Origin · Acerca

About Xinachtli

sheen·ach·tlee · Nahuatl for seed

Xinachtli is a small tortilleria in East Vancouver, on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations.

We make nixtamal tortillas and masa from native heirloom corn (maíz criollo) grown by small farmers in Oaxaca, Tlaxcala, Morelos, Estado de México, Chiapas, and Michoacán. Three ingredients: corn, water, limestone.

We also make mole, pinole, cacao spreads, and herbal teas. The same attention, on different ingredients.

Your tortilla should know where the corn grew.

Process · Nixtamal

The process is the product.

Nixtamalization is a 3,500-year-old process developed across Mesoamerica. The corn is cooked overnight in a solution of water and cal (calcium hydroxide, food-grade limestone), rested, stone-ground into masa, hand-formed, and cooked on a comal.

The alkaline cook does something industrial corn flour can’t replicate. It raises the pH of the kernel, which releases bound niacin and makes calcium and B vitamins bioavailable. Civilizations that ate corn without nixtamalizing it developed pellagra. The ones that learned this process did not. The science caught up with the practice in the 1930s.

Each variety behaves differently. Cónico from Estado de México and Tlaxcala has been with us the longest. The name comes from its conical cob. Bolita from Oaxaca’s Central Valleys (bolita: little ball) is denser and nuttier, and the kernels are harder to grind.

We log every variety, every hydration ratio, every yield. Corn isn’t a commodity to us.

No Maseca · No industrial corn · No shortcuts

Since 2018 · Maya Garden · UBC

Cónico in Vancouver,
since 2018.

Since 2018 we’ve been growing Cónico seed from Tlaxcala at the Maya Garden at UBC. This season, our ninth, we planted Cónico, Cacahuazintle, and Maizajo (also called tunicado, a varietal whose kernels grow inside individual husks).

It’s a small planting. We don’t mill it for tortillas. Production volume comes from our partners in Mexico. The garden is how we stay close to the seed and learn what these varieties want from this latitude.

The seed traveled more than 4,000 kilometers from Tlaxcala to grow here, and it keeps its lineage across that distance.

Founder · Luis Almazán

Who’s behind this.

My name is Luis Almazán. I trained as a chef in Mexico City. The curriculum was Eurocentric and almost nothing about the food traditions of my own country. I learned the nixtamal process years later, in Oaxaca, from people who had kept it alive.

My paternal grandmother sold tamales in downtown Mexico City before I was born. I never got to learn from her. Xinachtli is my way of doing that work now.

I also spent years in visual effects on feature films. That work taught me to track variables and document processes carefully. The molino runs the same way.

I started Xinachtli in 2020 because Vancouver had a lot of Mexican-inspired food and almost nothing made from native corn, properly nixtamalized, with any traceable connection to the people who grow it. The gap was the brief.

— Luis

Non-negotiables

What we won’t compromise on.

No Maseca. No industrial corn.
Every kernel traceable to a farmer.

Buying our corn supports the seed-keepers who have protected these varieties for generations. That work is older than any of us and it’s still under threat.

We teach the process. The more people understand nixtamal, the better for everyone.

Chiapas, not México. Cónico, not “heirloom corn.” If we can’t tell you exactly what’s in something and where it came from, we don’t sell it.

Come find us

Three ways to taste this work.

Tortillas, masa, mole, pinole, cacao spreads, and herbal teas.

East Vancouver

Shop tortillas.

Tortillas and masa fresh weekly, pickup in East Vancouver. Mole, pinole, cacao spreads, and teas ship Canada-wide.

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May — October

Find us at a market.

Vancouver markets through the 2026 season. The full range, in person.

Full schedule →

Kitchens, cooks, grocers

Wholesale & restaurants.

Tortillas, masa, mole, and teas for kitchens, cooks, and grocers who want native ingredients on their menu.

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