Whatever the Cocktail, They’re Ordering It With Mezcal

Ah, the good ole days, before some Grinch bought all the distribution rights to the best mezcals - the drink of the people - Dos Gusano and Gusano Rojo for example. small batch, locally, humbly and hand made - finer than the best scotch in my not so humble opinion and under $20 bottle. Mix it. shoot it? Not in mi casa. Small sips to savor the traditional flavor of smoky, smooth excellence. They took the affordable excellent stuff off the market so they could sell their higher priced gasoline as good. It is sometimes suitable for a sparkling margarita but not so much for sipping. Greed - the killer of the simple pleasures. Please, charge twice as much but bring back my favs!

Lemmings. All of them lemmings. look, this is just a trend. And people are lemmings or sheep, or (insert other dumb herding animal). And old fashion is meant to be made with whiskey. That may seem conservative and, well, old fashioned, but it is what it is. Flan is made with eggs, cheese cake with cream cheese, and old fashions with whiskey. If you want a drink with mezcal, fine, but it's not an old fashioned.

Oh Boy, Today one finds a manufacturer that claims his most expensive tequila is worth USD $3,500,000 [no typo!] a bottle. Oaxaca, get ready . . .

What happened to rye and ginger and whisky sours?

A Negroni made with mezcal rather than gin and a Boulevardier with mezcal instead of whiskey are the same thing, since a Boulevardier is just a Negroni made with whiskey rather than gin.

Distinction without a difference, I'd say. They all pretty much taste like paint thinner. But if you like your paint thinner with smoke....

I well rest easy tonight knowing that hipsters in Brooklyn have now discovered mezcal.

Isn’t a Boulevardier with mezcal really a negroni with mezcal?

I can still recall my very first sip of mescal taken straight from the bottle with the then typical worm floating in it the bottom. The mezcal was supposedly going to take the edge off an all night bus ride from the Guatemalan Border to Mexico City. I didn't take more than a sip as the worm was a little too exotic for a gringo girl like me. Fast forward to 2018 my Rancho de La Luna neighbors have launched a "high end" mezcal sans worm.

What's a bartender? I thought they were called "mixologists" now?

Many years ago my wife and I and our young children would travel during winter to a small fishing village on the west coast of Mexico where we stayed in a little mud brick palapa on the beach for $60/month room rent. Every morning as we made breakfast in the open air communal kitchen attached to the building the fishermen next door, having returned from their early morning labors, would bring us over a large tumbler filled with mezcal to help us get the day "started" right! The small "tienda" in the village sold the fiery liquid from a big glass jug behind the counter. 2 Pesos a dipper! Ahhh, Mexico.

I brought a case of the stuff back from Mexico in the mid '70's. Each had a little plastic bag of salt taped to the neck. It had the viscosity of kerosene . Kerosene would have tasted better.

A friend returned from Mexico over 40 years ago with several bottles of mezcal, one for each of his lucky friends. Mine--they were all different--was bottled in a squat thick glass container that must have been, originally, some type of commercial product. The worm at the bottom was quite dead, The corked cap fit awkwardly, but did the job. My friend said he bought the bottle(s) at a road side stand from a farmer. I will always remember my first sip. The liquid--a pale brown--was amazingly smooth as I swallowed, but exploded in my stomach, like a controlled but violent fire, and then my entire body took on a comforting warm glow. Haven't experienced anything like it since. But, I've collected mezcal for several decades and understood that other types of alcohol just won't do when in search of a special moment. Yeah. Good stuff.

Wait till they find Bacanora, the moonshine of Sonora. It’s an order of magnitude more satisfying than the other agave distillates.

This is both great news and bad news. The great part is that this small batch artisanal spirit made by Mexican families is getting recognized, the downside is that it is not sustainable on a large scale. Most varieties of agave used for mezcal production grow in the wild and need at least a decade or more to grow to harvestable size. Go Rochester for being a trendsetter though, the local food and drink scene is amazing!

Will definitely be trying the Mezcal Corpse Reviver. Tooker Alley does a nice Last Word variation, Last of the Oaxacans, with mulled serrano chilies. Mezcal also works great as a split base for a Rosita .75oz Mezcal .75oz Tequila .5oz Sweet Vermouth .5oz Dry Vermouth .5oz Campari Stir until well chilled and serve up in a coup or Nick & Nora style glass