| Pages:
1
2 |
Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
Member Is Offline
|
|
I think the Olmecs had a rule that anyone seen drunk in public on pulque was stoned to death. It might be a stretch to think that the language then
and now could carry that custom to "Being stoned" but anything is possible.
I guess if you were just a little tipsy you could be severely pebbled. I've been pebbled before myself but it was just some cheap scotch and it was
almost (4 months, three days away) from my birthday so there's that.
|
|
|
wessongroup
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21152
Registered: 8-9-2009
Location: Mission Viejo
Member Is Offline
Mood: Suicide Hot line ... please hold
|
|
|
|
|
dasubergeek
Senior Nomad
Posts: 694
Registered: 8-17-2013
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by bajabuddha
| Quote: | Originally posted by weebray
The more I drank the better it became. This was my first experience with a psychedelic liquor. I have never had quite the same psychedelic
experience since that day but I have enjoyed my rest stops at the altar of mescal ever since. |
Ermmm, sowwy but Mescal is no more 'psychedelic' than Jaegermeister is an opiate. 
(once again, Delusions of Adequacy)
[Edited on 3-8-2014 by bajabuddha] |
All y'all thinking of mescaline... not mezcal. (Always with a Z, mezcal, screw you, Oxford English Dictionary.)
Para todo mal, mezcal, y para todo bien también.
[Edited on 3-8-2014 by dasubergeek]
|
|
|
elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4332
Registered: 11-19-2002
Location: Yes
Member Is Offline
|
|
We have several Del Maguey single village mezcals including Minero, Chichicapa & Pechuga. Made with chicken and mountain apples. Only produced for
a few months in the fall when the apples and plums are ripe. Mescal is an acquired taste and lucky for me most of my friends and family prefer to
drink my tequila so more mezcals for me.  High Time in the OC and Bristol
Farms in LJ are where I found the Del Magueys.
Das - I am envious of your trip to the region.. Some day when I grow up I hope to get down there. In the meantime I will have to make do with what I
have.
As a side note - Mision 19 in TJ had a nice selection of mezcals. One was an organic mezcal that was very smooth. They had it in a huge hand blown
glass 'bottle'. We have been frequenting Romesco in Bonita for the excellent food and they also have the same organic mezcal. I like a Paloma with
mezcal but I mostly prefer it neat.
Viva Mezcal! Viva Tequila! Viva Mexico!
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
|
|
|
baconjr
Nomad
Posts: 128
Registered: 7-14-2012
Member Is Offline
Mood: Es la vida de perro!
|
|
If you are heading to Oaxaxa visit and stay at Casa Rabb, this is a great place.http://svneko.com/2014/03/08/animal-house/
|
|
|
CortezBlue
Super Nomad
Posts: 2213
Registered: 11-14-2006
Location: Fenix/San Phelipe
Member Is Offline
|
|
I thought this was going to be a pay per view cage match
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
- Albert Einstein
Follow Cortez Blue
www.cortezblue.com
We put the FUNK in disFUNKtion |
|
|
basautter
Senior Nomad
Posts: 862
Registered: 7-1-2013
Member Is Offline
|
|
Looks like the Mezcal goggles work well! Might make it worth the headache.
|
|
|
JohnMcfrog
Nomad
Posts: 156
Registered: 8-1-2012
Location: San Diego, Punta Abreojos
Member Is Offline
|
|
My first experience with Mezcal was at Guadalupe Canyon about 40 years ago. I had been clearing sick trees on my property in Deerhorn Valley, about
2500' above SD. Made a mistake and took a tree in the face. No health care, so used butterfly bandages and decided the sulphur springs at Guadalupe
might be the cure.
My friend and I arrived there at night and went to the enclosed hot spring deal they had there at the time. A woman and two men were in the pool. She
was topless, but I tried not to be too obvious. They pulled out a bottle of mezcal and the the evening began! He (the big guy) ultimately revealed
that he had just got out of the joint. After a suitable length of earth time I asked him what he had got popped for. He said "Murder". Glad we had the
Mezcal to bridge our separate worlds.
|
|
|
Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
|
|
Wow, what an interesting discussion! Thank you mezcalistas for your insights.
I've never heard of "single village mezcal"? Is that anything like single malt scotch?
I've only recently begun to appreciate the finer points of tequila. You guys are at a whole other level, clearly.
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
|
|
|
elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4332
Registered: 11-19-2002
Location: Yes
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by Whale-ista
Wow, what an interesting discussion! Thank you mezcalistas for your insights.
I've never heard of "single village mezcal"? Is that anything like single malt scotch?
I've only recently begun to appreciate the finer points of tequila. You guys are at a whole other level, clearly. |
www.mezcal.com
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
|
|
|
coolhand
Junior Nomad
Posts: 95
Registered: 6-12-2007
Location: san diego
Member Is Offline
|
|
Raicilla
If you ever had the good stuff the cowboys bring down from hills of Cabo Corrientes, you wouldn't be drinking anything else!
|
|
|
dasubergeek
Senior Nomad
Posts: 694
Registered: 8-17-2013
Member Is Offline
|
|
Just got back from Oaxaca, where I learned that I knew very little about mezcal. Seriously, the entire city and surrounding area is just swimming in
the most amazing mezcal—and the most amazing food. I estimate my daily intake of mezcal over the last week to be 500 mL (more than a pint) a day, and
yet I was only drunk once (the night we went to a free-pour party at a distiller's event).
"Single village" doesn't matter nearly as much as "single agave". It drives me insane that I have to stare at the Del Maguey bottles to figure out
what effin kind of mezcal it is.
Mezcal can be made from dozens of different agaves, all of which taste intensely different. What most people drink, and the one that's cultivated, is
espadín. It's a spiny, long-leafed agave, as opposed to something like tobalá, which is short and squat and looks like something you'd plant in a rock
garden.
You need the following information when looking at a mezcal, running in rough order from most to least important:
1. Variety (espadín, cuishe, madrecuishe, tobalá, tobaziche, tepextate, arroqueño, cirial, etc.)
2. Village of origin (Matatlán, Nochixtlán, Mitla, Coyotepec, Tlacolula, etc.)
3. Alcoholic content (try for > 45%)
4. Method of fermentation (natural vs. added yeast, go for natural)
5. Number of distillations (look for 2, max 3 for pechuga/conejo/etc.)
6. Type of still (clay, stone or copper pot)
7. Master distiller's name (great mezcales have this information)
coolhand, I had some raicillas last week in a mezcalería that just absolutely blew me away. Seriously.
EDITED TO ADD:
One of the things I was mistaken about was the name for the first distillation. While first-distillation tequilas are called ordinario,
first-distillation mezcales are called puntas.
I just went to Hi-Time and they've seriously expanded their mezcal selection. Besides the aforementioned La Niña del Mezcal, Del Maguey and Fidencio,
I can also vouch for Mezcal El Silencio (which is only importing espadín), Mezcal Tosba (also only espadín) and Mezcal Marca Negra (espadín and
tobalá).
Also, I fell in love with pulque... I'd only had it in a restaurant in Tlaquepaque, where it isn't exactly endemic, and it was so awful we had to
alternate sips with bites of chile-rubbed grasshoppers. But we went to a pulquería in Matatlán that was literally a dirt-floored room with an old
Zapotec woman ladling freshly made pulque out of a clay jarro, and it was absolutely magical.
[Edited on 3-18-2014 by dasubergeek]
|
|
|
Ateo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5898
Registered: 7-18-2011
Member Is Offline
|
|
How about all of the above?
|
|
|
dasubergeek
Senior Nomad
Posts: 694
Registered: 8-17-2013
Member Is Offline
|
|
The only ones out of that picture I drink are Tecate and Modelo Especial... unless of course I've given one, because the correct, polite answer to
"would you like a beer?" is always "yes, please."
[Edited on 3-18-2014 by dasubergeek]
|
|
|
bajagrouper
Senior Nomad
Posts: 964
Registered: 8-28-2003
Location: Rincon de Guayabitos, Nayarit, Mexico
Member Is Offline
Mood: happy and retired
|
|
I was in Mitla a few weeks ago and at a small distillery's store they had a small softball size black clay jug with a cork some salt and no label. I
thought it may be rotgut but I poped it open when I got home and it was smooth and delicious...Also toured and ate at the Restaurant Rancho Zapata
and bought a bottle of their Joven which I enjoyed more than their Repesado....
P.S. geek, if you were drinking 500ml a day it is more than a pint,more like a 1/2 liter.......
I hear the whales song
|
|
|
willardguy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6451
Registered: 9-19-2009
Member Is Offline
|
|
to be a mezcal mixto agave sugars must be at least 80% unlike tequila's 51%. I assume like tequila the bottle will state 100% agave? are there
mezcals that are a blend of different agaves, and lastly, whats a good mezcal that can be purchased down here in the $20 a liter range?
|
|
|
dasubergeek
Senior Nomad
Posts: 694
Registered: 8-17-2013
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by bajagrouper
I was in Mitla a few weeks ago and at a small distillery's store they had a small softball size black clay jug with a cork some salt and no label. I
thought it may be rotgut but I poped it open when I got home and it was smooth and delicious...Also toured and ate at the Restaurant Rancho Zapata
and bought a bottle of their Joven which I enjoyed more than their Repesado....
P.S. geek, if you were drinking 500ml a day it is more than a pint,more like a 1/2 liter....... |
You're lucky—last week, in protest against what they view as insufficient promotion and assistance from the government, they started refusing to let
tourists into Mitla. You could drive through on Mex 190, but you couldn't go into town.
I was going for estimations, I don't actually know how much it was because there was so much of it. Came home with four litres (yay for flying across
the border instead of driving!)
| Quote: | Originally posted by willardguy
to be a mezcal mixto agave sugars must be at least 80% unlike tequila's 51%. I assume like tequila the bottle will state 100% agave? are there mezcals
that are a blend of different agaves, and lastly, whats a good mezcal that can be purchased down here in the $20 a liter range?
|
Type 1 mezcal is 100% de agave. Type 2 mezcal can be up to 20% other sugars. The vast—VAST—majority of mezcal is Type 1. The bottle will normally say;
bottles of good mezcal are much more informative on average than bottles of good tequila.
Yes, there are blends, and normally the blend is specified, or at least it will tell you if it's all wild ("silvestre") agave.
I don't know where "here" is, but in Oaxaca, most of the good stuff falls between 400-500$m.n. a fifth and espadín comes in about 300$m.n. a fifth.
You can certainly spend more, if you want a 'name' like Pierde Almas, but I don't see spending 1400$m.n. on a bottle of mezcal. In the US, Xicaru is a
reliable, cheap brand, or Ilegal, which is a little bit less smoky and is a 'starter' mezcal for people who may not be ready for the palate assault of
a full-on smoked wild agave mezcal.
[Edited on 3-19-2014 by dasubergeek]
|
|
|
| Pages:
1
2 |
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
