Holy Smoke! It's Mezcal!: A Complete Guide from Agave to Zapotec by John McEvoy

Holy Smoke! It's Mezcal!: A Complete Guide from Agave to Zapotec by John McEvoy

Author:John McEvoy [McEvoy, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mezcal PhD Publishing
Published: 2014-06-10T04:00:00+00:00


A row of Agave angustifolia, variety espadin in Oaxaca.

“If I had to live my life over, I’d live over a saloon.”

W.C. Fields

SUSTAINABILITY

The future of mezcal is bright in so many ways. But the sudden and rapid growth of mezcal creates specific challenges. Agave is not grapes or wheat or rye or corn or Jägermeister or anything else grown in a short period of time (I am not sure how fast Jägermeister is grown, but I am thinking minutes). Spirits made of these agricultural products can meet demand through rapid expansion and turnover of crops. Agave is more challenging.

Espadin, the most common type of agave used to make mezcal, takes a minimum of eight years to mature and frequently exceeds ten years depending on all the environmental factors that affect the growth cycle. While the long gestation period for agave contributes beautifully to the complexity of the ultimate mezcal, it also means ripe agave cannot be created on the fly. Mezcal is said to be made with four ingredients: agave, sun, water and time. And agave needs a lot of time to grow.

Unlike tequila, mezcal has not reached the stage where millions and millions of acres are dedicated to agave crops. To date, the demand has not been there. With demand rapidly accelerating there is a risk that it may outrun supply and negatively impact mezcal production before sustainable and sophisticated agave crop management finds its way into the mezcal world.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.