Episode Details

Mezcal can get very confusing for the average consumer. You’ve got regular Mezcal, Mezcal Artesenal, and Mezcal Ancestral. And then there are variations among those, including Joven, Reposado, Anejo, abocado con, destilado con, and on and on. But this, it seems, is part of the heritage of Mezcal — at least according to a 1904 book titled Diccionario de Aztequismos o Sea Catalogo de las Palabras del Idioma Nahuatl, Azteca ó Mexicano, Introducidas al Idioma Castellano Bajo Diversas Formas. (That’s Dictionary of Aztecisms, or a Catalog of Words from the Nahuatl, Aztec, or Mexican Language Introduced into the Spanish Language in Various Forms, and, yes, that is the longest title ever for a book.) In that book, there are ten categories of mezcal. Want to know what they are…?

Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Linda Sullivan‍ ‍of seynasecreto.

Episode Notes

Read Diccionario de Aztequismos o Sea Catalogo de las Palabras del Idioma Nahuatl, Azteca ó Mexicano, Introducidas al Idioma Castellano Bajo Diversas Formas, by Cecilio Agustín Robelo (1904), for the source of the quoted passage in this episode:

There are several types of mezcal.

Mezcal: Heads of medium-sized maguey plants—from which pulque cannot be extracted—are roasted, crushed, and steeped in the appropriate amount of water; the resulting ferment is then ready for distillation.

Mezcal corriente (Standard Mezcal): Distilled from a mixture of water and cooked chaparro maguey (known in the Mixtec region as Yahuytzingu), which has been fermented in animal-skin bags; white pulque is often added to the mixture.

Mezcal flojo or cola (Weak Mezcal or "Tail" Mezcal): The same liquor as above, but resulting from a second distillation.

Mezcal de pulque: Distilled from a mixture of tlachique pulque and piloncillo (unrefined cane sugar) syrup, fermented in animal-skin bags.

Mezcal resacado de cola (Redistilled "Tail" Mezcal): Produced by redistilling mezcal cola to improve its quality; the volume is reduced to one-quarter of the original.

Mezcal resacado corriente (Redistilled Standard Mezcal): Produced by redistilling mezcal corriente; the volume is reduced to one-quarter.

Mezcal de cabezas (Head Mezcal): Obtained by distilling the liquid in which the maguey heads were fermented.

Mezcal de sustancia (Substance Mezcal): Obtained by distilling the fermented juice of the maguey heads together with cooked chicken meat or veal trotters.

Mezcal de chorrera (Stream Mezcal): This name is given to mezcal produced in San Luis Potosí usi