Telmo Pacheco

Telmo was born in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores islands. Since his childhood, he has been passionate about creative work, botany, and flavour exploring, be this helping his mom in the kitchen or watching the Food Network instead of cartoons. He studied film and video in Lisbon and London, whilst always working in bars across the two capitals. Being from a small island, engaging with so many people and stepping up his hospitality game, after graduating from university, he decided to remain in the bar industry and pursue this as a career in Europe. Currently, he is the head bartender at the recently opened and renowned No Idea Bar in Zurich, Switzerland.

Hometown Hero challenge cocktail: Pine-Pineapple-Apple-Pine

Glass: Collins
Garnish: Tajin rectangle rim
Method: Pour all ingredients into ice-filled glass and stir 60ml Patrón Silver Tequila
60ml Dry apple cider
120ml Stone Pine Needle Tepache*

*Stone Pine Needle Tepache
1L Swiss Pine needle tea (used 100g per Litre)
125g Panela Sugar (or Pilocillo)
6 cloves
Make an infusion with dried pine needles, add pilocillo sugar and let it cool. Cut a very ripe Victoria baby pineapple in cubes (with skin) and add a cinnamon stick, one dried pasille chile and 6 cloves. Let it sit in a jar with a cloth on top and let it ferment for 6 days. Strain everything and spin the filtered tepache in a centrifuge to remove the sediment. Then carbonate the tepache for extra bubbles to carry the mouthfeel further.

Inspiration: The hometown hero ingredient of choice was Swiss stone pine needle (Pinus Cembra) of which Telmo made an intense tea and used this to make tepache instead of using water. It pairs well with the pine, apple and pineapple notes on Patrón Silver.