Flamingo Riviera

– Mangos

– Chilis : Arbol, Ancho, Guajillo, Pasilla

– Fresh Persian Lime

– Black Lime

– Certified Organic Corn Spirit

– Sugar

Set your odometer to zero.  After 28 km there is a hidden left turn. Make it and set your odometer to zero.  Travel 18 more km and see a gate.  Thats not your gate.  Travel 1.3 km more.  Thats your gate.  There’s a fork in the road.  Go Right.  It requires a sense of adventure but it is safe.  Enjoy your stay in the Yucatán.

Building Matchbook the last 5 years has been a big adventure — so big in fact, there hasn’t been much room for adventures outside of these walls.  But it was my best friends birthday and she was moving, and she wanted to take a road trip through the Yucatán.

We spent 5 days and 4 nights.. 2 nights in Merida, and two nights in Ría Lagartos, a picturesque fishing village, where I felt right at home, perhaps because I too live in a picturesque fishing village.  Specifically, we stayed in the Reserva de la Biósfera Ría Lagartos, a national park.  The Reserva encompasses a diverse range of ecosystems, including mangrove forests, coastal dunes, salt flats, and lagoons and is home to a variety of wildlife species, like flamingos, crocodiles, sea turtles, and so many colorful birds. You’d look to your right, and you’d just see the bluest water and the whitest sand, you’d look to your left, and you’d see different types of agaves, cacti, and other succulent plants spanning as far as the eye could see. 

Riviera Flamingo was the last street name we’d read on our journey to our 2 day home in the Biósfera, after which there was our odometer and some landmarks left to guide us. Kilometers before Riviera Flamingo, we were looking for a snack and stumbled upon a paletas shop behind an unassuming door in a stand-alone strip mall with mostly unoccupied stalls.  Behind that door awaited a treasure trove of the most delicious paletas we’d ever tasted.

The star was a mango popsicle with chunks of fruit and lots of tajin style chili / lime / sugar / salt. Something about these surprise paletas finding us on the last leg of our journey before finding our way to our home in la Biósfera Ría Lagartos made this Popsicle really stand out. It was a refreshing, invigorating and delicious treat that carried us over the line.. where this bottle we’re releasing today became all but destined.

Mango season greeted me as soon as I was home. We ordered several cases and peeled each one, striking the fruit to improve the maceration. We added the mangos to distillates of fresh Persian limes and black lime we had resting in Demi’s.  We let it macerate for about a year before we started adding the chili’s.. chili de arbol, chili ancho, chili guajillo and pasilla.