Stop Tasting. Start Smelling: Lessons from Mijenta and Tequila’s Greatest Nose

In the hierarchy of tequila appreciation, few names carry as much weight as Ana María Romero Mena. While many master distillers inherit their craft through family bloodlines, her path was paved with the technical precision of a sommelier.

As the Master Distiller for Mijenta, she has become world-famous for her ability to identify over 600 unique aromas in tequila—a talent she attributes to her early training in fine wine.

In a deep-dive conversation with The Tequila Report, Romero explains how she translated the complexity of a Merlot into the soul of Mijenta. She walks us through the science of mouthfeel, the struggle for genetic diversity in agave fields, and why the industry’s future depends on a return to nature’s seeds. Joining her in this discussion were Mijenta co-founder Mike Dolan and Director of Marketing Danny Mandelbaum.

In 1993, Romero was living in Jalisco but was focused entirely on the world of fine wine. The shift occurred after a visit to the Martell House in Cognac, France. When asked by her hosts about her thoughts on tequila, she realized with a start that she didn't actually know the spirit's primary aromatic characteristics.

Upon returning to Guadalajara, she was invited by the President of the CNIT (the Tequila Chamber of Commerce) to conduct a professional tasting. At the time, the industry was largely unconcerned with primary aromas or detailed flavor profiling. "I like your tasting," participants told her after she applied sommelier-level descriptors to the spirit. "We didn't know that the tequila has these aromas that you say".

This discovery shifted her love for wine into a permanent passion for the tequila. She began touring major distilleries like Cuervo and Sauza, discovering massive variabilities in production. She realized that while wine derives flavor from various grape varieties, tequila is a "canvas" where the distiller must pull complexity from a single plant: the Agave Tequilana Weber Blue Variety.

Mijenta—a name derived from "Mi Gente" (My People) - was born from a meeting between Romero and co-founders Mike Dolan, Elise Som, and Juan Colorado. Dolan, the former CEO of Bacardi, wanted to create a brand that felt like a collective, bringing together the best minds in the industry.

Elise Som brought a background in sustainable design and a fierce commitment to environmental ethics. "We were setting ourselves up on a strong foundation of responsible behavior from day one," Mike Dolan explains. This led to Mijenta becoming a certified B Corp, a rigorous standard that requires transparency in everything from labor practices to carbon footprints.

For Romero, joining the team meant having the freedom to build a flavor profile from scratch. She didn't want to just make another tequila; she wanted to create a gastronomic spirit that could sit on a table alongside the finest wines in the world.

When designing the initial flavor profile for Mijenta, Romero specifically chose Highlands (Los Altos) agave. The region is famous for its iron-rich red soil and fresh, cool weather. She notes that these environmental factors change the biology of the plant itself.

Highlands agave develops more water and fiber compared to its counterparts in the Valley. "With this water, we have more esters in the processes—it creates fruity notes," she explains. This Highlands terroir provides the floral notes and softness that serve as the brand's aromatic signature. For Romero, the agave isn't just a raw material; it is a living vessel of the soil’s mineral memory.

Romero approaches distillation with a chemist’s rigor to ensure the spirit is never “sticky" or "spicy". To achieve the brand's signature silkiness, she focuses heavily on the fermentation stage.

By controlling the fermentation temperature strictly between 22°C and 28°C and meticulously monitoring pH levels, she encourages the development of glycerol. This specific kind of alcohol is directly responsible for the smooth, silky texture of the liquid.

"The fermentation is where the promise of the agave is kept," Romero says. She also implements a precision distillation process. The first distillation is kept slow, with evaporation controlled at exactly 25°C. This is much slower and cooler than most distillers. This ensures that the aromatic promise made to the nose is perfectly confirmed on the palate.

Consistency is the greatest challenge for any master distiller, especially when production moves. Mijenta recently transitioned from Destiladora de Los Altos (NOM 1412) to the nearby Casa Tequilera de Arandas (NOM 1499). The Mijenta team had to manage a complex "homologation" process to ensure the liquid remained largely unchanged.

The most critical factor in this move was the water. "The mineral content of the water is the most important," Romero notes. Even with the same agave and the same stills, different water can completely alter the mouthfeel and aroma. It took three rigorous test batches and constant lab analysis to ensure the Mijenta Blanco produced at the new facility was indistinguishable from the original.

One of Romero’s deepest passions is the preservation of genetic diversity through the "Bat Friendly" movement. Most of the industry relies on cloning agave sprouts (hijuelos), for new agave plants, which leads to a lack of genetic variation. This makes the entire tequila category vulnerable to disease and climate shifts.

She advocates for allowing a percentage of agave to flower, growing a tall stalk called a quiote. These flowers attract bats and bees for pollination, leading to the production of seeds. "It is very important for the life of the agave, of the preservation of this treasure of Mexico," she urges.

And in her first Maestra Selection special edition, Romero used only these seed-grown plants. She found that seed-grown agave is naturally more resistant to sickness and produces a spirit with lower methanol levels and a deeper, more resilient complexity. By protecting the bats, Mijenta and other brands who have made the Good Agave Pledge are essentially protecting the future of tequila.

To maintain her ability to identify 600+ unique aromas (!!!), Romero is constantly training her mind and senses. She believes that aroma is the most important sense because it saturates much faster than taste.

She often trains students using a comparative method. One of her most famous exercises involves strawberries and blueberries. She has students smell and taste a strawberry versus a blueberry while blindfolded. By forcing the brain to describe the differences in sweetness, acidity, and aromatic complexity, the mind learns to catalog the aroma.

"Really, it's not flavor, it's aroma," she notes. She proves this by having students taste a banana while holding their nose. Without the olfactory sensors, the brain can only register "sweet" or "mushy". The second they release their nose, the brain shouts "banana!". This confirmation in the mouth is the foundation of her winemaking-inspired approach to spirits.

For Mijenta, sustainability isn't an afterthought—it's woven into the production process and brand ethos. Working with Elise Som, Romero ensured the distillery at NOM 1499 was a model of efficiency. The facility features over 1,500 solar panels, which power much of the production and significantly cut carbon emissions.

Mike Dolan points out that the commitment extends to every touchpoint. A recent bottle redesign cut carbon emissions per bottle in half. The labels are made from agave waste, the glass is recycled, and the stoppers are created from a biopolymer made from leftover sugarcane fiber. "We wanted to prove that a luxury product could be the most sustainable product in the category," Dolan says.

That extends to their newest release, Symphony Series No. 3, a limited-edition Añejo aged for 18 months. Bottled at a high-proof 45% ABV (90 proof), this expression is designed to showcase the complex interaction between spirit and wood. Romero views this release as a culmination of her research into American oak.

Mijenta is a Tequila Report partner