Xtabentún Yucateco

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Small comal or heavy dry skillet for toasting the anise
• •One-quart glass jar with tight-fitting lid for the rum infusion
• •Two-quart glass jar or pitcher for combining
• •Fine-mesh strainer and cheesecloth
• •Small saucepan for the honey syrup
• •Clean glass bottle, 1 liter, for storage

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the anise

   Heat a dry comal or small heavy skillet over medium-low. Add the green anise seeds and the crushed star anise. Toast them gently for two to three minutes, shaking the pan constantly, until they smell sweet and faintly licorice and the seeds darken half a shade. Do not let them brown. Burned anise turns the whole batch bitter and there is no fixing it once you have committed the rum.

   Green anise is anís verde, the tiny oval seeds. It is not the same as fennel and it is not the same as star anise alone. The Yucatecan flavor comes from green anise carrying the round, herbaceous note and the star anise lifting it. Use both.
2. 2

   Steep the rum

   Tip the toasted anise into a clean one-quart glass jar. Pour the rum over the seeds. Drop in the strip of lima agria peel and the cinnamon stick. Seal the jar and shake it. Set it in a dark cupboard for seven days. Shake it once a day, no more. The rum will pull color from the anise and the peel and turn a pale straw gold. This is the infusion. There are no shortcuts here. No me vengas con atajos.

3. 3

   Build the honey syrup

   After seven days, make the syrup. In a small saucepan, combine the water, the grated piloncillo, and the salt over medium-low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Do not boil. Pull the pot off the heat the moment it is clear and let it cool until it is just warm to the back of your hand, about body temperature. Now whisk in the Melipona honey. Heat is the enemy of honey. Pour honey into hot syrup and you cook off everything that makes Melipona worth using. Warm syrup only. Así se hace y punto.

   Melipona honey comes from the stingless bee the Maya have kept for more than two thousand years. It is thin, slightly acidic, and floral in a way no European honey can imitate. If you cannot find it, orange-blossom honey from a single producer is your compromise. Supermarket clover honey will make a fine syrup and a boring liqueur.
4. 4

   Combine and rest

   Strain the infused rum through a fine-mesh sieve lined with a single layer of cheesecloth into a clean two-quart jar or pitcher. Press the seeds gently with the back of a spoon. Discard the spent anise, peel, and cinnamon. Pour the warm honey syrup into the strained rum and stir slowly with a wooden spoon for a full minute. The liquid will turn the color of dark amber held up to afternoon light. Seal the jar and return it to the dark cupboard for another seven days. The flavors marry in this second rest. Skip it and the rum and honey will taste like two separate things in the same glass.

5. 5

   Bottle and finish

   After the second rest, strain the liqueur one more time through cheesecloth into a clean bottle. The xtabentún should be glossy, syrupy enough to coat the back of a spoon, and faintly viscous when you tilt the bottle. Store it at room temperature in a dark place. It keeps for at least a year and the flavor only deepens for the first three months.

6. 6

   Serve it three ways

   Pour two ounces into a small clay copita or a thick-walled glass, neat and at room temperature, after dinner. For a hot afternoon in Mérida, pour over a single large ice cube in a heavy tumbler. For the Mayan coffee finisher, stir one ounce into a small cup of strong café de olla brewed with piloncillo and canela. That last one is how my friend Doña Rosario in Valladolid sends her guests home.

Chef Tips

• •Source the honey first. If you cannot get Melipona honey, do not buy supermarket clover and call it xtabentún. A single-origin orange-blossom honey from a Yucatecan or Campechano apiary is your honest compromise. Anything else is a different drink with the same name.
• •Green anise (anís verde) is not the same as star anise and not the same as fennel. Buy it from a Mexican mercado or a serious spice merchant. The Yucatecan profile depends on the green anise carrying the body and the star anise lifting it. One without the other is incomplete.
• •The rum matters less than the honey but it still matters. A clean white rum at 80 proof, ideally Mexican aguardiente de caña if your liquor store stocks it, is the traditional base. Dark or spiced rums will fight the honey and the anise. Save them for another drink.
• •Do not boil the honey into the syrup. Body temperature only. La manteca es el sabor for carnitas, and for xtabentún, the honey is the flavor. Heat strips it.

Advance Preparation

• •Plan two weeks ahead. Seven days for the rum to infuse with the toasted anise, seven more days for the rum and honey syrup to marry after combining. There is no rushing this and there is no faking it.
• •Bottled and sealed, xtabentún keeps at room temperature in a dark cupboard for at least a year. The flavor deepens for the first three months and holds steady after that.
• •If you are making a batch for a special occasion or a wedding, the Yucatecan custom, start at least one month ahead. The longer second rest only makes it better.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 60g)