In celebration of the upcoming 50 Best Bars awards ceremony coming to Vancouver for the very first time, a few local bars were hosting influential bartenders from around the world. Such as Eli Martinez of Tlecän at the Flamingo Room.
Presented by The Beverage Collective, in partnership with Solmano Mezcal and Don Fulano Tequila, tickets to the event went for $20 and included an agave seminar and tasting from 2-4pm. featuring spirits created and sourced specifically for Tlecän, a welcome cocktail, and small bites from the culinary team at The Flamingo Room. As a bonus, guests who attend the afternoon session were invited back for an evening bar takeover by Martinez from 7-10pm, where they enjoyed one complimentary cocktail of their choosing during the takeover.
I was only able to attend the former. This was my first time at The Flamingo Bar, the lounge adjacent to Havana’s on Commerical Drive.
The mezcal seminar and tasting featured exclusive mezcal from Mexico City, the same city where Eli Martinez and Tlecän are based out of. The Tlecän isranked No.10 on the 2024 list of North America’s Best Bars and No.20 for the World’s Best Bars.
They transitioned well into The Flamingo Room space. The narrow bar outfitted with patterned tiles, wicker lights, faux foliage and sky lights. Our guest bar team furthered the ambiance with a Mexico flag, mangos, and by adding some smoke to flavour the air, simulating the smoke of cooked agave inmezcal. Very theatrical and the room loved it.
As we were welcomed into the basement, we were greeted with the Flamingo Room’s special margarita featuring one of our drink sponsors for the day, Solmano Mezcal mixed with mango, citrus, and chili. This was a breezy start that had guests distracted enough to not touch their tasters of mezcal for tasting during seminar.
Utilizing the back stage the four man team of the Tlecän began their presentation with the background history of mezcal and how it goes from plant to bottle. We learned how the more mature the agave, the more flavour it lends the mezcal.
Mezcal has three catagories: Industrial is made using automated processes, Artisanal utilizes earthen pit ovens for natural fermentation, and everything is done by hand for the Ancestral method, using clay pots. The latter most is preferred by the Tlecän team as it offers a bolder expression with more natural flavours, passed on to in the agave product. They only work with small brands that share their passion for “liquid matrimony”.
They travelled with the bottles and each below, unlabelled. Small batch made for the community, described as a one time only taste that we will not get again. This is seeing as we can never get the same flavour in the same agave, to make the same batch. There is no controling the terroir, especially given all the years needed to grow the plant.
I was not able to capture the Spanish names for any of our 4 taster, and just as well considering the above. The first mezcal was by a women own and operated distillery. Comparable to gin with notes of white flowers, orange blossom, and peppery botanicals. At 50% ABV it is more than most mezcals, but at the same time was not as firey as you would expect going down.
Our next taster was a mix of European and Mexician ethnicity. A fermented drink made from agave, once only drunk by priests and noblemen; they could only have 5 shots of it in a day, as a very ritualized drink. It was a mix of two different types of agave, noting you get what you get, because you don’t have full control of mezcal as you would a spirit like vodka, which tastes the same with the same wheat used. This one was herbaceous and cherry sweet. The more sweetsr the spirit, the more ripe the agave fruit was when it was picked.
Here, our 4 glass unique tasting was punctuated with an appetizer platter from the kitchen of Havana. This was a collection of chips and dips with fried plantain, smashed banana fritter, and tortilla chips with salsa. I especially liked the plantain chips and would come back just for more. I wished they bagged them for grab and go purchase.
As we continued with the tasting we continued to walk through the life span of agave, noting the current agave crisis. The demand for agave products is world wide, but distilleries do not enough time to grow the plant, which takes on average 10-30 years to mature. A solution is to revive the following spirit, which required permission to make again, and was given 18 years ago.
Taster number three was not a mezcal. It was less smoke and had oily notes from nuts, coupled with the faint taste of almond. With its lower ABV at 45% it is recommended to have with dessert.
Taster number four was the most memorable, spicy, but not from the addition of chilli. The most complex at 56% ABV it has the flavour of burnt milk and haberano, and it even smelled like it on the nose, lingering well into the longer after note.
In short, this as such an authentic and informative seminar, made more rich by the individuals who presented it to us from their first hand and amalgamated experiences.
The Flamingo Room
1214 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC V5L 2T4
(604) 253-9119
flamingoroomvan.com
