Happy International Tequila Day everyone!

In light of the "Holiday" I thought I would take this opportunity to teach Arfcom a little bit about Agave and all the amazing things that are made out of it.

So for most of you guys, when you start to think of tequila or agave, you probably have horrible memories of things like Jose Cuervo Gold and the horrible "coming to god" moments that come after drinking it. Well, it doesn't have to be such a terrible experience, and the class of spirits is far more in depth than you could ever imagine.

So lets start with the bigger family: Mezcal.

Mezcal, in this sense of the word, is any alcoholic spirit made out of agave (or in some categories sotol). I'll get back to this word later, but it means something different when used on bottles. Mezcal as a class originated when the Spanish colonist in Mexico realized the locals were making a rough beer out of crushed agave pinas (the soft sugary center of an agave), that had been previously roasted to focus the sugar, and allowing it to ferment. The spanish introduced the native people to the Filipino style clay stills that could be made locally by mexican ceramics workers. This spirit exploded in popularity with the locals but was regarded by the spanish as low quality spirit when compared to the brandies, sherries, and other spirits from the old world. The local people eventually started to standardize the practice and over centuries it became steeped in culture and local traditions. These traditions and small variations per area later became known by the classes I will discuss.

Let's start with the big dog; tequila. Tequila is in fact a mezcal. It is an alcoholic spirit made out of agave. The part that makes tequila different is that it is made from only one type of agave, the Blue Weber. On top of being legally required to be made out of blue weber, tequila can also only be made in the state of Jalisco and limited municipalities in the states of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas. This is protected by a law, or NOM in mexico, that is recognized by over 40 countries. The other things that make tequila so much different is the break from the old tradition of roasting the agave pinas in a pit using mesquite wood. Instead tequila has shifted to large industrial ovens called autoclaves to roast their agave. Although some good brands do still use brick ovens to roast and steam (with the moisture inside the agave) the agave before fermenting.The roasted agave is then broken down in large shredders before being pressed to pull out all of the sugar and moisture. This extract is then added to spring or purified water and then fermented using either wild or cultivated yeast in large vats. This is then distilled in large pot or even column stills, and then water is added to typically bring it to 40% alcohol, then bottled. If the tequila is going to be aged, it is generally placed in a previously used oak barrel at the still proof, and then diluted after aging before bottling. Traditionally agave spirits were not aged, but instead drank Joven, or young.













Traditionally drank neat, out of a small ceramic bowl called a copita, tequila has transformed over the years into largely a cocktail drink or shooter. Unfortunately with the demand for low quality tequila for these uses we have seen an increase in additives such as caramel to color low quality tequilas like jose cuervo gold. The bests tequilas are going to clearly state 100% blue weber on the labeling.


If you would like to try a better quality tequila to see what they can actually be like try to find the Fortaleza blanco or still strength. These are amazing traditionally made tequilas.



And interesting thing often seen with tequila is a trend towards higher ratings for tequilas produced closer to traditional methods. Roasting the agave over days concentrates and caramelizes sugars in a way that cannot be achieved through chemical or quick cooking methods. Those flavors carry on all the way to the end product and makes up a large part of the flavors we all love and enjoy.

A thing to be aware of with tequila, is that production method drastically impacts flavor. Brick ovens slowly roast the agave over days. This caramelizes the sugars the same way as smoking a brisket. The flavor builds up over days, and everything breaks down to the point where the sugars are ready for fermentation. The next method, is the autoclave or pressure oven. These speed up this process. Some people use autoclaves under no pressure and just steam. This is still a multi-day roast. Others though, use it like an instapot and put multiple atmospheres of pressure to cook the agave in as little as 6 hours. The same way as some ribs coming out of a instapot are soft and tender but don't have as much flavor, is exactly what is happening here. The last method is a diffuser. These are MASSIVE machines, some 100's of yards long, that uses pressurized jets of water to cut the agave up without ever cooking it. Then, many using different acids to make the sugar available for fermentation. This leaves the end product having almost no flavor of the agave and harsh notes that many describe as "too sweet". This is because more sugar is being made available for distillation, but that sugar is concentrated and stripped away from the fatty lipids in the plant that carry the flavors we are used to.



Photo of a diffuser

Now my favorite,
MEZCAL!!!!

No it doesn't need a worm. That worm was actually just a market trick used to draw attention to one producers bottle. This was meant to be a reference to sol de gusano, which was a blend of roasted agave worms, salt, chili peppers, and lime juice that was served with mezcal and orange slices.

Mezcal, as implied by the first use of the word is made only using agave. Mezcal in a legal sense now, is an agave spirit made using traditional methods in Oaxaca. It can also be made in Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, Michoacan and the recently approved Puebla. Oaxaca remains the capital of production and outproduces the other regions by a large amount.

Mezcal has three classes.

Mezcal
Mezcal Artesanal
Mezcal Ancenstral

For Mezcal, the spirit must be made using 100% agave, but outside of that it was tailored to allow industrial production. This is the cheap bottle you see in the stores with the worm in it. These are usually mass produced using the cheapest methods available and are generally regarded as the least flavorful spirit. The giant autoclaves seen with tequila are used here. Mass shredders, and hydraulic presses to pull out the agave syrup. Many mezcal makers argue that this class should not exist and harms the community.

Mezcal Artesanal. This is "bread and butter" of the mezcal world. Many of the well made mezcals that are available in the US will fall in this class. The restrictions of artesanal are much more aggressive than just Mezcal. The inclued the agave being roasted in underground pits with wood, or small above ground ceramic ovens. The crushing of the agave must happen by stone wheel or by hand, or other primitive mechanical shredding techniques. The fermentation must happen in stone, wood, clay, or animal skin fermentation tanks, and the fermentation must still have agave fibers. Generally the fermentation is allowed to happen open air with wild yeast strains over the course of several days until the mezcalero (distiller) is sure it is ready. The distillation must happen in copper or clay stills directly heated by flame.

Ancestral is the most traditional is is truly impressive to see. The agave must be harvested and cut by hand. It must be roasted in underground pits with wood, it must be ground by hand or stone wheel only, the same fermentation requirements as artesanal and then only allowed to be distilled in a clay still directly over flame and cannot be filtered before distilling. These are seen as the most flavorful and authentic experience, but are extremely labor intensive. They are also very expensive.

All mezcal can be made with agave type that has sufficient sugar. As of today there are between 60-100 agave used depending on the source asked.













The agave used range from anywhere from a few pounds a piece, all the way up to 1500lbs+





Some of my favorite are

Mezcal Vago
Mezvcalosfera
El Jolgorio
and many other artesanal and ancestral mezcals

Next is a contentious one

Sotol.

Sotol, does not have the legal protection that Mezcal and Tequila do. It has a product requirement in Mexico, but does not have a Designation of Origin law that protects or states requirements that are recognized internationally. To make this more troublesome, there is actually a US based company now making a product Sotol in the US, but using non traditional methods. This is likely to start a drawn out legal argument just like we all saw in the 90's around the french names for wines and champagnes.

Sotol is a type of plant that was long thought to be a type of agave. So for most of history it has been labeled as a mezcal. In the 90's though, it was discovered that the sotol plant was in fact a relative of agave and not a true agave plant. Although, I seriously doubt the mezcaleros care at all about he legal designation of the plant. Just like agave, the sotol plant is cut down to the pina and then prepared the same way as mezcal. Although it is about a 50/50 split on how many sotol producers use the underground roasting pits. The sotol plant is much smaller, and only produces roughly one bottle per plant.



Some of my favorites here are the clande Sotols and the La higuera

ALL THE REST

Raicilla is a mezcal, made in many areas in a very traditional way, typically at small home run distilleries. It cannot be called a mezcal due to the fact that it is not produced in one of the approved states for mezcal production. This lack of laws around the product gives a lot of freedom to the makers to experiment with different production methods and types of agave. Many of these are not wood smoked in the underground roasting pits. A new law was recently passed to restrict raicilla, but the impacts are not yet know, My favorite here is the La Venenosa Puntas



Bacanora is similar to raicilla in that it is another mezcal made outside of the mezcal approved states. These are generally very fruity and clean tasting spirits but are rare to find in the US.  A lot of bacanora was though of as moonshine until very recently, and was even subject to violent crackdowns by the police.



distilado de Agave
This simply means distillate of agave. Many of these are actually mezcals, made in mezcal approved states, however they have not opted to have each batch certified, as this increases the cost and limits the proof and some other things in the product. There are some incredible distilados that seem to fly under the radar because they do not have the word Mezcal on the front.



This brings us to one last variation to discuss, and that is a mezcal, sotol, raicilla, distilado..etc PECHUGA. Pechuga means Breast, and the spirit is known as this because traditionally it is distilled a third and final time with baskets of fruit and nuts above the still and a raw chicken breast that has had the fat and skin removed and been washed carefully. The steam and distillate pass through the fruit and over the meat before condensing into the container. This leaves a small amount of the flavors in the spirit. This is usually made involving the entire village at ceremonies and celebrations such as weddings and funerals. These can be all over the place from iguana and mango to quail and blackberries. Because of their small batch nature they are generally hard to find and very expensive, but well worth trying. Some of my favorites for this are actually the 5 sentidos pictured above which uses chicken, mole, and poblano peppers and El the Iberico from del Maguey which is made using iberico pork nuts and wild fruit.

Is it fertilized with human waste?

I guess I could stop writing this up in the WINE CELLAR SPIRIT FORUM for those are offended by it

What is your preferred tequila for margaritas under $25?

right at $25 is the El Padrino Blanco. Really great tequila for the price.

Hornitos!

Theres always one

My favorite for best bang for the buck!

it's ok, but their distilling processes largely take the flavor out of it. It's closer to vodka with a slight hint of agave flavor to my palate.

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me or are after any tips or anything. We can also always use this for agave spirit reviews as well

I am a brewer and haven't studied distilling very much, other than costs and volume.  I wonder how the flavor stays in the distilled spirit and how it stays so different than just essentially turning into vodka after condensing.

Tequila and gin tend to have very strong flavors and I would have thought that came from post distilling process.

I prefer tequila and mescal to have a lot of flavor and bite.  High end tequilas are lost on me, they are just too smooth. I plan to do further taste research on this.

The largest part of how flavor stays in them, is part of why I drastically prefer mezcal and traditionally made tequila, which is the use of the filipino still, clay pot, or coper pot stills. Unlike a column still (which will always be used for making neutral grain spirits like vodka and gin) the use of open topped traditional stills, or pot stills allows quite a bit of different chemicals to hitch a ride with the distillate. For the really large outfits like hornitos and casamigos, they use column stills. This allows them to increase yield, but also pulls a lot of the agave flavor out of the distillate.

For Gin, those flavors are added later through baskets with compressed trays of the flavoring ingredients for dry gins, or loose packed baskets of the botanicals for sapphire gins. A lot of gins are distilled all the way up to 180 proof, and remove all grain influence.

LOL. I was actually thinking about you when I typed this up. You had asked about some of the clear spirits I drink. Agave spirits is an expensive path to go down.

Pics of liver?

Readily available artesanal that isn't crazy expensive is del maguey chichipa. Very good example and a great way to start your new expensive hobby.

Is Espolon Blanco any good? I was watching a video about a 5 bottle bar, and that was the tequila they had.

Perfectly good middle of the pack tequila. I wouldn't sip it neat but it's fine for cocktails.

Ok. I wasn't planning on neat, probably just for margaritas.

Or after a few too many whiskies, remind myself why I haven't had tequila in 5 years.

Try some of the good stuff, you may be surprised. I just drink it neat like a whiskey.

Sipping this right now..
Attached File

The last time I had tequila it wasn't shots of Cuervo like everyone else. It was drinking it with a group of Mexicans, that between them spoke enough English to invite me over for drinks.

My memory of that night is kinda spotty, but I remember the tequila was a lot better than the Cuervo I've had, Uno mas?, and remembering all my high school Spanish by the end of the night.

Also, how much different is mezcal from tequila? I know they'll be similar-ish, but is it like an American whiskey bourbon difference or a Islay scotch bourbon difference? I'm a big fan of Skeeter Skelton (obviously), and I love his taste in guns and whiskey, and he's written enough about tequila and mazcal, that despite my bad experiences, I want to try them again.

mezcal is similar and at the same time way different lol... I get a lot more mineraly flavors in it.

The description of the pechuga reminded me of the cock ale of old England.

Thanks for the knowledge OP. I've been traveling to Mexico for work over the past few years and my perception of Tequila has certainly changed. I look forward to a nice tequila or mezcal at dinner now rather than just pounding shots of Cuervo.

.

They are drastically different not only between tequila and mezcal but between different bottles of mezcal.  Think of mezcal more like a wine using all the different types of grape. Sure, there is that herbal almost mint note from the agave sugar, but after that the flavor variation would be like the difference between a bourbon and a peated single malt. Just totally different beast. Some agave leave big fruity bright flavors, others taste like roasted meat from the mesquite smoke, and others taste earthy and rich.

Come to the dark side.

We have chorizo and egg nachos.

Yeah, eventually I would like to do a write up for each of the major spirits for people that we can pin or something. Need to tackle all the regions of single malt.

Cannot thank you enough for posting this!

You had put up a bottle of Mezcal Vago forever ago that finally spurred me to pick one up. Of everything I have ever tasted, it is by far the most unique dram. I love the stuff.

That's what we're here for. Costing each other a ton of money! We actually have a good opportunity to start to make a repository of info here in the Wine Cellar.

Thanks for posting this information.  I was gifted a bottle of El Buho Mezcal, and I haven't opened it up yet.  Thoughts about that one, good, bad or indifferent?  Better for sipping or mixing?

El Buho is a good standard espadin mezcal. They do cut the proof down using spring water as opposed to using the cuts, which will soften the flavor a little. Its perfect well suited for just sipping and enjoying, and will have a good enough flavor to hold up to being in a cocktail as well. Great gift from someone. For it's price there are only a few I would pick over it.

Screen shotting all of these pictures you put up so I can hunt for them.

double Tap. Mezcal must be kicking in

Not at all to boast, but some of these may be hard to find. That one right there was a 2014 batch of pechuga made by a legendary mezcalero who passed away in 2016. Always be willing to grab and try and things especially by good mezcaleros like real minero, vago, rey campero, 5 sentidos, flor del desierto, clande, mezcalosfera, and la venonosa. There are many others that you can't go wrong with either.

Gracias por publicar esto WOAFP!

Can you recommend a good sipping tequila in the 35-60 range. That’s usually my price range when I buy bourbon.

I would strongly recommend that fortaleza that I posted in the first post in that price range. If that isn't available siete laguas is another incredible one. I'm sure some of the other guys here can help you out if you're after aged versions. I personally don't like what aging (outside of glass aging) does to agave spirits. It really takes out a lot of the agave influence.

Thanks. I’ll check Specs and see what they have to.

If you're anywhere near the smith street store, they'll have anything you could ever dream of. That place is my heaven. Or if you're near south of houston, a shop called Nasa liquor is one of my favorite places ever.

Not close to either but I’m hoping the one close but has some good options.