Okay, that headline is just clickbait.
There is no history of nacho cheese booze, let alone a long and complicated one. Or, rather, there *wasn’t* a history. But soon, there will be.
Tomorrow, Empirical – a spirits company that calls themselves a flavor company, and I suppose since they do make spirits with a wide and varied flavor profile, I’ll accept they are a flavor company – begins taking orders for their Empirical x Doritos® Nacho Cheese Spirit. And with this announcement today, the history of nacho cheese booze officially begins.
Or … does it?
As I sit here some 90 miles south of the Wisconsin border, winter nipping at my toes, it’s hard not to think of beer-cheese soup. Depending on the ratios and the recipe, you may have a cook who leans more bartender than chef.
For its part, that beer-cheese soup also gets me thinking about the cheese fondue I had as a teenager. In the circles I fondue’d in, there was usually brandy in there. Or red wine. Or something that made it feel more salacious than just cheese.
But both of those things suggest food first and booze second. If I ask Google to help me out and show me a path to previous cheese-endowed libations, there are recipes for Bloody Marys and fat-washed vodkas. So there’s that. But I think this – this release of Empirical x Doritos® Nacho Cheese Spirit – is different for a couple reasons.
First, it’s important because it’s nacho cheese. Nacho cheese is the symbolic lifeblood of Tex-Mex, the cuisine that bonds us to our family in the South. By and large, it’s accepted that nacho cheese is a north-of-the-border contribution to the oeuvre that is Tex-Mex and is as much a melting pot as the vessel that it calls home: there is no standard definition or even a requirement that it contain cheese at all. (Having said that, in a 2017 Food & Wine article, Mike Pomranz says that the nacho cheese flavor of Doritos comes from cheddar and Romano.)
Second, it’s important because it’s Doritos. This snack was literally developed at Disneyland as a reinterpretation of the totopos, the chips that are the base of the beloved Mexican dish chilaquiles. In fact, it was imagined as a dry, easy-to-take-with-you version of the delicious, wet dish. So, here again, a bond of our two countries in a form – a snack – neither of us can get enough of.
Third, alcohol brings us together. I mean, sure, it can also ignite fights. But it’s literally integrated into our church ceremonies. It can create common ground. And with this particular spirit, the fact that it comes from a fancy-pants outfit like Empirical … look, if it came from, say, Tito’s, a certain crowd might dismiss it offhand. “Just a down-market version of Fireball,” they might say. Or, “Conceived of when Malort and Four Loko had a one-night stand.” But when it comes from a pedigreed house like Empirical, those same people can’t ignore it. Maybe you don’t know them, but people serious about food and drink sure do. Empirical is the brain-child of Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen, who came out of the world-famous Noma restaurant and Nordic Food Lab. They’ve been heralded as the “world’s most innovative distillery” by Forbes and are on Fast Company’s list of the world’s most innovative companies.
And all of that, I think, ties my other theories about unity together.
Empirical is the brain-child of Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen, who came out of the world-famous Noma restaurant and Nordic Food Lab. They’ve been heralded as the “world’s most innovative distillery” by Forbes and are on Fast Company’s list of the world’s most innovative companies.
Every year, as we enter the holidays, there’s a flurry of articles, radio programs, and television shows that talk about avoiding awkward conversations with extended family at holiday gatherings. And I firmly believe that’s the problem – that we are encouraged to avoid talking with people we disagree with.
Here’s a 750ml bottle of convivial cheer. It’s bringing together different cultures, whether you’re talking about Mexico and the USA or the kinds of people who eat Doritos and those who drink Empirical spirits. You got your booze in my salty snack, your salty snack in my booze – hey, it tastes great!
At a time when we need more reasons – and more tools – to come together as one, Empirical and Doritos have given us a firecracker of a spirit. I mean, it might be going overboard to suggest they should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. But would it, really?
Lou Bank is the founder and executive director of SACRED, a not-for-profit that helps improve quality of life in the rural Mexican communities where heritage agave spirits are made. He’s also the host of Agave Road Trip, a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico.
