Mezcal Journey Tour
March 15, 2026
We got to have a nice breakfast of tamales in our courtyard then we walked a bit over a mile to the Jalatlaco neighborhood where we met the tour van for our Mezcal Journey tour. We got there a bit early so we circled a block and found a bunch more nice murals.
The tour was almost full with us and seven other people. We had an interesting mix: a couple from Luxembourg, another from Scotland, from Puerto Rico, and a single guy from Texas. We drove about forty-five minutes east and a bit south of the city of Oaxaca to the town of Mitla. There we stopped at a field of cactus with some promising-looking construction that will eventually be a sort of up-scale Mezcal tasting room and maybe an area to make Mezcal.
Mezcal is sort of like Champagne - you can make fermented agave cactus drinks wherever, but it is only Mezcal if you make it in the state of Oaxaca or a few other states in Mexico. Also, there are hundreds of species of agave and Mezcal can be made from dozens of them. However, only the Espadín variety is easily cultivated, so most Mezcal is made from Espadín. Mezcal made from other varieties can be very expensive because those varieties have to be found in the wild and, while Espadín matures to harvest size in seven to ten years, many of the other varieties can take up to twenty years to mature.
At the field of Espadín we tasted our first Mezcal in what is either a traditional or touristy way: by having it poured down a long leaf of the Espadín into our mouths.
After our first drink we all got a chance to work with a machete to cut first the sharp leaf tips off the long leaves, then to cut the leaves. Drinking and machetes, safety third!
There were a couple of ‘wild’ varieties of agave growing near the field.
Then we went to the Discípulo Mezcaleria (also known as a palenque) to learn how the Mezcal is made. A few guys were clearing rocks from this pit after they had finished cooking a batch of agave hearts. The process is to put a bunch of firewood at the bottom of a big pit, then cover it with almost literally a ton of rocks. Then they light the fire and let it burn for a day or so to try to get the rocks up over a thousand degrees Celsius. When the rocks are super hot and the firewood underneath has mostly burned out, they lay down a protective layer of plant fiber left over from a previous batch, then the agave hearts, then cover it all with a tarp and a bunch of dirt. This way the agave is primarily cooked by the heat of the rocks, although some of the smoky flavor probably comes from residual firewood.
After being sealed in with the hot rocks for a day or so, the cover is removed and the agave hearts are crushed by a big rock wheel pulled by a horse or ox.
After being crushed, the agave ‘pulp’ is put into a vat with some water and left to ferment for several days.
Once it reaches the proper level of fermentation the liquid is drained from the vats and then goes through a distillation process twice or even three times. To be classified as ‘artisanal’ only simple (“moonshine style”) stills can be used. To be classified as ‘ancestral’ the still cannot be made of metal - typically a clay pot is used.
An artisanal still at Discípulo.
And later we visited Un Día a la Vez (“one day at a time”) Mezcaleria where they have what I think is an ancestral still, although the steam from the clay pot condenses onto a metal lid that is cooled with flowing water, so I’m not sure it is officially ‘ancestral’.
After learning about the plants and the process we tasted a lot of Mezcals. Many of the varieties are predictable, such as different types of agave, Mezcal aged in whiskey or other barrels, aged for longer times, etc. But many are very eclectic. In addition to the predictable stuff, we tried:
- Mezcal with the “worm” (actually the larva of a moth that can infest agave plante)
- Mezcal with a scorpion in the bottle (supposedly adds a muscle relaxation property)
- Mezcal where a raw turkey breast is suspended in the still for the second distillation - unexpectedly seems to add a fruity essence
- Mezcal aged in bottle with cannabis leaves
We also tried some “froo froo” Mezcal drinks with coconut, pineapple, or cream added.
Fortunately we went to the restaurant Doña Chica in the middle of the tour where we had a huge lunch.
An interesting day that left us ready to chill out for the evening in our little apartment.
