Some of Mexicos best bartenders pop up in NYC bar with their offbeat witchs brews

Shaken, stirred or summoned?Some of Mexico’s best bartending “brujas” popped up in Brooklyn this weekend, mixing a witch’s brew of offbeat cocktails made from herbal ingredients that are more common in Mexican folk medicine than in Big Apple watering holes.Gina Barbachano and Bianca “Pipa” Bertoli of the female-fronted Mexico City bar Brujas (which means “witches” in Spanish) were mixing at Carroll Gardens cocktail bar Leyenda this week,Brujas — named one of the best in North America this year — draws much of its inspiration from Curanderas, or “Mexican witches known for using different herbs,” Barbachano told The Post. “So the main focus of Brujas is to rescue some of those ingredients and use them for cocktails.” Squash blossoms and corn liqueur Nixta are just some of the ingredients the brujas use to achieve unique flavors.Through this process, the bar also honors the storied culture of herb-based folk medicine, Barbachano said. “The fact that Brujas is so focused on the Mexican curanderas and not going too much into the magical side is also important,” she added.

“It’s so easy to cross the line between having this [herbalism] concept and becoming a whimsical Harry Potter-style [bar].I love how the girls every day take the bar to the perfect line.”On Tuesday, the pair brought their sklls to pop-up event — complete with ingredients found right in the borough. “The ingredients sourced were very specialized ingredients and unusual to find, but there is such a Latin culture in Brooklyn that we were able to make it work,” said Ivy Mix, co-owner of Leyenda.“The last time I went to Mexico City, to me, Brujas had the best drinks — [it was] the best experience I’ve had in a long time,” Mix said of the international collaboration.

“When I was trying to think about who I could bring over for this month, and to bring a bit of Latin America here, Brujas was an iconic fit.” The collaboration comes just in time for...