Viola confirms this, but claims, “Anyone involved in the production of mezcal, when talking to gringos, refers to the maguey as green agave. “All good mezcals are made from green agave,” Keith says. Del Maguey’s founder, Ron Cooper, who lives half the year near Tlacolula, Oaxaca—Mexico’s mezcal capital—says flatly, “There is no such thing as green agave. ” The most commonly used agave in the state of San Luis Potosí is Maguey salmiana , though rarely is it the sole ingredient in mezcal. If the drinkers of Wild Shot think this is what mezcal tastes like, we are DOOMED. Now mezcal is a tiny market today (approximately 1% of tequila sales), and has not yet reached the masses. Certainly, because of him, more people are drinking mezcal than otherwise would be. But is this a good thing in this case. So what was he thinking when he wanted to start a mezcal. Maybe Toby Keith is playing the role of blasting mezcal into the mainstream. It is closer to a smoky grain alcohol than mezcal. But hopefully, they find it just interesting enough to try a real mezcal. The term “green agave,” however, appears to exist only in the vernacular of marketers, playing off the better-known blue agave that tequila is made from. Steely Dan probably did more to boost Cuervo than any marketing campaign ever did with his song “Hey Nineteen” – “…the Cuervo Gold, the fine Colombian…” (as an aside, do you think he was talking about coffee.
So now let’s see how the Old Old Fashioned is transformed into the New Old Fashioned, known as the Oaxaca Old Fashion. While discussing the various cocktails that were being offered, Steve began talking about the magic of the Oaxaca Old Fashioned and how he felt it presented mezcal in a brilliant way. While many mezcal libations were going around, the highlight of the night for me was an introduction to the Oaxaca Old Fashioned. For a tequila drinker who has had limited experience with mezcal, this is a great introduction to tequila’s papi. This cocktail has been written about before, and it was originally developed by Phil Ward, when he was at Death and Co. , before he opened Mayahuel , one of the best tequila/mezcal bars in the world. I had the good fortune of being at a cocktail party on Saturday night where mezcal was the featured spirit. Also at the party was my friend, Steve Olson , renowned wine and spirits professional, with a deep (some may say insane, which I respect) passion for mezcal and tequila. In this case, Ilegal Anejo was used, which is a subtle and wonderful expression of a slightly smoky mezcal. A mezcal party.
Award Winning Mezcal Come visit The Mezcal King and taste the smoothest Mezcals from Sacacuento. Similar to farmers markets, this event allows consumers to sample the wines and Mezcal on display and buy them on the spot.
Side note – a great thing about going straight to a palenque to buy mezcal is being able to fill or refill your own bottles or plastic jugs. We arrived early despite the wrong turns and had an hour before we were scheduled to head out for the cut and so we decided to visit Don Pedro and pick up more of his mezcal. I think I also swore once that I would never drink more than 3 mezcals in one day. We arrived at the communal growing field, where residents of the pueblo share land, farming side by side and creating a diverse growing field of corn, maguey, onions, greens, and sundry other plant rotations that keep the soil healthy. A shot of mezcal in the morning is one helluva way to start the day. Machetes, a sledgehammer, a shovel like device – these are the tools of the trade: After watching the back breaking work for almost 2 hours I will never complain about the cost of an artisanal bottle of mezcal. As pieces of land are removed from that rotation it gets more difficult to produce truly artisanal mezcal. cars that speed through intersections, topes (speed bumps) and more topes that appear with no warning on highways, roads that just disappear into dirt, donkeys, goats, and sundry other animals that wander onto country roads. He pointed out other varieties of maguey in other fields, showing us the differences in the shapes of the leaves, the height of the stalks, mature vs. young, and discussing the factors that influence the flavor of the magueys (variety, water, etc.
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