Xaman Bar

There are mezcal bars and then there is Xaman. Tucked into a low-lit corner of Tamaulipas in Roma Norte, this bottle-lined cave of a room holds what may be the most thoughtfully assembled agave spirits programme in Mexico City — over 80 expressions sourced directly from small producers across Oaxaca, Durango, Sonora, San Luis Potosí and Guerrero, each selected for its capacity to tell a story about the land it came from.

The bartenders at Xaman — many of them trained as agaveros before they learned to mix — treat every pour as an act of education. Order a flight and they'll walk you through production method, maguey variety and producer backstory without a trace of condescension. The menu shifts with the seasons and the harvests, which means the bar you visit in January is meaningfully different from the one you visit in July. That's not a marketing line. It's how mezcal works, and Xaman takes that seriously.

Cocktails take their cue from the spirits list: botanical, restrained, Mexican in ingredient if not always in form. The bar's Mezcal Negroni has become a Roma Norte institution — a riff on the Campari classic built around a single-village Oaxacan espadín that gives the drink a smoky, mineral quality you won't find anywhere else. If mezcal isn't your entry point, the sotol and bacanora selections are equally impressive. For the full picture of what Mexican spirits culture looks like in 2024, walk down Tamaulipas and take your time. Also highly regarded is Licorería Limantour, a few streets away, for a contrasting approach to Mexican cocktail craft.