A comprehensive guide from the world of Mezcal.
By Gina Martinez. Translated by Roberto MS.
They seem solid and imposing, but they are attacked by beetles and other insects that penetrate their heart …
Compared to other plants that can be harvested in less than a year, and used for alcoholic beverages (such as barley for beer, grapes for wine, sugar cane for rum, etc.), wild magueys take two or three decades to mature, which is why we can consider them goods of minimal consumption.
Arroqueño, Jabalí, Tobaziche, Tepextate, and Madrecuishe, are some of those species of a long wait, whose so-called pineapples (the core of the plant after the leaves have been removed) are usually small, weighing between twenty and thirty kilos.
However, it is not this Agavaceae that have gained popularity, but the Espadin, because it is harvested at four years of age and its pineapples are six times the size of wild ones (they weigh between 60 and 150 kilos).
The expansion of monocultures damages biodiversity, causing ecosystem imbalances and recurrent pests that subdue the most robust of the magueys, no matter how strong and imposing they may seem.
Mezcal is a 100% maguey alcoholic drink.
It is obtained after the ripe agave pineapples (previously cut, harvested, baked, and crushed) are fermented in water, by the action of spontaneous or cultivated microorganisms (yeasts and bacteria).
The fermented mixture is distilled in steel, copper, or clay stills, which function thanks to the energetic and prodigious force of fire.
The mechanism of stills works as follows:
- steam is generated inside it,
- that steam -which saturates the cap or cap of the pots, as well as the curvilinear serpentine- recovers its liquid state; and
- that, once distilled, it presents different alcoholic gradations in the so classified tips, body, and tails to finally be packaged in glass bottles.
From the leaves to the bottle.
Mezcal from A to Z
A. The maguey is pollinated by bats and insects; however, this does not happen in all cases because farmers take the quiote from it (quiote is the scape or peduncle that contains the maguey’s buds and flowers).
B. Without quiote, the starches (which will be converted into sugars) are concentrated in the maguey pineapple, which is very favourable for the production of mezcal.
But mutilating the plant impoverishes the biodiversity that depends on the pollen of the maguey and, in the long term, is also counterproductive for the Agavaceae because it increases the presence of pests.
C. The quiote is a long stem that sprouts from the heart of the maguey and that in its last stage of life grows to about ten meters high to support, just for one time, branches with clusters of flowers, without these, pollination is impossible.
D. From a flowering quiote, the magueyeros (person who works with the maguey) can obtain multiple seeds that are in a few small bulbs.
E. The seeds are cultivated and years later they become maguey pineapples full of sweet and juicy fibres, covered with green stalks and surrounded by small sprouts.
F. The harvest depends on the maguey species, the type of soil and the climate.
G. Wild magueys take up to three decades to mature; instead, the Espadín has been domesticated and is harvested at four years of age.
H. The act of cutting the hard stalks that cover the maguey pineapple is called jimar, therefore the person who performs this action is called jimador.
I. River stones preheated with mesquite and oak coals form the base of the conical ovens in which the maguey pineapples will be cooked.
J. The pile of pineapples is covered with maguey leaves, bagasse, earth, and palm mats to keep the heat from the oven (burnt pineapples increase furfural, a metal that is harmful to health).
K. The roasted pineapples are then mashed: Either by hand (in a bowl and with a mallet), in a tahona (giant stone mill) with the help of an animal, or using electric machinery.
L. In casks made of wooden, leather, steel, clay, or masonry, spontaneous or cultured microorganisms (bacteria and yeasts) ferment the must (immersed in a little water), over several days.
M. Usually, two distillations of the same ferment are carried out.
N. The first distillation is called shishe.
O. A third distillation increases the quality but lowers the yield.
P. When it is distilled in clay pots it is called Ancestral Mezcal.
Q. When it is distilled in copper or stainless-steel alembics, on a smaller scale, it is considered Artisan Mezcal.
R. The tips are the first part of the distilled liquid that comes out of the alembic, they exceed 65 degrees of alcohol volume.
S. The body is the intermediate part of the distillate that comes out of the alembic, it ranges between 40 and 60 degrees of alcohol volume.
T. The tails are below 30 degrees of alcohol volume, they leave the alembic consecutively at the end of each distillation.
U. When fruits, spices, a hen without feathers nor entrails, worms or other food are placed in the distillation pots so that the steam is impregnated with that aroma and flavour, it is called mezcal avocado.
V. If two or more maguey species are incorporated in the same distillation, it is denominated an assembly.
X. Based on its maturation, mezcal can be White or Young, Reposado and Añejo. Each batch of mezcal is a unique drink, the result of the alchemy of its Mezcalero Master.
Y. When rubbing a few drops of mezcal with the palms of the hands, the smoky aroma of the wood-fired pineapples prevails. The prolonged presence of bubbles when shaking the bottle reveals that the mezcal has more than 45 degrees of alcohol by volume.
Z. Mezcal must comply with the requirements and parameters established by the Official Mexican Standard 070 (being 100% agave, not exceeding the permitted limits for heavy metals -arsenic, lead, methanol, furfural-, or higher alcohols, among other indications that seek to protect both the distributor and the consumer), hence the importance of examining agave distillates in specialized laboratories.
The other huachicol
Politics and controversies surrounding mezcal.
For Mr. Luis Carlos Vázquez, president of the Santa Catarina Minas Producers Association, “mezcal is prostituting itself, there is a lot of huachicol” [huachicol is a term that refers to adulterated or illegal obtention]:
“Cheaters add cane alcohol, they want to produce more in less time, and what they do is discredit the true 100 per cent agave mezcal. I think the authorities have fallen asleep about it”, he said.
In the mezcalero field, agave distillates that have been adulterated with cane alcohol are called huachicol, this trap is incurred to lower costs and multiply profits, detracting from the quality and authenticity of the drink.
And the problem is that, although a distillate is examined in laboratories, “there is still no technology to identify where the ethanol comes from (whether it is from agave or cane or corn or several), the machine detects the presence of this superior alcohol, but we do not know the source of ethanol origin”, explained Fredy, from the Extracta Laboratory.
The only guarantee that it is a one hundred per cent agave drink is the ethics of the producer and the prestige of the brand.
Spiritous fever
Mezcal boom
Nowadays, “mezcal is a boom, it is the business of the moment, even the lawyers want to plant maguey, even if they don’t know how!”, Commented Don Luis Carlos Vázquez, between reproach and indignation.
The maguey went from being a plant that was traditionally used to mark boundaries, to becoming a highly coveted raw material.
With 80 million tons of agave, eight million litres of mezcal are produced per year, 93% of them are produced in the state of Oaxaca.
The foregoing results in sales “of more than 7.2 billion pesos,” according to Graco Rojo Curiel, spokesman for the Regulatory Mexican Council for the Quality of Mezcal (Comercam).
“Mezcal is the product that generates the most income for Oaxaca (after remittances and tourism),” he emphasized.
“For us, the demand is very good. Mezcal has gained market in the United States, Asia and Europe”, commented the former president of the Chamber of the Mezcal Industry of Oaxaca, Luis España García.
Ancestral Mezcal
“Santa Catarina Minas works in an old-fashioned way, and I hope that our descendants do not change the ancestral process of crushing with a mallet and distilling in clay pots”, Don Luis Carlos Vazquez commented in an interview.
“Our town is the cradle of ancestral mezcal, we have about thirty homemade palenques [Palenque is the name for a mezcal distillery in Oaxaca], not all of them are registered with the Comercam (that entails expenses), and the certificate is only used for export and for some lines of stores and restaurants.”
“Before there was little production, there was no certification, everything was easier,” he recalled.
Pragmatism
“Due to laziness or lack of love for the land, we have lost the habit of making fertilizer and compost, and they have given us the easy product,” he admitted.
“It is sad that the regulation approves the use of fertilizers in plantations,” he said.
NOM-070 authorizes that mezcal “can be added with sweeteners, colourants, aromas, and/or flavourings allowed by the Ministry of Health.”
Del Maguey
For 25 years, Mr Luis Carlos Vázquez has supplied a transnational company run by a businessman named Rhon Cooper.
“Thanks to Del Maguey, mezcal has reached the most remote parts of the world,” he said.
As Master Mezcalero he is responsible for the alchemy that results in a unique drink that has a smoky smell and does not generate hangover.
As a farmer, he laments the excessive ambition and indiscriminate expansion that ends up disrupting ecosystems.
Legacy
Harvesting wild species is like receiving the inheritance of the previous generation:
“Currently, my family cultivates the maguey that my father planted,” commented with pride this man who works the land with vigour and tenacity.
“If I want to have the luxury of having a good liquor (which is not a basic need), it cannot be good, beautiful, and cheap, that is a bad habit. The one who wants premium…, needs to pay for it”, he concluded.
However,
In the same way that tons of magueys and litres of mezcal multiply, so do their vinasses, which contaminate soils and rivers, without any strong measures that could prevent it.
“The mezcal activity generates two aggressive wastes for the environment that we have not been able to take advantage of,” acknowledged Graco Rojo Curiel, Comercam spokesperson and owner of the Lyobá brand:
The vinasses, which are the first two or three litres that come out of each distillation, are alcohol at more than 90 % alc. volume, which is poison for living beings! But useful in the production of biofuel, ketones or other substances.
Bagasse. Thousands of litres of vinasses would be being disposed of in rivers and soils near the palenques where mezcal is produced, contaminating the water and ecosystems in a surreptitious, stealthy, and clandestine way (except in the cases of responsible producers who do seek ways to take advantage of those waste in a sustainable way).
Mezcal “from the house”?
The mezcal that is not certified is usually offered as “house mezcal”, warned Graco Rojo, spokesman for Comercam.
“It is said (I have not verified it myself) that many do not pass the norm and that they sell it anyway,” said the former president of the Chamber of the
