Once Considered Mexico's 'Booze of Drunks,' Mezcal Now Earns Respect Carola Sole - Agence France-Presse
go to original August 4, 2014

Producción de Mezcal Agave de Cortés (AgavedeCortes Mezcal)

SANTIAGO MATATLÁN, Mexico – Once derided as a drink for destitute drunkards, Mexico’s smoky-flavored mezcal liquor has come out of the shadows to become a trendy booze in fashionable bars from Mexico City to Sydney.

The booming demand for tequila’s less known ancestor may even be too good for the cactus-like plant that’s used to make mezcal, maguey, which is now in high demand for a variety of products.

In the southern state of Oaxaca, mezcal’s heartland, producers still use rustic tools to make the spirit in small distilleries known as palenques.

Maguey, which is also known as agave, is roasted and then crushed into pulp in a stone wheel pulled by a horse before being distilled into the drink with an alcohol content of at least 45 percent.

Founded in 1840, the Cortés family owns one of the oldest palenques in the town of Santiago Matatlán, the cradle of mezcal, where workers use axes to cut the tough, green leaves of maguey.

Times were tougher just 10 years ago, when many distilleries closed up shop. The Cortés family, however, persevered even when they practically were giving bottles away for free.

But distillers say the “drink of the poor and drunks” began to be seen as a boutique booze around 2010, attracting more and more consumers in bohemian bars of Mexico City and abroad.

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