Contents
Briefly about the drink
Mescal – this is any strong Mexican alcohol obtained as a result of double distillation of mash from the juice of some types of agave. The strength of the drink ranges between 38 and 43 degrees. At the same time, mezcal can be either a pure distillate of agave mash or a drink enriched with a variety of fruits, spices and even honey.
Among the most common brands, it is worth highlighting: Mescal Monte Alban, Mescal El Senorio, Mescal Divino and Mescal Beneva.
How to drink mezcal
Clean and no snacks
Savoring 50 ml from narrow glasses. If you want to fully experience all the delights of Mexican flavor, you should replace the above-mentioned glasses with halves of small dried pumpkins.
national way
Mezcal is washed down with 50-80 ml of sangrita.
We hit the table
And a gulped glass containing mezcal and tonic (hello from tequila boom).
The wheel is the same, “licked-tipped-bitten”
Instead of lemon or lime, an orange is used, and instead of regular salt, worm salt is used. The latter is a mixture of salt, chili pepper and dried agave caterpillar powder. Very often, pouches of this exotic condiment are sold along with mezcal.
What is the difference between mezcal and tequila
To briefly answer this question, we need to recall the classic principle related to cognac: all cognac is brandy, but not every brandy is cognac.
So in our case: any tequila is mezcal, but not every mezcal is tequila.
Thus, in the future it will be more appropriate to talk about how tequila differs from other varieties of mezcal, of which, by the way, there are more than a hundred.
Place of manufacture
According to Mexican law, only drinks produced in the state of Jalisco and several adjacent states located on the east coast of the country can be considered tequila.
As for mezcal in general, it is made in an artisanal or semi-artisanal way throughout Mexico.
The industrial production of this drink is limited to the states: Oaxaca, Zacatecas, Guerrero, Durango and San Luis Potosi, which have nothing to do with tequila.
raw moment
If blue agave juice is used exclusively for the production of tequila, then manufacturers of other varieties of mezcal do not set themselves such restrictions.
For their purposes, they use various types of this plant, for example: American agave or potato agave.
The difference in production technology
Tequila is the only type of mezcal to which it is customary to add sugar.
Manufacturers of other varieties of this traditional Mexican drink regard the use of sugar in their products as an outright profanity and almost undermining national foundations.
Taste and smell
We can say that tequila is the most cultivated representative of the mezcal family.
In particular, it has a less intense taste and less vigorous aroma than its relatives, often representing an ordinary unveiled moonshine with all its pluses and minuses.
Attitude towards the worm
Tequila makers will never put the carcass of an agave caterpillar in their bottle of tequila.
Whereas in the case of other types of mezcal, this practice is very common.
Some differences in the culture of consumption
Mexican tequila – in its pure form and without snacks – is drunk in one gulp.
Other varieties of mezcal, as mentioned above, are sipped slowly and thoughtfully, like liquor.
Again, if ordinary salt is used when drinking tequila, then in the case of its numerous agave relatives, the so-called worm salt is used.
Why mezcal with a worm or a caterpillar
In the early forties of the last century, in order to attract the attention of European connoisseurs of exotic alcohol, the practice of placing larvae of a local butterfly living on the agave in bottles with mezcal was born.
With the help of the mentioned technique, the producers of the drink sought to emphasize the authenticity of its origin, as well as to demonstrate the high quality of the alcohol, which does not allow insect decomposition.
This practice has given rise to two special categories of drink:
Mezcal with worm
This includes relatively unpretentious varieties of mezcal containing the so-called “worm” – a golden caterpillar that lives on agave leaves and, accordingly, is more accessible for capture.
Mezcal with caterpillar
It is a more expensive aged alcohol containing exactly the same caterpillar, only dyed red. Unlike its less fortunate golden counterparts, such a caterpillar lives in the roots or in the core of the plant, which makes it somewhat more difficult to detect and catch it.
You can talk a lot about these caterpillars, which received the name Juanito from the Mexicans.
First of all, everyone who wants to join mezcal should know that under the influence of alcohol, both varieties of caterpillars, having landed in a bottle, lose their natural color.
Golden ones turn to ash gray, and red ones turn to pale whitish. So that buyers do not suffer, trying in vain to see the treasured, but colorless insect in the bowels of the bottle, the corresponding vessels have a characteristic marking: “con gusano” or “with agave worm”.
A whole bunch of myths has already grown around the treasured larva. So, with the light hand of dreamers from among the producers of mezcal, there were stories about the enchanting consequences of using an insect as a male aphrodisiac, as well as the possibility of using it as a kind of “key” to parallel worlds.
The wicked tequila producers, in order to annoy their competitors, spread a rumor about the hallucinogenic properties of the mentioned insects. In this case, in fact, the larvae are completely prosaic. Insects specially grown on ecologically clean plants do not cause any hallucinations, however, they are also not suitable for achieving acute erotic or mystical sensations.
Thus, the notorious larva can be fearlessly eaten, dividing it equally among all the participants in the feast, as is done in Mexico.
But if you are not in the company of Mexicans who are reverent about the ritual of eating a caterpillar, then there will be nothing to worry about if you politely refuse such an exotic snack.
In conclusion, it is worth saying that recently, mezcal producers have decided to go beyond the world of insects to enhance the effect.
From now on, in a bottle with a drink you can find another inhabitant of the Mexican deserts – a scorpion, or at least the tail of this dangerous arthropod.
As is the case with some other alcoholic beverages, the scorpion that gets into the mezcal loses its deadly power and serves only as a spectacular advertising attribute.
Relevance: 16.02.2016
Tags: Tequila
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