Mezcal

The mezcal, mescal or mezcal (from Nahuatl mexcalli, " liquor " ) is a Mexican spirit with typically 40 vol - %; it is made from the flesh of various species of agave ( Mexican Spanish Magueyes or Mezcales ). The taste and appearance of the Mezcal varies depending on the type of agave, the region, as well as the preparation and duration of storage. The most famous mezcal is tequila, which in the vicinity of the town of Tequila is distilled exclusively from the Blue Agave in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Mezcal is produced mainly in the region around the city of Oaxaca. Officially further allowed him nor the states of Guerrero, Durango, San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas produce.

Production

Mezcal is made from the heart of the agave before the Agave has flowered for the first and last time, after about 6 to 10 years of life. The leaves are cut off, only the pineapple -shaped heart of the plant (hence its Spanish name piña, " pineapple, pine cones " ) is harvested, cooked and then crushed to a pulp.

The cooking process is traditionally done in so-called palenques, large pits in the ground. These pits are lined with hot stones, on the Agaveherzen come and they are covered with palm mats ( petate ) and to ground. In this pit they remain for three to five days, so that they can absorb the flavor of the soil and of the smoke. Then the rest Agaveherzen for about a week and then crushed with a millstone. Modern maker cooking the agave in steel furnaces and shred them then mechanically.

The resulting mash is fermented with yeast and, unless it is a Mezcal 100% Agave, mixed with sugar and then for several days in large stainless steel tanks. The proportion of agave must be at least 51% to any legal obligations. After fermentation the mash is distilled twice. After the first distillation, the alcohol yield is mostly still very low. After this distillation, the fibers are removed from the slurry and the alcohol is added to the first distillation again. The mixture was distilled a second time. Are there alcohol content reaches over 80 %, the alcohol is diluted with water. This liquor is bottled or stored for aging.

Aging Mezcal is compared to other liquor relatively rapidly. It is stored in large wooden barrels for two months to seven years and obtained in this way in addition to the aroma of the wood a golden yellow color. The darker the Mezcal is, he was the longer stored and even more striking is the aroma. We distinguish three age groups:

The "worm" in mezcal

Some mezcal brands contain a moth caterpillar type Aegiale hesperiaris ( Aegiale genus of the family Hesperiidae ) or the type Hypopta agavis ( Hypopta genus of the family of Cossidae ) in the bottle. These caterpillars are often called " worm" (Spanish: gusano ) refers. Trivial names of Aegiale hesperiaris loud gusano de maguey, Agavenwurm, Agavenraupe, mezcal maguey worm or worm - while Hypopta agavis worm is named as gusano rojo Red Agavenraupe, Red Agavenwurm, Red mezcal worm or red agave.

It is a marketing gimmick, which was introduced in 1950 by Jacobo Lozano Páez. He found out that Mezcal from larvae-infested agave leaves a slightly different taste had than that of uninfested. Hence the idea, for marketing reasons, a caterpillar ( Gusano del Maguey ) came to him to introduce into the bottle and he had so quite a remarkable success. This caterpillar is contained for example in the names of " Gusano de Oro ", " Gusano Rojo ", " Dos Gusanos " or " Oro de Oaxaca ". Based on the Mexican Standard NOM -006- SCFI 2012, the use of foreign substances is explicitly not allowed in tequila, while NOM -070- SCFI 1994 implicitly permits the Mexican standard under item 6.1.2 in Mezcal.

According to rumors, the caterpillar had been originally given by private (illegal) small distilleries in the bottles to check the result of the distillate. Decomposed the caterpillar, the distillate had failed. Was it preserved the other hand, it pointed out that the mezcal for people was edible.

In Mexico, for a Mezcal sprinkled with a reddish spice lime piece is usually enough. The spice is either chili salt (salt with chili and lime powder ) or chili powder salt to the dried and crushed caterpillar (Sal de Gusano ).

Footnotes

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