What IS Mezcal? | Everything You Need to Know!

mezcal the smoky older brother to tequila but what exactly is it well in this video i plan on telling you everything that you need to know about mezcal starting with what is it and where does it come from what is its history and finally what does it taste like hopefully by going over those three aspects i'll give you a very basic understanding of what this spirit is so let's get to it what is mezcal mezcal was originally a term that was used to describe any spirit that was uh distilled from the fermentation and distillation of the heart of the agave plant now if you're sitting there thinking wait a second that sounds pretty familiar isn't tequila made from the agave plant yes yes it is the saying goes that all tequila is mezcal but not all mezcal are tequila tequila is made with a very specific kind of agave plant so think of moscow as almost like the category of spirit of anything that's made from the agave plant except that there are a couple of exceptions and we'll get to those in a little bit so unlike tequila which can only be made from one kind of agave mezcal can be made from about 30 different varieties of agave species well so before we get into the specific kinds of varieties of agave that mezcal can be made from let's talk about how mezcal is made in general so we first start off with the agave plant this is a gigantic and monstrous plant that can go up to crazy heights uh and usually takes anywhere between 6 and 25 years to grow to full maturity before it can be cut and harvested to then make this wonderful spirit and the very traditional way to produce mezcal starts with the himadoris going out into the field and chopping off the leaves of the agave plant and you're then left with the heart of the agave plant or known as the pina and so the producers of mezcal will take this pina they need to cook it to release the nectar in it which will then allow it to ferment and then distill and in the most traditional way uh to cook the agave plant what they'll do is they will create a big pit in the ground they'll layer a bunch of charcoal lava rocks firewood and light that on fire and then they'll put the heart of the agave in this pit and then they'll cover it with dirt and soil and let that cook for several several days uh that actually is what ends up giving mezcal it's traditional earthy and smoky flavor because since the smoke cannot go anywhere it kind of infuses the agave with that smoky flavor and so once it's done cooking what they'll do is they'll take the agave out of the these pits and they need to crush it to get to the nectar that's inside traditionally they will either do this by hand with clubs and knives and things like that and that's super labor intensive or they'll use what's known as a tahona which is a giant stone or cement wheel that is pulled by horse donkey or mule and this goes around in a circle crushing the agave plant i know super old school but but you know what making mezcal sometimes it's all about that craftsmanship and so once the agave is all pulverized and broken apart they'll then take all of that and ferment it and distill it and turn it into this amazing spirit all right so now that we've kind of covered how mezcal is traditionally made let's talk about the different varieties of mezcal like i mentioned before there are over 30 different species of agave plant that can be used to create this amazing fantastic spirit traditionally speaking ninety percent of all mezcal is made from the espadine species of mezcal you also have tobala tepestate aro kenyo and madre quiche which are just a couple of the different varieties of agave that can be used and so why is that important that there's so many different species well each species has its own characteristic flavors and distinct profiles that end up making its way through the distillation process and you get vastly different spirits based on which species you're using the other thing that gives mezcal so such incredible variety and flavor and taste and smell is terroir which is a term in spirits that refers to the geographical location the soil the the environment in which these plants and and things that get distilled grow in because they all play a role you know you're not going to have the same spirit if if something is grown in the rain forest as it is in the desert typically agave grows really well in desert areas but the different soils do impact the flavor of the agave especially because agave plants take sometimes up to 25 years to grow to full maturity before they can be harvested which is insane and so that much time spent in contact with the earth that creates this incredible complexity and flavor like you could have two of the same species of agave plants grown in two very very different climates and they'll have different flavor profiles possibly depending on the soil and the things that happened to it while it was growing alright so now that we've talked a little bit about what mezcal is how it's produced i kind of want to talk a little bit about the origin of mezcal so there's a really awesome urban legend that says that a really really long time ago there was this lonely agave plant just chilling out in the desert and all of a sudden it got struck by lightning and the lightning cooked the insides of the agave plant which then fermented and eventually someone stumbled upon it and decided to drink the insides uh and that inside is called pulque which is the fermented juice of the inside of the agave plant and that's actually what ends up getting distilled into mascara and this poke was seen as a gift from the gods and that meant that agavi became super revered in ancient mexican culture the story then goes and this is disputed that when the spanish were you know trying to take over the whole world and they were they had control of mexico uh they brought with them a lot of different european wines and spirits but once that ran out they needed something else to drink and they didn't quite really like the pulque they thought it was too weak for them and so the spanish government allowed certain higher-ups that lived in mexico to start producing mezcal now there are some people that will argue that there was distillation of agave prior to spanish colonialization of mexico but i'm just trying to tell you everything that i know it's disputed and i'm not really sure who's right but that's kind of a very super quick general uh origin story for this spirit and i can't think of a more awesome origin story for anything quite frankly the thing got stuck struck by lightning and someone discovered it that's pretty cool you'll remember that at the beginning of this video i said that mezcal was the categorical term for uh any spirit that was made and distilled from the agave plant now that still technically is true but in 1994 something happened that kind of changed that mexico uh created a denomination of origin for mezcal a denomination of origin is simply a set of laws that govern how how and where a spirit can be made in an effort usually to try and uh keep the quality of the spirit high now some people will argue that does actually have an inverse effect of what they expected um and actually cause more harm than good but in 1994 mezcal kind of ceased being a category term and is now a more specific spirit term and so what does that mean that means that today for something to be called in label de mezcal it has to be made in one of a couple of states in mexico traditionally oaxaca has been the biggest producer of mezcal about 90 percent of all mezcal gets produced in oaxaca but mexico can also be produced in guerrero durango san luis potosi puebla and zacatecas and there are a couple of more stipulations but i don't want to get too much into that but essentially what that means is that mezcal is now a specific spirit even though a lot of people do consider mezcal distill the broader term it's still kind of a little confusing i don't know what the right answer is uh but that's kind of where we're at right now but all right now that we've i've kind of given you a very basic basic understanding of what this amazing spirit is it's time to drink so right here i have a couple of different bottles of mezcal and i want to start off by talking about delma gay was always seen as kind of like the little brother to tequila because in 1974 mexico made tequila the national spirit of mexico and that propelled it into the stratosphere and while tequila was conquering the world mezcal was kind of seen as more of an artisanal more uh old-school kind of spirit that didn't have wide appeal that all changed uh with delma gay to this day delma gaye's vida is probably the most common bottle of mezcal that you'll find in the us though there are a lot more brands today than there have ever been this is the introduction to a lot of people including myself into the world of mezcal and is one that i love as well i also have a bottle of los facinos del campo which is my current favorite mezcal that i carry at my bar and then i have a bottle of oaxaca mezcal which is really really nice as well i just got it recently and i'm still playing with it all three of these are espadine mezcals and i also have a oaxaca ensemble ensemble ensemble i'm not sure how to say it essentially an ensemble is a mezcal that uses multiple varieties of mezcal in the production of the spirit so this one is 50 percent espadine 25 madre quiche and 25 tobala so we're gonna start off with the vida man that is damn good it is it kind of tastes like it smells you have that earthy minerality agave flavor that's not too dissimilar from tequila from like a good tequila but at the same time you get that smoke that fills up your nostrils and fills your your mouth with that smoky flavor but you also have a really nice uh sweetness about it now i'm going to skip the other two because they both are espadine mezcals and i'm fearing that this video is getting a little long so we're actually just going to try the ensemble from oaxaca that like i said is a mixture of three different agave species you might be wondering why you only have a small little bottle well because these things are expensive because mezcal so labor intensive it's not uncommon for a well-made mezcal to go into the hundreds of dollars for one bottle so i have a smaller bottle say for special occasions like sharing it with you you get this really cool earthy minerality to it but it's not as sweet as say the vida so to kind of wrap it up what can you expect from mezcal you can expect a good amount of smoke you can expect a good amount of earthiness but you can expect that awesome kind of agave flavor that you might be accustomed to from drinking good tequila all right guys i have a couple of amazing bottles of mezcal to get back to i'll catch you in the next one cheers

Channel: Lui Fernandes

Views: 31,728

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Id: A2wl5HZ3YA4

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 03 2021