Sangrita

History & Origin

Sangrita is one of the most misunderstood companions in the world of Mexican drinks: many believe it is a tequila ingredient, but its function is precisely the opposite. Sangrita is drunk in alternating shots with blanco tequila - a sip of tequila, a sip of sangrita, never mixed - in a ritual that Jalisco natives call bandera ('flag') when served with a third shot of lime juice, reproducing the colours of the Mexican flag (green, white, red). The origin of sangrita is placed in the 1920s in Chapala, the lakeside village of Jalisco on the shores of Mexico's largest lake, where a woman surnamed Guadalupe Sanchez invented the first version by combining pomegranate juice with chilli and salt to accompany the mezcal her husband drank. The original recipe contained no tomato but pomegranate, bitter orange and fresh árbol chillies, and was considerably hotter than current versions. The tomato version - now the most widespread - became popular in the 1940s and 1950s with the industrialisation of tequila and its mass export to North American markets. Distilleries began suggesting sangrita recipes based on canned tomato juice, sweet orange and Tabasco to make the tequila ritual more accessible to non-Mexican palates. The El Jimador brand popularised a bottled sangrita version in the 1970s that is now found throughout Mexico. Jalisco purists clearly distinguish between artisanal sangrita - prepared at home with fresh ingredients - and industrial bottled sangrita, considering that only the former truly honours the tradition of Chapala and the ritual of quality blanco tequila.