Shaken, stirred or summoned?
Some of Mexico’s best bartending “brujas” popped up in Brooklyn this weekend, mixing a witches brew of offbeat cocktails made from herbal ingredients that are more common in Mexican folk medicine than in Big Apple watering holes.
Gina Barbachano and Bianca “Pipa” Bertoli of the female-fronted Mexico City bar Brujas (which means “witches” in Spanish) were mixing at Carroll Gardens cocktail bar Leyenda this week.
Brujas — named one of the best in North America this year — draws much of its inspiration from Curanderas, or “Mexican witches known for using different herbs,” Barbachano told The Post. “So the main focus of Brujas is to rescue some of those ingredients and use them for cocktails.”
Squash blossoms and corn liqueur Nixta are just some of the ingredients the brujas use to achieve unique flavors. Through this process, the bar also honors the storied culture of herb-based folk medicine, Barbachano said.
“The fact that Brujas is so focused on the Mexican curanderas and not going too much into the magical side is also important,” she added. “It’s so easy to cross the line between having this [herbalism] concept and becoming a whimsical Harry Potter-style [bar]. I love how the girls every day take the bar to the perfect line.”
On Tuesday, the pair brought their sklls to pop-up event — complete with ingredients found right in the borough.
“The ingredients sourced were very specialized ingredients and unusual to find, but there is such a Latin culture in Brooklyn that we were able to make it work,” said Ivy Mix, co-owner of Leyenda.
“The last time I went to Mexico City, to me, Brujas had the best drinks — [it was] the best experience I’ve had in a long time,” Mix said of the international collaboration. “When I was trying to think about who I could bring over for this month, and to bring a bit of Latin America here, Brujas was an iconic fit.”
The collaboration comes just in time for both the Halloween season and National Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated each year from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
Brujas’ bartending duo at Leyenda collaborated with Mix on a unique menu for the Tuesday night pop-up, featuring agave-based liquor and ingredients like pixtle — which is the inner nut of a Marney — as well as Rosita de Cacao and ruda herb.
“What was inspiring for us – difficult, but super inspiring for us and my team – was [discovering things like] what is pixtle,” Mix said. “It was a lot of knowing where to go: The fact that we can go to our ‘slice’ of Mexico, those markets that we go to [in Sunset Park] for Leyenda with Mexican and Latin ingredients.”
The handcrafted cocktail menu included the Reina Yara (Mijenta reposado, Galliano, passion fruit and vanilla soda), The Devil’s Bridge (Mijenta blanco, ruda, peppermint cordial and bubbles) — both of which were featured on a recent Brujas menu — as well as the Passion For Fairy (Mijenta blanco, pixtle-infused white wine and corn liqueur) and Ayuujk (Mijenta blanco, soy milk and lavender).
Barbachano told The Post that Brujas’ collaboration with Leyenda (meaning “legend” in Spanish) was a no-brainer, given both bars’ emphasis on female leadership and unwavering celebration of Latin culture.
“[Brujas bartenders] are proud of being females, they are proud of living in Mexico and being Mexican, and I think that’s really important,” Barbachano said.
The ladies behind Brujas will return to New York City on Oct. 20 for a pop-up at Pebble Bar in Manhattan.