About us
Casa Piñata is inspired by Mexican traditions to create modern products that incorporate tropical fruits, herbs, spices and bubbles in a bottle. All our products are 0% alcohol, 100% delicious.
Our Story
I was born and raised in Mexico City where I grew up enjoying delicious street food and beverages including my favourite: Tepache. When I immigrated to Canada I found myself craving the flavours of home, but every "Tepache" that I tried just wasn't the same. This began my quest to not only recreate the Tepache I remembered, but to elevate it and make it modern.
For four years, I experimented with different variations and techniques using the knowledge I acquired working in the craft beer industry. Originally, I planned on making an alcoholic beverage but when my wife was pregnant I realized how few good non-alcoholic options existed. I made the first non-alcoholic Tepache for her and it turned out to be the best one yet.
Thus, Casa Piñata was born.
Our mission is to create delicious non-alcoholic beverages that are inspired by classic Mexican beverages. They are amazing on their own but you can easily add a splash of booze.
How our products are made
Beverages
First, we infuse our herbs and spices to extract their delicious flavours. We like to make sure all our ingredients are 100% natural and as fresh as possible.
Once cooled down, we blend our infusions with fruit juices and other natural acidic ingredients like lime juice or vinegar to balance the sweetness with tart flavours.
Then, we carbonate our beverages with Co2 for 7 days to add the right amount of bubbles to our beverages and make them fizzy and refreshing.
Finally, we fill and label bottle by bottle. Because we label by hand they aren't always perfect, but we promise it doesn't make them any less tasty. We are artists, not scientists.
Fermented Hot Sauces (Salsas)
Fun fact: in spanish salsa just means "sauce". You might be used to it as a chunky tomato dip for your tortilla chips but our salsas are closer to what you know as hot sauce
We think salsas should be more than just spicy. Ours are made with chiles that are central to Mexican cuisine. They are flavourful and just the right amount of hot.
The fermentation process adds complexity and makes them shelf stable which means you can enjoy them as quickly or slowly as you like.
The process is simple but slow. We prep all the fresh ingredients and add them to a fermenter with the dried chiles. In about 21 days the fermentation is complete and its time to blend the mixture and bottle it. This is considered a wild fermentation since we rely entirely on the yeast and bacterias living on the chiles.