Page 103 - PROTAGONIST 114

produced in different areas than where Tequila is made: in Oaxaca,
where most of the distilleries are located, but also in Guerrero, Du-
rango and Tamaulipas. Ancestral Mezcal has been produced since
the days of the Aztecs, who considered it an aphrodisiac. An ancient
legend tells of the goddess Mayatl, who resembled an agave. It is said
that she had 40,000 breasts with which she suckled her subjects, and
the precious liquid that flowed from them was called Mezcal. One day
the goddess realized that a living being was being born in her heart,
a magnificent worm. This presence made her body sensitive and in-
clined to love, to the point that she fell in love with a young mortal
warrior named Chag. He, however, was somewhat shy around wom-
en and when he became aware of the goddess’s amorous interest,
fainted from the emotion. The goddess then offered him her most
beautiful breast, from which he greedily drank Mezcal: the magical
liquid immediately filled him with ardour. Chag asked the goddess
Mayatl to transform him into a god to make their love possible. The
goddess gave the warrior the worm that had grown in her heart and
as soon as he had eaten it, Chag turned into an immortal divinity.
Thanks to this worm and the miraculous deed it performed, Chag
made love to the goddess for seven days and seven nights.

mong Mezcals not to be missed is that of Hacienda Dolores
joven e anejo, or the artist Ron Cooper, who founded the Del
AMaguey Single Village company in 1995, and was the first in
the world to make organic craft Mezcal. He uses ancient and original
organic production processes and the combination of these methods
with various microclimates and terroirs gives every creation a unique
character: rich, sweet and smoky. The Pechuga version is distilled a
third time with white rice, local fruit such as pineapple and apples
while a chicken breast (pechuga) is suspended in the still: it is ex-
tremely fine. Mezcal also explores the frontiers of the cocktail, and
should not be confused with Tequila with a worm (the famous gusan
or maguey worm): a worm is added at the end of the process when
the liquor is bottled. The tradition of putting the worm in the bot-
tle began around 1940, when American tourists were entranced by
the legend of the goddess Mayatl. Mexicans, however, usually eat the
worm fried or crushed with salt and chilli pepper, observing a pre-
cise ritual: squeezing the worm between the tongue and the palate,
they slowly sip the distillate from a hollowed-out oven-baked gourd,
the calabasa, so that the larva has time to fully release its flavours,
which are somewhere between spicy and savoury. This distillate can
be used in mixology to produce a delicious Smoking Margarita (with
Mezcal instead of Tequila) or a Mexican-syle Gimlet: created in 1900
by the legendary Sir Thomas Gimlette, and named after him, this is
a cocktail that replaces the Gin with Mezcal together with crushed
chilli, sage and lime: it is a fresh and agreeable drink with a clean
taste, perfect for accompanying a dish of pollo en mole poblano,
an elaborate speciality of Mexican cuisine that involves the prepara-
tion of a sauce which has among its ingredients extremely fragrant
cocoa and various types of chilli pepper. (Elena Maffioli collaborated)

Stages in the production of Mezcal: from the top, harvesting the agaves; an underground oven topped with river stones, where the agave piñas
are toasted; the pressed agave is placed in wooden barrels for the fermentation phase; the pressing of the piñas.
Adjoining page, San Juan Alipús, fruity, rich, smoky and agreeably sweet Mezcal; the mezcalero at work distilling using the traditional copper stills.

N. 114 / PROTAGONIST 103

100-103_Mezcal_114_eng.indd 103 15/12/17 17:25