Mezcalomania - Krishna Prasad Nukala

 (Krishna Prasad Nukala is a dear friend of mine - a fine cricketer, lover of life and all the fine things in it and more importantly a Malt Maniac. A brief about him in his own words.

Krishna Nukala (b 1955) lives in Hyderabad. After working 35 years in banking and a Multinational Company, Krishna is now retired and spends time in pursuit of QAVP (Questio Aqua Vitae Perfectum). Besides whisky being his passion, his chief mission also is to spread the message of Malt Whisky in India. He frequently contributes whisky related articles in various Magazines and also does consultation on investments in Rare and Collectible whiskies, cognacs, rums and mezcal.  Krishna has been in the judging panel of whiskies for the famous Malt Maniacs Awards since 2003.

This is an article he wrote about an interesting spirit called Mezcal. Read it and savour it.)

The national drink of Mexico is Taquila. Perhaps no other drink of any nation evokes such emotion and passion in its people than Tequila. But what are Tequila and Mezcal? Well, they are similar to blood brothers evolving from same lineage of arid shrubs and botanists put them under family of Asparagaceae**.But what is the difference between Tequila and Mezcal? All Mezcal is Tequila but not all Tequila is not Mezcal. Confused? Well, let me put in simple terms by delving into some history and geography!

Templo de Santo Domingo Guzman

There are over 250 varieties of agave in the world and in Mexico alone you get more than 200 of them. Of all the varieties of Agave, Tequila can be made ONLY from Blue Agave (Agave Azul or Agave Tequilana) and not any other agave. But Mezcal can be made from any Agave plant that is locally grown or available. And what is so special about Mezcal?For this one has to go back to Zapotec history of southern Mexico! Historically Mexico had four major civilizations. The Olmecs, Aztecs, Mayans and the Zapotecs. Zapotecs inhabited the valley of Oaxaca (pronounced Ohaka). Remember the movie Apocalypto? Mel Gibson shot much of his movie here. Oaxaca borderswith Guatemala in the south and stretches as far as up to Pacific in the west. It is amazing to know that while almost of all the other civilizations have been wiped out, the Zapotecs still follow the traditions and retained their language even today which is widely spoken in place of Spanish.

The name Mezcal has an Aztec origin “Nahuatl Mexcalli” which means overcooked Agave and the Zapotecs considered the plant very auspicious and used it extensively during all religious occasions. The Spanish in 1500s brought distillation to Mexico and viola, the Zapotecs immediately found a better usage of the plant! The spirit became a household item and center to all kinds of religious and social occasions, the most famous being the Dia de Los Muertos, (the day of the dead), a festival celebrated in memory of all near and dear ones.

Tacos 

The Plant and the Process

The life of agave various between 10 to 25 years, the most common being 10 to 15 years and those of wild and exoticbeing 15 to 25 years. It is a tall, greenish, spiky plant and has to be handled carefully. The juice is extracted from very heavy, bulbous stems (called pinas) often weighing up to 40 kg. Once the stem is harvested, the plant dies. Hence one can understand why good Tequila and Mezcal are in short supply and there are more spurious/duplicate tequilas and mezcals around the world.

Agave Plantation

San Pablo Mitla, a tiny village in Oaxaca

The matured stem is uprooted from the ground and transported to the mezcalaria. Here the pinas are pit roasted.  A large pit is dug where the cut agave is dumped along with fire wood (often the dried parts of various agave plants), stones, earth and the whole pit is covered with tarpaulin or some cloth and the agave is left to cook in the slow fire lasting three to seven days. The result is slow caramelization of the pinas which is called maguey and is soft and juicy. When it is squeezed the syrup that oozes out of it is smoky and is as sweet as any maple syrup or honey.

Agave with flowers 

Tiny Mezcal unit

The next process is fermentation of the cooked agave. To ferment the maguey, it has to be crushed into pulp. In order to crush the cooked agave, a one-ton wheeled stone is slowly pulled by a horse or a donkey and the resulting juices are transferred into large tanks for fermentation. The Oaxacans call this process a Tahona. 

The crushed pulp along with agave juices is rich in naturally occurring yeast and most often the artisanal mezcalarias do not use outside yeast for fermentation. The resulting vats are musty and smell intoxicatingly sweet. Fermentation takes place for a period varying between 24 to 48 hours depending upon the house style of the Mezcalaria. The yeast and bacteria eat up the sugars to convert it into ethanol and CO2. Once the fermentation is over the resultant liquid is sent for distillation.

Cooked agave (mague)

Distillation is the most romantic part in the spirits industry. The chief aim of distillation is to get higher strength of alcohol from the ferment which is low in alcohol strength. Unlike the Scottish industry where the stills are gigantic holding tens of thousands of liters of spirit, the stills in Mezcalarias are tiny. Most of them do not even hold 100 liters at a time. Traditionally the Oaxacans distilled the must in clay pots and after the Spanish conquest, copper pot distillation was introduced. Distillation is twice. The first distillation yields about 30% to 35% abv (alcohol by volume) and the second distillation takes it to 70%. The final spirit is collected in big glass jars or bottles which hold up to 10 to 50 liters per batch.

Storage and aging

Unlike whisky industry where the spirit has to aged for a minimum of three years, there is no restrictions in aging Tequila or Mezcal. However, there are different styles of Mezcals that are bottled nowadays.

Young Mezcal stored in bottles

1)      Completely new. Just bottled right after distillation

2)      Mezcal that is aged in large glass bottles for few months and kept in dark warehouses

3)      Mezcals aged in wooded barrels for a period up to one year

4)      Mezcal that is aged more than a year in wooden barrels

Types of Agave plants in Oaxaca

There are several agaves from which Mezcal is produced. But the most complex and sought after are Tepextate, Tobala, Espadin, Cuishe, Arroqueno etc. which are wild varieties that take from 20 to 25 years to mature and fit for harvesting.

Cut agave from the field

Tasting a Mezcal

Mezcal is traditionally enjoyed in small rounded shallow clay bowls at around 40% strength. Just as in tasting any spirits, you have to determine yourself where you want to stand in tasting; enjoyment or appreciation? If you want to enjoy a mezcal go ahead and enjoy with ice, orange, lemonade or even cola. But if you are in a typical Oaxacan bar sitting Infront of a chivalrous bar tender, he would offer you a neat mezcal with a traditional accompaniment called- Gusano (means a worm in Spanish). This is a mix of salt with dried and crushed worm of the agave plant and it is said to enhance the flavors. Apart from this the bar tender can come out withseveral cocktails using any Mezcal.

Tasting Mezcal neat

This is where you get to know the stuff. You do not add anything- no water ice or anything. You need to taste in a nice copita or a distiller’s tasting glass to get the maximum of flavors. Artisanal Tepextate, Tobala and Cuishe Mezcals are all earthy and smoky. They are deliciously sweet and amazingly smooth despite being a nascent spirit just out of stills. This is where Mezcals would blow you out when compared to whiskies. Whiskies need several years to smoothen the rough edges of spirit, but Mezcal doesn’t need to age at all. The Mezcals offer lot of vanilla, butterscotch and mint flavors with an unmistakable smoky finish.

Viva Oaxaca!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Agave is an arid plant that grows abundantly in dry and non-aqueous regions. You can find this in our own country sides growing in the wild and along road sides. In Hindi it is called Rambaas and in Telugu it is called Narajemudu. It is widely known in almost all states of India and has significant medicinal references in Ayurveda).