- Mezcal.
Is it the same as tequila?
Does it make you trip?
Why is there a worm in it?
And what does it have to do with Frida Kahlo's eyebrows?
One, yes and no.
Two, no that's mescaline, silly.
Three, because Mad Men.
And four, you'll see.
Also there's only one superhero that has as cool
an origin story as mezcal.
Hi, I'm Krista Curry and this is a brief
history of mezcal.
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Now, let's do this.
First, why is it called mezcal?
Well, the word tequilla has a naughty boob-related origin.
Mezcal literally means oven-cooked agave.
So just like with brandy which means burned wine,
these guys didn't spend too long spit-ballin' the name.
Mezcal is made from the heart of the agave plant.
They're more than 30 species of agave used
to produce mezcal, the most popular being
agave espadin which is the source of 90% of mezcal.
By the way, if you make mezcal from the blue agave
and you do it in the city of Jalisco, you get tequila.
Or as the famous adage goes, all tequila is mezcal,
but not all mezcal is tequila.
The Mescalros traditionally roast the plant
in fiery underground pits, crush it,
and mix it with water.
When the fermentation is complete,
they move the stuff into copper pot stills
where the small batch distillation process happens.
60% of the spirit is produced in the state of Oaxaca.
That's also where Frida Kahlo's mom was born,
so you have to thank Oaxaca for both
Mezcal and the most bad-ass eye brows in history.
But who came up with Mezcal in the first place?
The origin story of mezcal puts to shame all superheroes
except the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
because that shit is rad.
See, the agave plant used to be sacred
in Mexico and was used in religious rituals.
The myth says lightening bolts struck an agave plant
cooking and releasing the milky juice
everyone called pulque.
Pulque was considered to be the elixir of gods,
and when the Spanish conquistadors came bothering
the locals, they wanted a sip of that.
The invaders were, however, used to harder stuff,
and when they ran out of European liquor, they had
to find something with enough ABV to give them
a sufficient buzz.
No one knows who,
but one of these European imbibers decided to take
this sacred plant and distill it.
(speaking in foreign language) Mezcal.
For a long time,
mezcal remained a well-kept secret of Mexico only made
in small batches.
While tequila was conquering the world one margarita
at a time, mezcal was mostly known as aguardiente,
or firewater, sold in cantinas with a worm.
We'll talk about worms later.
Plus tequila was named the national drink
of Mexico in the 1970s putting the final nail in all
of mezcal's aspirations of becoming the head honcho.
It's like saying Paul McCartney was the G.O.A.T.
but completely forgetting the Beatles.
Not cool, Mexico.
Well, give it to an industrious gringo to shoot
something to the stratosphere.
Meet Ron Cooper, an artist from Ojai, California.
He stumbled upon Oaxaca and mezcal when traveling
and fell in love with both.
He established Del Maguey in the 90s and started
making fine artisanal mezcal.
He introduced the mythical sprit
to the United States and the rest of the world,
and people loved it.
If there were around 360 distilleries
in Oaxaca in 1892, there are over 2,000 today.
And while a lot of people feel tequila tastes
the same now, mezcal offers a rich diversity
of profiles still sticking to small-batch production.
Mexico made over five million liters of mezcal in 2018.
Okay, but what about the worm?
You know how cowboys used to down a shot of mezcal
to prove they were real hombres?
What's up with that?
Well, we actually covered this question in one
of our previous videos, but here's the gist.
It's all a marketing ploy from the 1940s that wanted
to persuade people to switch from tequila
to mezcal because the worm allegedly made it taste better.
Except it's not a worm,
it's a moth larva that allegedly lives in the agave plant,
and Hollywood lied to you.
Also, please don't drown insects in your booze, gross.
So how do you drink mezcal then?
In the States it's served neat in a small glass,
while some serve it in a hollowed shell
of a calabash fruit.
Some people add a slice of orange and a salty
larva-based powder, but if you're trying a more
premium mezcal with layers of flavors maybe
just skip all that.
If you want something genuinely Mexican, make yourself
a Oaxaca Old Fashioned that blends mezcal, tequila,
agave nectar, and angostura bitters.
Senor Sinatra woulda loved it.
Perhaps you wanna go completely bonkers and make
yourself an El Camino, which demands a mix of mezcal,
rye whiskey, benedictine and bitters.
I'm dizzy just thinking about it.
Or add sweet vermouth, apple brandy,
fernet-franca and marschino to your mezcal
because why the hell not?
They call this bad boy All Jacked Up.
That's it, ladies and gentlemen,
you now know what mezcal is.
Enjoy it responsibly.
Stay away from larva,
and don't forget to subscribe to our channel.
Bye.
(zapping)