Have you heard of mezcal? Isn’t it the same as tequila? Well, yes but no. Some mezcals might have a similar taste to tequila, but for the most part, mezcal has a more full, smooth, smoky flavour. A good mezcal tastes nothing like tequila. That’s not just me being pretentious – like saying I can notice the subtle differences between Coke and Pepsi, which I can’t. I mean that a good mezcal has no resemblance to tequila.
Whether you’ve never heard of mezcal, or you’ve tried it a time or two but didn’t really know what it was or how to drink it, let me help guide you along your journey to unlock the magic of this overlooked Mexican spirit.
When we think of Mexican alcohol, we all think tequila. Love it or hate it, it has worldwide notoriety and can create toilet huggers out of the mightiest men. Tequila is made from the blue agave plant and can only be produced in a handful of certified regions in Mexico, most notably is the town of Tequila.
Tequila is not the only alcohol produced in Mexico however, nor the only alcohol produced from the agave plant. Pulque is produced from the sap of the agave plant and has an interestingly thick consistency. But another alcohol made form agave is mezcal.
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What is Mezcal?
Mezcal is an alcoholic spirit derived from one of the hundreds of species of agave plants. There are many different varieties of mezcal and flavour profiles that it can acquire. In fact, tequila can be classified as a mezcal, but mezcal is not a tequila. Allow me to clarify this.
Mezcal is the name given an alcohol that is derived from an agave plant. Tequila satisfies this requirement. There are somewhere around 200-300 different species of agave plants, but tequila is only made from the blue agave plant. Also, tequila must be produced in one of the certified regions of Mexico. Mezcal on the other hand can be made anywhere, and from any of the varieties of agave plants. It’s similar to how all scotches are whiskeys, but not all whiskeys are scotches.
Don’t assume that you won’t like mezcal because you don’t like tequila.
You can find mezcals that taste similar to tequila, but generally speaking the two have very different flavours. You’re not meant to shoot mezcal either. It’s meant to be sipped slowly, like a nice whiskey. Mezcal generally has a smoky flavour, much like an Islay Scotch. If you enjoy whiskey or are able to drink strong liquors without adding mix, I’m confident you’ll find a mezcal that you like. With somewhere around 270 species of agave plants, there are bound to be a few that’ll make your eyes light up.
The difference between tequila and mezcal is in how its produced.
How is Mezcal Made?
Much like tequila, mezcal is made by extracting and fermenting the sugars of the agave plant. Generally speaking, tequila is a much more modern, commercialized process as compared to the traditional method used to produce mezcal.
If you look at an agave plant, you’ll see the plant’s arms branch out from the core of the plant. This core, called the piña, is the part of the plant that gets used to make tequila and mezcal. The cores are harvested and then baked in an oven. Once baked, the piñas are squeezed to extract the juices. The juices are left to ferment, and then the liquid is distilled to produce the alcohol.
The series of steps are the same for both tequila and mezcal, but the methods are much different. Tequila is often farmed en masse, baked in large steel ovens, mechanically separated to extract the juices, and left to ferment in large steel vats before distillation.
The most common variety of mezcal, espadín, is generally farmed. But mezcal made from any of the other species of agave plants is usually harvested wild. Some of these species of agaves can take up to 30 years to reach maturity. This is what gives mezcal its unique flavours. There are certain flavours that you can only get through years of natural environments and pollination processes aided by winged creatures like birds, bats, and bees.
Once the agave piñas are harvested, they need to be baked. When making mezcal, the agave cores are usually cooked on coals in a covered pit in the ground for four to five days. This is where mezcal inherits its naturally smoky flavour.
Once cooked, the cores are brought to a large stone wheel pulled by a horse or donkey to crush the cooked piñas. The crushed agave gets shoveled into wooden barrels where it will be left to ferment before distillation. There are a few distillers that have modernized this procedure a touch, but the vast majority of mezcal producers are small-scale distillers that carry on the traditional techniques of making mezcal.
Where Can You Buy Mezcal?
If you’re lucky, your liquor store might carry a couple bottles of mezcal. It can be difficult to find outside of Mexico, however. Some mezcals exported to other parts of the world are still made in the traditional way they’ve been making it for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, some of the mezcals produced for export are much more similar to tequila’s production and skip a lot of the old school methods, reducing the flavours. You might buy a bottle of mezcal in America and it will taste similar to tequila.
Even in Mexico, good mezcal can be hard to find. Outside of southern Mexico, tequila is the more popular spirit. There are a lot of pretenders in the market that will stick a mezcal label on any bottle of liquor. Even in Oaxaca, the heart of the mezcal world, you can find stores in touristic areas that are selling bottles of urine and calling it mezcal. Not actually, but it’s pretty disgusting.
To get the good stuff, you want to go to Santiago Matatlán. This town, about an hour outside of Oaxaca, is the mezcal capital of the world. The highway that goes through the center of town is lined with mezcal distilleries. The distilleries are very unassuming, mom and pop businesses, but they produce the best mezcal in the world.
You can walk up to any of these distilleries and ask for a tour and a tasting and you will get to see the process first-hand, and taste a wide variety of mezcals. If you buy a bottle, the tour and tastings are free. For one litre of espadín mezcal, the price will be about 200 pesos, or $10USD, a robbery for the quality of liquid inside the bottle.
Some of the rarer species of wild agave will go for a bit more but if you are into whiskey, and find yourself in southern Mexico, I cannot recommend a visit to Santiago Matatlán enough. You will be amazed at the production process and different flavours that the agaves produce.
My personal recommendation would be the El Rey Zapoteco distillery in Santiago Matatlán. As far as mezcal producers in this town go, they are one of the larger ones and gave me a fantastic tour and tasting. They were able to really describe the process and a lot of the information in this article I learned at their site. This would be a good place to start and dip you toes into the mezcal world, and then branch out to the smaller producers. You’ll be amazed at how small-scale the productions are.
If you’re not able to make it here but want to buy mezcal at your local liquor store, check the back of the label on the bottle. If the bottle comes from Santiago Matatlán, you’ve more than likely found a quality liquor. Mezcal is generally bottled at 45% ABV or higher.
How to Drink Mezcal
Mezcal is meant to be drank like a nice whiskey. You’re to sip it straight, and without ice. That’s how you should be tasting mezcal at least. Once you’ve bought the bottle, you can drink it however you like.
If you buy mezcal at a restaurant or bar, it’ll often come with an orange slice and sal de guisano (worm salt). Again, it’s meant to be sipped and you can dip your orange in the salt and chew on that to add flavour. My preference is to just sip the mezcal straight without any other additions, but experiment with some other methods and go with what you like.
Another tip I was given from a producer was to not bother with the aged mezcal. When you are drinking mezcal, you want to taste the flavours of the agave plant. Aged mezcal will add flavours of the barrel it is aged in and mask the true flavours. Save yourself a few bucks and stick with unaged mezcal.
I hope this guide to mezcal has provided you some information and perhaps inspiration to try the unsung hero of the Mexican spirits. Salud!
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