Xoxoc Salty Xoconostle Strips

Salted, naturally sour dried prickly pear strips. 

For snacking or to replace salt and lime at cocktail time. 

Tequila's best friend! Mezcal is pretty darn happy, too! Most of us know that prickly pear cactus yield sweet, delicious fruits that taste oddly tropical, despite their preference for a desert climate. A close cousin to the common prickly pear is the xoconostle. Its fruit looks similar to a prickly pear but the taste is muy sour and muy appealing. You find them in salsas and dishes throughout central Mexico.

Xoxoc, the producer, takes their xoconostle and dries them naturally and in this case, salts them. The result is an addictive chewy snack for hot weather, but where they really shine is as a chaser to premium tequilas and mezcal. The salt and sour sensation replaces the traditional salt and lime! Take a sip, take a bite and then you'll understand why we declare these little flavor bombs essential to tequila time. And they're a lot handier than messy limes and salt cellars.

Rancho Gordo presents Xoxoc Salty Strips from Steve Sando on Vimeo. 

If you have a tequila fanatic in your life, congratulations. You're lucky. Now you have the perfect gift!

Xoxoc are of course our partners in the Rancho Gordo-Xoxoc Project. Located on land that had been destroyed by hundreds of years of cattle farming, with the only survivors being the natural xoconostle plants, Xoxoc began making these snacks, salsas and a wonderful marmalade, all with the sour prickly pears that thrive in the Hidalgo climate and terrain.