We toured the mescal distillery, it was interesting and fun.
First they show you the varieties of agave.
The "pineapple" or fruit of the agave is roasted in a large pit for a week on hot river stones.
The roasted fruit now has it's sugar crystallized and is ready for crushing.
It then goes to the crusher, a horse pulls the large stone around as they rake the fruit under the wheel.
Here is where they tether the horse.
The fruit is then stripped into pieces and goes through further crushing. At this stage, it has a consistency like sugar cane and has a unique sweet, smoky flavor.
The fermentation process begins converting the sugar into alcohol.
It is strained. Then it goes into the still.
Finally, the potent mescal trickles out of the still. It takes 9 years and one month from seed to the bottle.
You can buy the raw mescal like this, or the better aged in wooden barrels product. You chew the spicy crickets to wake up your taste buds, get an orange slice dipped in Tejon spice. Do the shot, bite into the orange and eat more bugs or a worm.
Extra worms are available, they are crunchy and salty.
After sampling it all, this is what we bought. The "Coyote" label on the right has hallucinogenic properties so of course, that is the one I chose.
We also got a bottle of the finest aged 4 years for our friend Dante back in Cordoba who found us the land.
