Agave from the highlands of Jalisco. It achieves its distinctive flavor profile through a meticulously slow process and traditional methods, ranging from the selection of agaves from the best plots, to rich fermentation of slow cooked unfiltered agaves to the delicate distillation and pot stills. Precise cuts in the heads and tails of the plants help control temperatures and account for the cool mornings in the highlands.

MIJENTA BLANCO [$49, RELEASED SEPTEMBER 2020] Blanco, the first expression from Mijenta, presents the brand’s core offering. Mijenta Blanco, offers the purest form of the agave plant and is a true expression of the brand’s quality and artistry. The outstanding tequila is bright and transparent with a powerful body that features, honey, vanilla, caramel and floral notes, along with flashes of tropical fruits such as peach, melon, pineapple and light touches of soursop. The palate confirms its olfactory promise, with a complex, silky and generous finale, perfected by Mijenta’s preeminent Maestra Tequilera. Mijenta Blanco won a Silver Medal at the Los Angeles Spirits Awards, a Gold Medal at the USA Spirits Ratings by Beverage Network Ratings and was awarded the “Best Unaged Tequila of the Year 2021” by Robb Report in their annual Best of the Best awards.

MIJENTA REPOSADO [$69, RELEASED DECEMBER 2020] Mijenta’s Reposado is the second expression from the prestigious hand-crafted tequila brand. It is aged up to six months in a blend of American white oak, French oak and French acacia casks. Presenting a more mature and fuller expression with a long finish on the palate, the Reposado possesses a delicate and inviting vanilla nose with notes of bergamot, honey, preserved fruits – such as cherry and pear – and orange blossom flowers, together with a mid-palate of cacao nibs. Over a period of six months, the tequila is tasted every 15 days in order to identify when it has reached its optimum flavor profile. A limited number of bottles will be available, with only 6,500 produced in the first batch. In April 2021, Mijenta Tequila Reposado received 99 points from The Tasting Panel.

SUSTAINABILITY
Mijenta is built on the desire to maintain nature and all the wonders it has to offer, seeking to reverse environmental impact through actions carried out at all stages of the life cycle. That is why sustainability is at the heart of their process, including its design and packaging. All paper related components (label and box) are made of agave waste and the organization actively supports local businesses and communities by purchasing all packaging elements from Mexico. From farm to bottle, the brand is committed to sustainable practices, minimizing our environmental impact, and maximizing the community’s energy efficiency.

COMMUNITY
Community runs central to Mijenta’s philosophy, and we are humbled to partner with some of the best and brightest at what they do. The Mijenta Foundation was created to support local members of the community – such as Don José Amezola García, a third generation jimador, and his son – in the protection and preservation of their ancestral skills. Mijenta works hand in hand with local businesses and communities, directly re-investing a portion of profits, offering healthcare assistance, and providing assistance for team members and their families.

CULTURE
Preserving and sharing the cultural heritage of the people of Jalisco’s history and traditions, Mijenta collects legends and myths that are centuries old and have been passed from farmers to jimadores and craftsmen to artists. Notably, the “Centzon Totochtin” is a folk story that tells the legend of Mayahuel, the goddess of the agave plant, and Patecatl, the god of Pulque, whose union produced 400 mischievous rabbits with a taste for good company, good spirits and good times. This fable is the inspiration behind Mijenta’s logo. Legend says that when the sun secretly meets with the moon, the most beautiful maguey plants are born. When they grow, the fields blend with the sky and they become a mesmerizing gift to humankind. For centuries, loving hands of ancestral farmers carefully harvested the precious agave and turned it into a masterpiece.