Mezcal

Mezcal is a Mexican distilled spirit made from the cooked hearts of any of several dozen agave species, most often espadín. Its typically smoky flavor comes from roasting the agave in earthen pits, and most of it is made in Oaxaca under a denomination of origin first granted in 1994.

Name

The word comes from the Nahuatl mexcalli, built from metl, agave, and a root meaning cooked or baked. Spanish Wikipedia notes it once referred to the cooked agave itself as a food, to certain agave species and to the spirit. Britannica records that mezcal was formerly a general term for any agave spirit and now refers to a clear to golden liquor with a smoky flavor.

History

Fermented agave drinks such as pulque predate the Spanish conquest. When distillation began is debated. One account, given by English Wikipedia, ties mezcal to Filipino-style stills brought to Mexico's Pacific coast by sailors on the Manila galleons, which were adapted from making palm spirits to distilling agave. Spanish Wikipedia describes research by UNAM archaeologists that points to possible pre-Hispanic distillation in clay vessels, including traces of agave and fuel in ovens at Xochitécatl-Cacaxtla; English Wikipedia calls the archaeological evidence inconclusive.

Denomination of origin and regulation

Mexico granted mezcal a denomination of origin on November 28, 1994, according to Spanish Wikipedia, originally covering Oaxaca, Guerrero, Durango, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas. It has since been extended to parts of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Puebla, Tamaulipas, Aguascalientes, Morelos, the State of Mexico and Sinaloa, and some of these additions have been challenged. Oaxaca produces roughly 90 percent of the country's mezcal. Certification is carried out by the Consejo Mexicano Regulador de la Calidad del Mezcal (COMERCAM), which has offices in Oaxaca, Durango and Michoacán.

The current standard, NOM-070-SCFI-2016, sets three categories by method. Mezcal may be made with modern equipment such as autoclaves, diffusers and column stills. Mezcal artesanal requires pit or masonry ovens and pot stills, though it allows some mechanical crushing and copper stills. Mezcal ancestral requires pit roasting, hand or tahona crushing, and direct-fire distillation in clay pots. Aging classes include blanco or joven, reposado (two months to a year in wood), añejo (more than a year in wood) and madurado en vidrio, rested in glass for at least a year. Destilado con, which includes pechuga mezcals, are distilled with fruit, herbs or meat.

Production

Agaves are harvested when mature and trimmed to the piña. The piñas are roasted for several days in a pit lined with hot stones and covered with earth, which gives the spirit its smoke. The cooked agave is crushed, traditionally by a stone wheel pulled by a horse, fermented with water and usually distilled twice in copper or clay stills. English Wikipedia counts more than thirty agave species and varieties in use. Besides espadín, notable ones include tobalá, the best known wild agave, tepeztate, madrecuixe, arroqueño, jabalí and cupreata.

Serving

Mezcal is usually sipped neat. It is often served with orange slices and sal de gusano, a mix of salt, ground chile and toasted maguey larvae. Some bottles contain a maguey larva, a practice dating from around the 1940s or 1950s; whether it began as marketing, a quality sign or a flavoring is disputed.

Recipe

Reviews

See also

• Tequila
• Pulque
• Margarita

References

1. "Mezcal". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
2. "Mezcal". Wikipedia en español. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
3. "Mezcal | Agave, Plant, History, & Tequila". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
4. "COMERCAM". Consejo Mexicano Regulador de la Calidad del Mezcal. Retrieved 2026-10-10.