Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘mezcaleros’

Missing mezcal

Posted in Beverages, Creativity, Culture, Flora, People, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 14, 2020| 14 Comments »

Conventional wisdom in Oaxaca: “For everything bad, drink mezcal; for everything good, you also should.”

Lest we forget, the walls of Oaxaca are always there to remind us.

My copitas (little cups) by maestro Vicente Hernandez are always ready for a gotita (a little drop) or two on good days, bad days, and especially days when friends stop by.

Day trips to my favorite mezcal making villages and their mezcaleros, like Berta Vásquez (above) in San Baltazar Chichicapam, were frequent enough to keep the liquor cabinet stocked with a variety of artisanal mezcal made from one or more kinds of maguey (AKA, agave) — arroqueño, barril, cuixe, espadín, jabalí, tepeztate, tobalá, and tobasiche, to name a few!

Alas, since Covid-19 hit the scene, many of the villages are closed to outsiders and, even if they were open, I wouldn’t go — for their health and safety and mine.

However, mezcal aficionado and tour guide Alvin Starkman came to the rescue. Through him, I was able to buy five bottles of mezcal from several different villages and he delivered!

In the event you are trying to read the labels, left to right: Tobalá, Manuel Méndez, San Dionisio Ocotopec; Mezcal destilado con mota (yes, it’s a thing), Rodolfo López Sosa, San Juan del Río; Arroqueño, Fortunato Hernandez, San Baltazar, Chichicapam; Tepeztate, Manuel Méndez, San Dionisio Ocotepec; Espadín, Celso Martinez, Santiago Matatlán.

¡Para todo mal, mezcal; y para todo bien, tambíen!

(ps) This just in! Mezcal Tour Supports Advancement of Indigenous Women — an article about the wonderful ongoing work the above mentioned Alvin Starkman, his wife Arlene, and Mezcal Educational Excursions of Oaxaca are doing.

Read Full Post »

Making mezcal: the cooking

Posted in Agriculture, Beverages, Culture, Flora, People, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 17, 2019| 11 Comments »

Yesterday, friends from California invited me to accompany them on one of their favorite pastimes — going to the source for artisanal mezcal. At our first stop, the palenque of Félix Ángeles Arellanes, Mezcal El Minerito, we were just in time to watch the beginning of the process of cooking the agave piñas.

The art of making mezcal at the palenque, Mezcal El Minerito.

Piling river rocks onto the red and white hot coals in the earthen pit that functions as the horno (oven).

Covering the rocks with bagaso (recycled crushed agave fibers).

Putting the long tobasiche agave piñas into the oven.

Adding the more rounded jabalí and tobalá piñas.

Topping it off with more tobasiche piñas.

Covering the piñas with more bagaso.

Félix’s sons worked nonstop — an hour and fifteen minutes from the time of the first photo, they covered the mound with tarps to enclose the oven. Though we didn’t see it, I suspect this was then sealed with soil.

Félix pours the “Nectar of the Gods” — a multilayered and complex artisanal mezcal.

Nothing like being at the right place at the right time. And, yes, we not only watched, we tasted and we bought!

Read Full Post »

Mezcal – old school going upscale

Posted in Beverages, Culture, Food, Travel & Tourism, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 8, 2013| 7 Comments »

As a current article says, mezcal seems to have wormed (oh, that’s bad!) its way into the hearts, minds, and media of el norte.  And, all I can say is, it’s about time!  I’m not really much of a drinker; mostly just wine with dinner, the occasional beer on a hot day, and a mixed drink a couple of times a year.  However, I have to say, mezcal has been a pleasant surprise.  The smoky complexity is quite a treat, especially if one ventures beyond the mass-produced brands and into the artisanal varieties.

Here in Oaxaca, mezcal is offered to welcome visitors, served at celebrations of all kinds, plays a role in most traditional ceremonies, and audiences always enthusiastically join in when Lila Downs sings, Mezcalito.  Oaxaqueño families have been harvesting agaves and hand crafting mezcal for generations.  The following photos are from an afternoon spent at one such palenque in San Baltazar Chichicapa(m).

Agave piñas (hearts) are stripped of leaves & roots and placed in a large outdoor pit oven.

P1060398_2

They are covered with agave leaves, fiber, mats and dirt and cooked over red-hot rocks for three to four days.

P1060400

The roasted agave is crushed with a gigantic stone wheel pulled by a horse.

P1060415_2

The roasted and mashed agave is then placed in large wooded vats to ferment.

P1060413_2

The liquid is extracted and twice distilled.  Next it is either bottled, if it is to be sold as blanco (aka, joven), or placed in barrels to age.  Reposado is aged for less than a year and añejo is aged from one to twelve years.  Needless to say, I returned home with my 4 L plastic gas can (no, it had never been used for gas!) filled with reposado made by our host and master mezcalero, Faustino.

P1060432

As the old Oaxaqueño saying goes, “For everything bad, drink mezcal and for everything good, you also should!”

And, please note:  This is a drink to be savored not chugged!

Read Full Post »

%d bloggers like this: