Mexico is famously known for its agave-based spirits like tequila, mezcal and sotol.  An award-winning master distiller is adding gin to that list.  Hillhamn Salome is based in Mexico city and produces Condesa Gin.

With a little help from her friends, Jordi Nieto and Ben Brooksby, Hillhamn strives to bring the world Mexico City in a bottle, changing the way one would think of Mexican spirits. Named after one of the city’s most prominent neighborhoods, Condesa Gin transports you to Mexico City through various lenses, depending on which expression you choose.  Their first rendition, named Clásica, is the most traditional, but to call it that denies the imagination encaptured in it.  Honoring the traditional curanderas (healers) of the region, Condesa’s Clásica uses herbs and botanicals found in Mexico’s spiritual tradition, giving the word ‘spirit’ a whole new meaning.  Their second gin variation is an ode to sunsets on the beach with friends.  It includes Mexican  raspberries, which are the second biggest export grown in Mexico and prickly pear which is depicted on the Mexican flag. 

I sat down with Jordi Nieto to discuss how Condesa gin came about and where it’s headed in the future.

Brittney Abell: Mexico is known for many delicious and interesting spirits. I was surprised and excited to learn of a Mexican gin producer. Why gin? How did that come around?

Jordi Nieto: When we started thinking about putting something together, we thought that over the last 15 years, if you look at Mexican cuisine, it was like taco stands and today you have three Michelin star restaurants. But we think that in Mexico, when you look at spirits, the story that is heavily represented is the agave story, which is a beautiful story, but it’s a story that is pretty much about Oaxaca, right? That’s where all the mezcal and tequila producers are. We really wanted to tell, through a spirit, the story of a more modern Mexico, more Mexico City rather than Oaxaca.

We started really thinking of the concept that could do that, and gin was a perfect vehicle because gin tells the story through botanicals. Mexico City and Mexico in general has great botanicals. So, we thought it was a very good starting point for innovation or for really exploring different things. That’s why we really decided on gin. And then later on, some people were like, “Oh, you could do an agave gin or something like that,” and we were like, that is completely the opposite of what we’re trying to do. That’s the story that’s been told many times before, which is a beautiful story, but we wanted to tell… Through our spirit, we wanted to tell a story about Mexico City, which I don’t know if you’ve been, but it’s a very modern, very cosmopolitan, very attractive city. And the name of our gin, Condesa Gin, comes from one of the neighborhoods that we believe embodies that more in Mexico City, which is La Condesa.  The distillery is right outside.

Brittney: Your master distiller, Hillhamn. She was 18 when she started. How did she find that path so young?

Jordi: Yeah. And look, this is a question that she probably would answer much better than I do, but I’ve heard her answer it a few times, so I’m going to try. She was working, I think, very early on at a bar and she started playing with cocktails.  That’s how she got into the industry. I think the part that she liked more about mixology was playing with ingredients and seeing what things match well together. At the time, her mentor was another master distiller in Mexico that sort of took her on as an apprentice at the time. She was very, very young. And I think very early on, in her second year of distilling, she won the Double Gold Medal in San Francisco. Definitely very talented and I would say very curious. 

She went, for instance, for our Classica gin, which is the inspiration behind the Classica, it’s all about… In Mexico, we have what’s called curanderismo, or curanderas, which are these sort of spiritual healers that do cleansing of the body and the mind and all of that. We knew that the concept… the botanicals in the gin we wanted to be related to that whole… to kind of tribute that whole sphere of Mexico. And she got super deep into the rituals herself and really understanding, these are the ingredients that you use for, let’s say, attracting love or cleansing negative energies, or these are the resins that you use for cleansing of the mind or things like this.

She got really deep into these rituals, and then she had to put something that really tastes well together, but she’s very… She crosses different fields and she likes exploring with those different elements. I think that’s what gives her a lot of energy and passion.

Brittney: Excellent. You did touch upon another one of my questions, but I’m happy you did. And she sounds like a very interesting lady. 

Jordi: She is, and her two passions are spirits and fast cars. So, she combines distilling and driving. Whenever I can, I try to not go in the same car with her. 

Brittney: I love that because I feel both distilling and cars are considered very masculine. So, I love that she’s excelling at both. I think that’s really neat. That’s a cool partner you got there.

Jordi: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brittney: How did you get into La Condesa?

Jordi: So, I have known Hillhamn for 10 years. I was working in an NGO in Mexico, supporting cacao producers at the time.  I met Hillhamn just as a friend, but then I had another friend, whose name is Ben, who is more in (the industry)… he was working in spirits at the time.

So, this was more of a friend story of us, being the three of us in Mexico. And I kind of brought them together, and the three of us kind of started the gin. And the three of us kind of bring different elements. We have very, very different backgrounds and experiences, but the three of us love Mexico City and wanted to tell that story, rather than the Oaxacan story or the Mexican lager story, that thing.

Brittney: Excellent. Where do you source most of your ingredients?

Jordi:All the ingredients are from Mexico. One of the things that we wanted to do is not only the ingredients, the glass of the bottle, the labels, the plastic wrap at the top, everything is from Mexico. All of our ingredients, it really depends on the SKU, but most of them… all of them are from Mexico. They’re from different parts. This is more true when we started, when we were very, very small. Some of them even came from Hillhamn’s garden, but we got a little bit too big for that very quickly, but…

Brittney: Which is a good problem to have.

Jordi: Yes, it’s a good problem. But I don’t want to tell a story that is false, but when we started, truly, some of the ingredients were from her garden. And then it really depends on the ingredients, but surprisingly… non-surprisingly, for instance, everyone knows Mexico lime is used in every Mexican cuisine. But for instance, things like raspberries. Raspberries, which are on our Prickly Pear and Orange Blossom SKU, Mexico’s the second world producer of raspberries. And you wouldn’t associate raspberries with Mexico so much.

Brittney: Yeah.

Jordi:So, that’s one, or for instance, the prickly pear, which I don’t know if you’ve seen on a picture, but it’s the flute at the top of the cactus, which is sort of pinkish in color. It’s on the Mexican flag.  It’s sort of a national emblem. So, each ingredient has its own story. They all come from Mexico. 

Brittney: I know prickly pears. I know they also range in color sometimes, too. Right?

Jordi: Yeah. Depending on the season, because it’s not all year around. We kind of get the prickly pear and we dry it before we distill it and macerate it.

Brittney: Cool. Well, I know your line so far includes the Classic and then the Prickly Pear and Orange Blossom, are there other flavors on the horizon, or…

Jordi: Yes. When we got together and started thinking of telling the story about Mexico, we always envisioned a lineup of four expressions, that each of them would tell a Mexican story, but a different Mexican story. I’ve told you about the Clasica, which was the concept we wanted to do as a tribute to the curanderas. The second, the Prickly Pear and Orange Blossom, which is the concept behind trying to put a Mexican afternoon or trying to put a Mexican sunset in a bottle. That was the challenge for Hillhamn, and that one is much more refreshing, a little bit more citric, a little bit more sweet. It’s supposed to be ‘a very golden hour with your friends on a beach.’ You’re just having a gin and tonic that’s perfect for that setting.

We have two more in development, which I cannot disclose too much, but they’re very creative in their own ways. And we’re looking at a potential partnership with Hillhamn and a very… Well, I cannot say too much, but someone that is on the scene, that is very known on the culinary scene.

Brittney:Okay.

Jordi: A couple different things that are coming down the pipeline. Probably by the end of this year we’ll launch the third one. And maybe in 12 or 18 months, the fourth one. It takes time to do things that we feel proud of. But yes, we have four concepts in our mind, and the four of them are going to be gin expressions. So, we’re not really deviating from the gin category, but they’re different stories in a way. It’s different chapters.

Brittney: That’s beautiful. And I can’t wait to see them and to taste them, of course.

Jordi: Thank you.