As beverage director of acclaimed Los Angeles restaurant and agave bar Mírate, Max Reis has had a lot to smile about — and the person smiles quite a bit. The venue, co-owned by restaurateur Matthew Egan and chef Joshua Gil, landed on North America’s 50 Finest Bar checklist in April. Final fall, VinePair’s Subsequent Wave Awards topped the venue Meals and Beverage Program of the 12 months. These plaudits, a veteran presence within the L.A. bar scene, and years spent advocating for producers creating tequila and mezcal in conventional methods, reinforce Reis’ standing as one of many cocktail world’s foremost authorities on all issues agave. One of many best examples of this mastery is Mírate’s whimsical, intensely technical, and all-around bonkers interpretation of the Paloma.

The Tu Compa (which interprets to “your greatest pal” in English, regardless that its pronunciation is cheekily spelled out “puh-loh-muh” on Mírate’s menu) is refreshing and scrumptious, nevertheless it’s additionally deviant. It doesn’t merely name for tequila, lime juice, and grapefruit soda. As an alternative, Mexican sake, pulque, pomegranate liqueur, and a house-made model of grapefruit soda Squirt are concerned within the combine. In different conditions, this recipe might border on sacrilege, given how critical Southern California residents are about utilizing Squirt of their Palomas. In Reis’ fingers, although, it’s essential. It’s a great factor, too: It takes Reis three days to make every Tu Compa batch, which yields 65 servings. The drink’s high quality must be worthy of such a large endeavor.

So, how does Mírate flip a fundamental drink into a fancy cocktail of epic proportions? We caught up with Reis and requested him to take us behind the scenes of his play on the Paloma.

Step One: Put together the Cordial

Reis’ house-made Squirt cordial is arguably the drink’s most important ingredient. Squirt is the Paloma’s soul for a lot of L.A. residents, and it has clout in Mexico, too: Stroll right into a cantina, and there’s a greater than possible probability that crates of the soda each unused and discarded will probably be current. It’s a little bit of a daring transfer to create a cordial that mimics its taste, as locals would possible know if it fell quick. However Reis pulls it off by meticulous prep work. It’s particularly spectacular contemplating drinks like Squirt aren’t actually Reis’ factor.

“I’m not a soda man,” Reis explains. “We simply needed to make use of all pure elements [in the cordial] and name it ‘Squirt.’”

He begins making the cordial by clarifying grapefruit juice, a course of that intensifies its acidity. He stirs in enzymes (Pectinex, Kieselsol, and Chitosan, to get actually technical) into the juice in 15-minute intervals earlier than giving the combination a spin in a Booker & Dax Spinzall centrifuge.

“Some juices don’t all the time separate from fruit that properly,” Reis explains. “These pure chemical substances help in that breaking course of.” He then pumps out the juice and strains the residual purée from the centrifuge’s reservoir to nab each final drop of liquid earlier than storing what he’s collected within the fridge.

To complete the cordial, Reis pours the juice right into a Vitamix and units the machine at one-third velocity, steadily pouring in an equal quantity of sugar and a comparatively modest quantity of salt. He additionally acid-adjusts the juice by including malic and citric acids to amplify depth.

“It doesn’t style like grapefruit soda with out it,” Reis notes. “Consider it as including the acidity of lime juice however eliminating the lime taste.” He then blends it on excessive for 90 seconds and runs the combination by his fingers when pouring to detect rogue granules. If he finds any, he repeats the method in 30-second intervals till they’re fully gone.

Step Two: Sous Vide

Subsequent, Reis transfers the grapefruit juice mix right into a sous vide bag, the place grapefruit peels await to imbue additional complexity.

“I used to be at this bar in Guadalajara referred to as De La O, they usually had this drink on the menu referred to as a Pulque Paloma. It was rustic and fully pulque-forward. The considered utilizing pulque in a Paloma had been floating round in my head ever since.”

“The grapefruit peels include grapefruit oil, which provides one other layer of taste to the method,” Reis explains. “Plus, utilizing the peels this fashion is a pleasant method to reduce waste within the course of.” Reis sous vides the mix at 135 levels Fahrenheit for 2 hours, fine-strains it, and shops the batch within the fridge, the place it retains properly for as much as a month — primed and prepared for future Palomas. And there are many leftovers, since every cordial batch yields 200 servings.

Step Three: Batch

The cautious building of the Squirt cordial units the desk for the remainder of the Tu Compa’s construct, which additionally takes place behind the scenes and will get repeated each two to 3 days earlier than service begins. Reis selected Cascahuin 48 for the drink’s tequila as a result of he’s a fan of its conventional, land-honoring distillation course of, but in addition as a result of it checks in at 96 proof — a lot greater than the 80 proof usually related to tequila. Reis notes the upper proof makes it attainable to include extra layers of taste to the drink with out dropping the spirit’s grassy, vegetal qualities. He takes benefit of this in a handful of how.

Take the inclusion of pulque, an alcoholic beverage constituted of fermented agave sap. Its umami notes play properly with Caschahuin, nevertheless it additionally provides Reis the chance to behave on an thought he picked up on the highway in Mexico.

“The bitterness of the pomegranate naturally piggybacks on the bitterness of the grapefruit and offers off such an awesome bitter end. It additionally provides the drink this lovely mild pink hue.”

“I used to be at this bar in Guadalajara referred to as De La O, they usually had this drink on the menu referred to as a Pulque Paloma,” he says. “It was rustic and fully pulque-forward. The considered utilizing pulque in a Paloma had been floating round in my head ever since.”

Reis enhances the pulque with junmai ginjo sake from Nami, a Sinaloa-based sake brewery and Mexico’s first-ever sake producer. The sake’s barnyard funk creates concord with the pulque’s savory essence so as to add additional depth to the drink. He additionally provides a contact of Granada Vallet, a pomegranate liqueur recognized for its aggressive bitter notes.

“The bitterness of the pomegranate naturally piggybacks on the bitterness of the grapefruit and offers off such an awesome bitter end,” Reis says. “It additionally provides the drink this lovely mild pink hue.”

Because it’s a batched drink, the ratios Reis makes use of within the course of are sizeable: 2,000 milliliters every of tequila and the reserved Squirt cordial; 1,000 milliliters every of pulque and sake; and 500 milliliters of Granada Vallet, all topped off with 9,000 milliliters of water. He combines the elements in a 20-liter container, stirs, and shops within the fridge for service.

Step 4: Carbonate

Carbonation is crucial to a correct Paloma. The addition of carbon dioxide concentrates the drink’s flavors and makes them extra pronounced. With out carbonation, a would-be Paloma is solely a grapefruit cocktail.

Naturally, carbonation performs a key function within the Tu Compa’s success, and Reis provides the method the studious consideration you’d count on. After chilling all the reserved batch to round 20 to 23 levels, Reis fills a soda bottle roughly midway with a few of the combine. He then squeezes the bottle to displace the air inside and refills the bottle with carbon dioxide utilizing a CO2 tank, shaking the bottle in order that the gasoline will get distributed evenly. Subsequent, he closes the bottle and reopens it 20 minutes later, purging any bubbles that will have shaped alongside the best way. He repeats this course of 3 times with every batch earlier than placing it within the fridge in a single day to be served to visitors the next day.

Step 5: Can

After the batch has been refrigerated in a single day, Reis finishes off the method by canning the drinks to assist preserve the carbonation totally intact, a transfer he realized from fellow L.A. bar Thunderbolt, which additionally cans its carbonated cocktails. To Reis, the tactic symbolizes the camaraderie that exists throughout the native drinks panorama.

“One of many issues I like in regards to the L.A. bar scene is that all of us throw one another bones. We don’t gatekeep,” he says. “We wish to make certain the scene is consistently rising.”

The one-two punch of carbonation and canning is a two-day course of and happens each time Reis creates a batch. It will get the drink near the end line, nevertheless it doesn’t fairly cross it but.

Step Six: Paint

There are a pair different tips Reis pulls out to finish the Tu Compa. After a visitor orders one, he slathers every glass’s rim with what he calls “pulque paint,” a streak of salted pulque that’s thickened with meals starch and dyed white with titanium dioxide. “It nearly appears like Elmer’s Glue,” he says.

Step Seven: Spray

He additionally hits the highest of the empty glass with a blended spray of culinary-grade grapefruit important oil and food-grade ethanol, a tactic that mimics the expression of oil from a grapefruit peel.

“The spray provides the drink freshness,” Reis says. “It helps convey a peel’s important oils to your face if you drink it.”

Step Eight: Serve

Servers open the can and pour its contents into the ready glass in entrance of visitors. The can’s yellow hue, crimson lettering, and “Thirst Quencher” label — all visible hallmarks of a standard Squirt can — make it an apparent parody, nevertheless it’s additionally a nod and a wink to L.A.’s devotion to the soda.

Making the Tu Compa is, briefly, arduous and time consuming. However Reis doesn’t thoughts the hassle. He is aware of he’s creating an deliberately elaborate tackle a easy beverage. “On the finish of the day, it’s only a easy Mexican highball,” he says. “It’s an unfussy drink. Ours simply occurs to be fussy.”