From Agave to Mezcal
An Immersive Tasting Experience
The perfect way to Oaxaca’s heart is through a mezcal tasting. This distilled alcoholic beverage can be made from any variety of agave (also known as maguey). There are 23 mezcal agave species in this area alone. Some domesticated, others wild, but each with a different aroma and flavor.
The mezcal of Oaxaca reflects the dedication of the mezcal masters and a long tradition. A ritual ingrained in the most profound sensibility of its creators, a drink as versatile as its people. The notes of mezcal vary from maguey to maguey, but also change with each person, as each of us has a particular way of interpreting flavor. There’s a wide range in every sip, sometimes sweet, smoky, other times citric, or dry. Each agave speaks to each throat differently, and no tasting is the same. From the direct notes to the most eccentric ensembles, mezcal creates a whole spectrum of possibilities.
Agaves and Mezcal
Mezcal from the espadín maguey is light and smooth, with subtle herbal notes. It’s the most popular and is produced in larger quantities because it’s very yielding, despite taking eight to ten years to mature.
The tobalá, an endemic wild agave from Oaxaca, has a floral and nutty smoky flavor. In the Zapotec language, tobalá comes from the words maguey (toba) and lasting (la). The arroqueño is one of the largest agaves and takes twenty years to mature. It is soft in the process and has coffee and roasted cocoa notes.
The long agaves are a kind yet wild family, with many subtypes: cuixe, madrecuixe, and tobasiche. The cuixe, which in Zapotec means tufted because of the way its leaves fall as they age, has a perfumed and caramel flavor.
On the other hand, the madrecuixe is very broad in herbal notes, such as humid forests and cocoa. The tobasiche has both sweet notes, like the cuixe, and complex like the madrecuixe.
They call jabalí stubborn, and it’s wild. It is a smoky, citrusy, and very earthy mezcal. Unlike other mezcales that always have two distillations to preserve their flavors, the jabalí asks for three distillations without losing its flavor.
Triple distillates are also made by incorporating another ingredient. Usually, espadín is used as a base, because when incorporating other elements, it still preserves the flavor of the agave. For example, they’re made with coffee beans, corn, or marijuana, giving them a new and complex taste.
Mezcal Varieties
A very particular one is the mezcal de pechuga, turkey breast. The meat does not add flavor but acts only as a filter when distilling. Fruits and spices such as passion fruit, plantain, pineapple, apple, mangoes, nanches, vanilla, and hibiscus are added. The fruits are melted by the heat. The distillate rises in the form of steam impregnated with the fruit and is filtered through the breast, which gives it a unique flavor when cooked. Mezcal families drink it when a son or grandson is getting married. It is gifted when the engagement takes place and is drunk until the wedding day. It is a fusion of soft fruits and is very aromatic.
The mezcal de gusano has become well known for having precisely a maguey worm resting at the bottom. This gives it a distinct flavor of earth and wood, along with herbal notes. It is commonly complemented with worm or chapulín, grasshopper salt. It can also be accompanied with orange, guava, apple, and pear to accentuate the mezcal flavors.
Through mezcal, we will find the notes we’ve kept deep inside our memory. The flavors take us back to them because all palates are unique. What is universal is that to enjoy a good mezcal, you have to drink it by sipping it, and not straight up; soft sips, as gentle as kisses.
To enjoy a good mezcal, you have to drink it with soft sips, as gentle as kisses
A version of this article appears in print, in Issue 2 of Álula Magazine, with the headline: “Agaves & Mezcal.”
