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Mexican mezcal battles nasty firewater image
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20040818-0500-mexi...
By Chris Aspin
August 18, 2004
SANTIAGO MATATLAN, Mexico ? Mezcal, the poor cousin of Mexico's national tipple tequila, often comes with a dead worm, or even several dead worms, on
the bottom of the bottle.
The worms are mostly decorative but also signal that it's not a drink for the fainthearted. The colorless or yellow-tinged liquor can be a
throat-scraping challenge, and since mezcal sounds like it contains the psychedelic drug mescaline, many first-timers prepare for LSD-style
hallucinations.
That all lends the liquor an image of being firewater, but afficionados say that is an over-generalized fallacy.
Many mezcals from small-scale artisan distilleries in villages like Santiago Matatlan in the southern state of Oaxaca are now in hot demand in the
United States, Asia, and Europe.
"We are at least doubling, maybe tripling, our exports every year," said Douglas French, a U.S. entrepreneur who lives in Oaxaca and produces mezcal
with a team of Zapotec Indian distillers in the village of San Agustin de las Juntas.
The best mezcals have a smooth smokey taste and a sharper defined agave flavor than tequila, aficionados say.
Both liquors are distilled from the hearts of agave plants, and the worms in the mezcal bottles are ones that grow in the heart of the agave. Tequila
is bulk produced in plants in Jalisco state while mezcal is made in rustic backyard stills in poor states like Oaxaca, Zacatecas, and Guerrero.
Tequila producers pump out 53 million gallons per year, dwarfing mezcal output of 2.6 million gallons .
But mezcal distillers say their drink is purer than tequila. Mezcal has to be made from 100 percent agave, whereas tequila can be legally diluted up
to 49 percent with other alcohols.
RIVALS WHISKY
On the simplicity scale ? the drink is made from water and agaves that are roasted in oven pits ? mezcal rivals single malt Scotch whiskies.
Mezcals come in a wide range of varieties from the basic "minero" to "reposados" that are barrel-aged and even "pechuga", a mezcal flavored with
chicken breasts.
The much-maligned tipple should have a rosy future as long as unscrupulous operators do not sink its reputation with fakes.
Spanish conquistadores imported distillation techniques to Mexico 400 years ago and the art has not changed much at mezcal makers El Rey Zapoteco (The
Zapotec King) in Santiago Matatlan, the self-proclaimed world capital of mezcal.
Fields around the town are full of dull green, spikey agave plants. A copper still has been hoisted onto the town's main welcome sign.
At El Rey Zapoteco, the roasted agaves are crushed under a huge horse-drawn mill stone. The mash is then fermented in wooden barrels, a modernization
from the cow-hide vats that were standard. Once fermented, the juice is distilled.
El Rey Zapoteco's Juan Escobar said Japanese clients are lining up for his mezcal which he makes from 12-year-old agaves rather than the standard
younger plants that are more bitter. "They are interested in our quality."
Quality comes at a price. A liter (quart) of minero from El Rey Zapoteco goes for 120 pesos ($10.50), almost four times the price down the road at El
Chorrito (The Little Trickle) distillery.
Laurentino Santiago, whose grandfather founded El Chorrito in 1910, said his family lags other distillers in promoting brands, which makes for lower
sales.
WORMS ARE FOR WIMPS
El Chorrito makes around 1,320 gallons per year but the distillery is only in production about 100 days. "If there were more sales, we'd work more,"
Santiago said.
Mezcal distillers say sales would be much higher if mezcal did not have its grin-and-bear-it firewater image and if illegally adulterated mezcal were
not on the market.
Unscrupulous dealers buy from distillers and then resell at lower prices, making a profit by mixing the mezcal with cheap alcohol and water.
"Mezcal is a smooth aphrodisiac and not some industrial mix," said Santiago.
Despite the reputation and adulterations, Mezcal bars in the Oaxaca state capital do a roaring trade.
"I've had worse whiskies," said British tourist James Gallagher, sipping a shot and trying the traditional mezcal accompaniment ? sal de gusano (salt,
red chili powder and dried ground worms).
U.S. businessman French says worms are for wimps. He pops a dead scorpion in some mezcals.
"It does not add any flavor but it is a lot of fun," said French, who concentrates on sales to the United States, but also ships to Canada and
Australia.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said the scorpion mezcal is harmless. But French is a tad more cautious.
"We do not recommend eating the scorpion, but if consumed please chew adequately before swallowing it," French says on his Web site:
http://www.scorpionmezcal.com
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Mexitron
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Mood: Happy!
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Don Amado (reposado or anejo?) is a fabulous smoky-cognac tasting Mescal....top quality, but top price....
http://www.donamado.com/index.html
[Edited on 8-24-2004 by Mexitron]
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Smugla
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Rattler Mezcal
Oye.. does anyone remember the bar restaurant in La Bufadora that was located in the center of the big circle you made as you came down the hill into
Bufa....it was a little beat up and at the bar they had a big glass jar filled with tequila and an ancient dead rattle snake...I had a shot and dont
remember much afterwards...I dont think it was the tequila but the 10 or so Tecates prior....is the place still there ?
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tjcholo
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Rattler Tequila..Buffadora
The rattlesnake tequilla is Gordos Bar and Restaurant....Ive spent a News Years Eve there one year and its quite the place..! Im sure its still
there...if Gordos not around these days...Im sure the family still run the place.....the snake is apparently starved to death - i beleive 6 months or
so..? then put in the barril and filled with whatever Tq you got around...then they just keep topping it up when its starts to get low.....id
becareful though....unless you like viva villa...!
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JESSE
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Is tj cholo and Smugla the same?
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tjcholo
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are they the same
no....soy yo....
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