We left South America early. We had originally planned to go to Chile after Ecuador, but because it is winter there, we wouldn't be able to visit the far south. So we decided that instead of making two trips to Chile (one to the north and one to the south), we would combine them into one future trip and instead head to Mexico.
There were several advantages to this plan besides saving on airfare: it would shorten our flight home, we would get to visit one of our favorite cities--Mexico City--, and we would get to eat better food.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty good food in Peru and Ecuador, but after a few weeks it gets repetitive. Speaking for myself, I can only eat so much guinea pig, and the greens are few and far between.
Mexico, on the other hand...well, it's Mexico, an earthly paradise for foodies, with world-class street food, bright colors, and a vibe that makes us happy to be alive.
So we ate and drank our way through Mexico City, Puebla, and Oaxaca, three of the top destinations for the best of Mexican cuisine and culture. Oaxaca especially brims with art, great food, and of course mescal.
We had discovered mescal on our first trip to Oaxaca twenty years ago, but until fairly recently it has been hard to find in the States. These days,especially in California, mescal is trending, so it's easier to find good bottles, but a lot of the really good stuff never makes it out of the villages in the Oaxaca area.
We arranged a mescal tasting tour with Alvin Starkman, a Canadian who has been living in Oaxaca for about 11 years and has become quite an expert on mescal. He picked us up from our hotel along with another couple who we had met at a cooking class a few days before.
Alvin explained to us that there are about eight different species of agave used to make mescal, with each of those species having about fifteen different subspecies. Each of these gives a different flavor to the mescal. The flavor is also influenced by where the agave is grown, what method is used to distill it, and what other crops are planted nearby, to name just a few factors. This variability means that no two mescals, even those from the same producer, ever taste exactly alike. Tequila has much less diversity since it is by law made from a single type of agave.
The villages around Oaxaca are teeming with small mescal producers all frantically trying to meet the burgeoning demand. Some producers have adopted the industrial production techniques used to make most tequila--stainless steel fermenting tanks and computer-controlled baking ovens. But others continue making mescal by hand using family recipes dating back hundreds of years. These mescals are never exported. In fact most are consumed exclusively in the villages where they are produced. These are the mescals Alvin introduced us to.
Two year old agaves, just about ready to be transplanted in a larger field with other crops. Agaves take an average of eight years to mature, with some species taking as long as eighteen years. So mescal production is a long-term project.
Farmers bring the harvested piñas to the producer for processing. The leaves are first removed and used as kindling. Nothing in the process is wasted.
First a fire is built in a large pit. rocks are heated in the fire, then covered with a mat of agave fiber. the agave piñas are then stacked on top. You can see piñas from several different agave species here.
The piñas are then draped with more agave fiber (or a plastic tarp) and covered with dirt. They are then baked for a couple days.
When they are done, they look like this. If you chew a piece, it tastes like a very sweet, caramelized fruit. This is what agave syrup comes from.
The piñas are then hacked apart with a machete and crushed either by hand or horse-powered mill.
Next the mash is fermented in large wooden barrels.
Distilling is done over a wood fire with either a clay
Or a copper pot still.
Flavors can be introduced by adding fruit to the still or, in the case of pechuga, suspending a chicken breast in the steam chamber.
After distillation is complete, the remaining fiber is removed and used to insulate future baking sessions.
Alvin takes a liter of the mescal we bought from this producer home in an empty soda bottle. He delivers to us a sealed, labeled 750ml bottle that is export-legal. He keeps the rest of the liter as his compensation for the service. Most mescal from these producers is never bottled, but is simple consumed directly from these large plastic jerricans.
We returned to our hotel that evening filled with excellent mescal and a far greater appreciation of the art of making this remarkable liquor.
P.
