Everything you need to know about AGAVE SPIRITS - Tequila, Mezcal and more - I meet an expert!!

did you do too many shots of tequila One Night in your early twenties and you've been put off it ever since unfortunately you're not alone but this ancient Spirit deserves so much more respect than that and so I would implore you to think again and to argue this case I have on Agave expert Alec via real works [Music] Alec owns an excellent and my personal favorite Mexican restaurant called Taquito here in Melbourne so any locals should definitely check it out and he also grew up in Mexico City and makes a lot of trips back kind of in search of some fun and interesting Agave Spirits for the bar so I'm very glad that you could be here and kind of share his knowledge with you plus we're going to have a taste through some different styles of agave Spirits because you know I'm always very selfless and willing to do that research for you and have a little bit of a discussion about what you should be looking for when you're purchasing a bottle for yourself so first of all what do you say to people that have had that experience where they're like no I just don't drink tequila I don't like it well I think first of all that's my experience as well because you know growing up in Mexico it's like the first thing you have access to when you're you know young teenager and you know many family gatherings where that there's a bottle of tequila on the table that you might be able to sneak away and try for the first time but um yeah you it you I think you need to revisit it that's the one thing I think if you've ever had a one of those big hangovers um that um if you come with it in a different context not just shooting it but actually tasting it and and figuring out the nuances then you might be pleasantly surprised yeah for sure now of course this video is about Agave Spirits in general not just tequila so what exactly do we mean by that oh Agave Spirits I guess is more um about the the variety of plants that are on Agave right so um and there's so many different types of spirits that can be made from all the different types of Agaves and so you can make obviously tequila you can make a Mezcal but there's a bunch um out there that are made from different species different areas different regions and they all fall under um I guess a Agave Spirit yeah and even now in Australia they're starting to grow agave and there are a few um brands that are going to be coming out I think soon with some interesting products products yeah um it's pretty cool to see and it's definitely not something that like I realized kind of starting out I thought I was very like well first of all I also definitely thought that it was a cat like Agave was a cacti of some kind which is not true no it's actually um it's uh same family as asparagus uh yeah right right um that makes sense actually in terms of like some of those like kind of earthier flavors and stuff I didn't realize that and then and then yeah I guess once you get into it uh there's just actually such a wide range so you know it's always the same obviously relating to to Scotch for me because that's kind of my my thing is like you know there's not one flavor profile that you can give for Scottish whiskey because there's everything from the really light and bright and floral right through to like some of your like big Smoky stuff and I think that's definitely something that I'm just like continuing to figure out about a gabby experience as well is like the Spectrum definitely and definitely the Spectrum but also the method of how you even just how you grow it yeah um all the way to how you how you cook it how you process it how you ferment it um then how do you distill it and then even then aging it or not aging it like there's so many differences which that's why it's like there's like you so many varieties and and subtleties and even an agave that's grown in the same place but is processed um or or you know worked differently you'll end up with a completely different product yes see I guess that leads us on to my next question which is can you kind of talk us through some different styles and maybe just give people a bit of a an insight into what they might be looking for in terms of you know different words on bottles and what that can kind of mean for yeah what what you're actually going to end up drinking in your glass for sure for sure I think I think the first thing is uh figuring out if it is a tequila or a Mezcal or some of the other lesser-known varieties which are um the real main difference is that tequila is an Agave is a very specific species of a um Agave it's called the Blue Weber Agave then for it to be a tequila it can only be grown and um like made in the one region in Mexico right uh sort of like that sort of like Doc classification type situation whereas Mezcal can be pretty much made and it has to be Mexican now like yeah because before that was people were able to label things as mascara even if it was from Texas or from other places but now tightened it up a little bit they've toned it yeah so mascara now is definitely Mexican and from certain regions as well so now you're definitely um if you make sure because you might even find some bottles that say Agave spirit that means that it's not technically a miscon but yeah Mezcal now is made from a huge range of species and Blended sometimes yeah um and I guess then the difference is um how it's actually processed on there's a lot of key like things to look on on the labels that I that I look at things like what method they might have used they might say like um which is ancestral method which means that they're making it the most traditional way possible or things like um if they say things like um 100 uh a variety might it means that they're they're not blending uh on in tambly it's another word that like is pretty interesting to me and somebody means that it's a blend yeah and and somebody when they put that on the label it means that the the the um the Mescalero the the the person who's making it has really wanted to achieve a certain blend yeah okay that they really yeah because I was going to ask it's you know almost again that kind of thing of like single malt versus Blends like is there do people feel like there's an inferiority when things are Blended or is it more like that's really being done deliberately to kind of bring together certain flavors that are going to give you a a really awesome and complete end product they're both good in their own way and I think it's that same thing with whiskey right with um scratches that blends can also sometimes be the best like sometimes um but that's also like learning to like know the Providence like no who's making it like and um if they're skilled if skilled blenders um but um if I see a um a a label or or a brand or a place that I'm familiar with and they do say like this one's a blend of this and this it would be very interesting because it'll be it'll be interesting because different um varieties bring different flavors and different um uh just things to the table that are like really really interesting um it was more like um different um varieties bring in like different um components and like when we're tasting we'll we'll talk a little bit more about those I think it's like there's like aromatics how do you call it the textures yeah you know like smoothness um things like that that a a master blender combination of all sort of like create something that's really kind of round and yeah and it's not just fire like as well because like you know mesco it's known as well for being like pretty like yeah and I think blending can also help you bring a little bit of approach a bit more approachability and a bit more um yeah yeah cool and then um I guess the other thing that's like I hear a lot around is maybe around how the Agave is is handled like you know because tequila I think is quite often that little bit maybe lighter and things because it's more like to roasted and then metcal can sometimes be more like direct fires that's you can get like a little smoky kind of hint to it is that yeah definitely um and and I think that's really important um maybe we can talk about that um after as well as it and this is the one of the biggest problems that's happening right now is because um the demand is so big for um mascot right yeah uh that we're running out and um we're running out like there's there's just the demand's so big we can't the the the the they can't keep up with it yeah um and there's a lot of companies that are trying to skip this process like they're trying to they're trying to cut Corners yeah but one of that that cooking because Agave has to be like seven years old what's important to reach maturity kind of thing like varieties like um they grow a little bit quicker so that but yes seven years but tequila blue Weber Agave the best blue Weber Agave it's like 10 13 14. um so if you're cutting corn and you're cutting the plant early it's gonna it's you're gonna end up with a a flavor profile that's a bit too young for like you know I guess it's like with many things like if you do it too early it's not going to have the yeah um and and the cooking part of it is really really important because that's one of the the key parts of the process to extract flavor and create flavor is once you've harvested the the Mezcal and you've you know you've cut off the the the leaves you end up with the the Pena the the Pina sorry that Pina can be cooked in many different ways and um what the what was most traditional was to create a pit and fill it with charcoal and and wood and throw them in and cover it up and roast it and so that it would it would it would be roasting and all the flavors and all the all the sugars from the um from the Agave the government nectar yeah are caramelizing and just creating more and more depths of flavor which it sounds delicious it's delicious yeah it is delicious it's um it's it's um last time visiting these places you can really taste in the nectar the the the plant but also the the taiwa or the the soil and a lot of companies I guess the bigger for them to be able to make it a successful I guess you know big business they skip things like that and they use um Ovens that are just firing it up and burning it and just caramelizing the sugar without not that slow creating that not that slow uh extraction of flavor it's just more of that quick caramelization and you end up with more of a sweet nectar that doesn't have the Nuance or the yeah the flavor profile of of something that's been had a little bit more traditionally or handled with a little bit more um a bit more care I guess so are there any um I guess kind of red flags that you see or on bottles of tequila that would teach you to maybe sort of steer clear is it more about having to do just a bit of research really and sort of figure out I guess people that are maybe being doing their best to do things properly yeah look I guess you're not wanting to name and shaming no no no for sure yeah I think I mean no I don't have a legal team yet okay okay yeah um no but yeah the big groups obviously they um they're Source they need to produce you know a lot a lot so you can imagine that their production is incredibly massive which is why I sort of sort of like to just tend to the independent um um it is they are harder to find obviously um and but they I guess a lot of them are also getting bought up by the bigger yeah so it is it's really hard it's hard to navigate that sort of area um I think that I also kind of like to find a bottle that has a little bit more information about um where where it's from like the town or who the who the uh Mescalero or the tequila maker is yeah um and a lot of the good um Tequilas and mascaras will tell you what year it was harvested um you know like even like that sort of like single Vineyard kind of like idea that's kind of like um we're just so like cool to kind of see that I think that's definitely a really fun if you can well yeah I was saying to Alec before that obviously quite a lot of you guys out there are actually in the states and you know in California and stuff and actually have probably access to a lot more than we do here in Australia um unless someone actually goes to Mexico and brings stuff back um so but yeah I've definitely seen some you know as you were saying single varietal or like even yeah like kind of single it's been like what vintage you know oh yeah um and then um even further than that it might even be um a wild Agave compared to a harvest like a cultivated Agave yeah so that's even more rare because they have to actually go out and find yeah these plants that have been growing for 10 20 some 30 years like I mean there's um the the the more information you can get from the bottle I think is telling you that um the more their information there is on the bottle is really telling you that they are doing something interesting something special it's probably worth a look I really liked my uh my fiance's sister brought us back a bottle of um of medcalp and when they were last over in California and it just had like the guy who made its like mobile number on it like handwritten you know yeah exactly next time we're over that way you know I'll look them up for sure okay so we're obviously very much enjoying having this conversation and it's probably getting a little bit lengthy you guys might have to go and you know try and drink some Mezcal or have a cup of tea or something so just make sure that you're subscribed and hit that notification Bell and we'll be getting um part two out really soon or if this is a little bit further down the line then head straight over to it and we're gonna get into actually tasting some of these delicious bottles Agave Spirits so now you partially know hmm

Channel: Behind the Bar

Views: 7,556

Keywords: mescal, mezcal, tequila, how to drink mezcal, how to drink mescal

Id: r_Gm7dp4X-g

Length: 14min 54sec (894 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 15 2023