Espadin Agave Replaces Native Landrace Corn Fields for Mezcal Production
We call native corn here CRIOLLO. This term refers to landrace varieties of plants that have adapted to local conditions over generations. Maiz (corn) criollo is a traditional, non-hybrid corn variety grown by indigenous and rural farmers. Criollo can mean something authentic, traditional, or deeply rooted in a region’s culture. I’ve written a Substack essay […]
Drought Hits Mexico Hard, Including Oaxaca
I’m reposting this from The Mezcalistas team and Susan Coss, who is a mezcal educator and runs Mezcal in a Bottle throughout the USA. She operates out of the Bay Area of Northern California. There is water urgency here in Oaxaca, where many of us buy water for drinking and household use. We are alarmed […]
Travel Tips: How to Safely Pack Mezcal, Pottery for the Trip Home
It’s been some years since I wrote about how I pack mezcal bottles, pottery and other fragile artisan crafts to take back to the USA after my stay in Oaxaca. For the most part, I can claim 99.5% success that all will arrive undamaged. Only once, did a plate arrive broken! Basically, what I do […]
When Visitors Come to Oaxaca: What to See and Do
My son Jacob (mi hijo) and my daughter-in-law Shelley (mi nuera) came to visit for a week and just returned to Albuquerque last Saturday night. We were not hard-pressed to figure out what to do during their time here. Fortunately for me, daily activities also included some resting time, which I appreciated since they arrived […]
Usually Overlooked, Yagul Archeological Site Offers Stunning Vistas
Along the Pan American Highway from Oaxaca City to Mitla and Hierve El Agua, two popular tourist destinations, lies the seldom visited Yagul archeological site. We know that as the taxis, cars, and vans pass, a guide might point to a faint cave painting on the cliff wall as testimony to an ancient Zapotec group […]
Mezcal and the Labor Shortage in Oaxaca
One of my first outings after settling into my casita in Teotitlan del Valle upon arrival to Oaxaca was to make a visit to weaver Arturo Hernandez in San Pablo Villa de Mitla. Mitla is one of those ancient Zapotec villages where a spectacular archeological site rises from the landscape of wild agave, cactus and […]
Cultural Continuity and Sustainability in Oaxaca’s Tlacolula Valley
I thought it was important for the North Carolina State University Study Abroad students to spend an overnight in an indigenous Zapotec village while they were here in Oaxaca. So, I recommended to Professor Ricardo Hernandez that we include a stay in Teotitlan del Valle as as part of our itinerary. The students were here […]
Japan Regrets Sale: Sake (or Mezcal) Cups
While these are sake cups, they can also be used for mezcal or any sipping liquor or cordial. That’s what I had in mind (mezcal) when I bought them. This first group includes three hand-wrought pewter sake cups bought in Kyoto, Japan from Seikado Studio, the venerable workshop making these things since the Imperial Edo […]
Leftover Rosca de Reyes Bread Pudding Recipe
After about a day, Rosca de Reyes becomes more like dry cake, good for dunking into coffee or hot chocolate, but not so tasty for eating plain. What to do? Make bread pudding, of course. I got a little carried away in the Teotitlan del Valle market and bought three Roscas. They are so pretty. […]
Harvesting Espadin Agave for Mezcal in My Front Yard: Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca
Only in Oaxaca do you wake up to find a guy cutting down agave cactus for mezcal in your front yard, Kalisa Wells told me yesterday morning. Kalisa is house-sitting for me in Teotitlan del Valle while I’m sojourning in Durham, North Carolina. Kalisa is really there to puppy sit until Luz and Sombra come […]
Oaxaca to Durham–Pineapple-Lime Mezcal Cocktail Recipe: Serves Two
Is it a Mezcalini or a Mezcalita? Most of the weight in my checked baggage from Oaxaca, Mexico to Durham, North Carolina, USA was attributed to three bottles of Gracias a Dios mezcal — two of Gin Mezcal and one of Cuixe (also spelled Cuishe, pronounced KWI-SHAY). I had four bottles packed and couldn’t move […]
Take Me to the Source: Gin Mezcal in Matatlan, Oaxaca
Last Thursday was pretty depressing. Not because of Oaxaca safety concerns or traffic or the zocalo encamped by teachers. I got around Oaxaca easily by foot last week. I was depressed because when I got to La Mezcalillera, the purveyor of artesanal mezcal on Calle Murguia in the historic center of Oaxaca in the early […]
Gossip and Morning Refreshment: Following the Abuelitas
This morning I arrive at the daily market early, by 9 a.m. I had chicken soup on my mind and want to make some, so I first stop at a stall where I know that cooking teacher Reyna Mendoza buys her pollo. Criollo, advises the woman standing next to me in the aisle as she […]
Gracias a Dios! Have You Heard of Gin Mezcal?
We hadn’t heard of gin mezcal until the other night at Oaxaca’s Origen restaurant. Our very competent waiter suggested we taste it which was on the menu as a mixed drink. What was it like unadulterated? How could mezcal be gin? Hollie asked. Gracias a Dios is the mezcal brand. That means Thank God. They […]
Agave Beverage of Choice? Aguamiel, Pulque and Mezcal
Here we are in Oaxaca, Mexico, center of the universe for the cultivation, production, distilling and bottling of agave nectar we call mezcal. Mezcal is hot. A hot commodity, that is. I stand corrected! Agave is not a cactus. It is a succulent. Thanks to reader Andrew for bringing this to my attention. I’ve changed […]
San Juan del Rio, Oaxaca: Mezcal on the Mountain
We didn’t start out planning a trip to San Juan del Rio, Oaxaca. It just happened as we moved into the day. Friend Sheri Brautigam, textile designer, collector and Living Textiles of Mexico blogger, is visiting me. After a roundabout through the Teotitlan del Valle morning market, we headed out to San Pablo Villa de […]
Adentro: A Glimpse Inside Puebla, Mexico
The Franciscans created Puebla as the first true (ha, ha) Spanish city in Mexico, building it from the ground up, not on top of destroyed indigenous religious sites as they had a habit of doing. The Paseo Viejo de San Francisco is a cobblestone walking promenade that connects the church named in honor of St. Francis of […]
Mexican vanilla beans, mezcal and chocolate
What to do with a Mexican vanilla bean? Why not a Groucho Marx impersonation? Even though I recommended adding it to a bowl of sugar for flavor. On Friday, we had a Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat mini-reunion at the Oak Leaf Restaurant in Pittsboro, NC. Who? Robin, Debbie, Becky and me. As soon as […]
Six Flight Mezcal Tasting with El Cortijo
The village of Santiago Matatlan bills itself at the mezcal capital of the world. The arch holding the banner welcoming you into town has a copper still on top of it. I’m from North Carolina and in that part of the world the same type of still is used for moonshine. There is no […]
Five Generations of Mezcal Making in Oaxaca
Santiago Matatlan is lined with neat rows of carefully tended agave. They stipple the hilly, fertile fields. The climate is hot and dry, perfect for growing the succulent. Small, artesanal distilleries process the piña (the pineapple or root) of the agave into this stunning liquor. Here, Juan Carlos Mendez Zamora and his brother Raul Mendez Zamora (below, left) […]
King of Mezcals: El Cortijo’s Pechuga de Pollo
You be the judge! Is Pechuga de Pollo (breast of the chicken) distilled by El Cortijo in Santiago Matatlan, Oaxaca, the best of the best? At 1,500 pesos (that’s $118 USD at today’s 12.65 exchange rate) for a 750 ml bottle in fine Mexican restaurants and far more in the U.S.A. (so I’m told by my in-the-know brother-in-law), […]
Mescal at Midnight
All seasons and celebrations in Oaxaca include mescal, the liquor distilled from the pineapple of the agave plant that some consider to be the poor cousin of tequila. During the Day of the Dead, mescal flows. It is sipped from small brandy snifters in finer restaurants or downed in one gulp followed by a beer […]