šŸŖ¶ Tasting Philosophies

Mezcal Lounge Tasting Room
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Get more out of any mezcal experience by keeping these phrases in mind.

Context Matters

  • Tasting is most potent when done intentionally and your active choices about the who, what, where, why, and how of your mezcal experiences will resonate for much longer than the buzz. Be mindful of your drinking environment and allow yourself to be biased by it; warm like-minded company will do more for you than an expensive bottle.

  • Mezcal offers a cultural backdrop that layers into the spirit in ways that you might convince yourself you can taste, and the best answers are usually the half-baked ones that leave you with more questions than you started with. Set some expectations for your mezcal experiences to get more out of them, and share your insights sooner rather than later.

Let Go of Perfection

  • You donā€™t need much to be a good mezcal drinker or enthusiast. Youā€™re likely to lose sight of one quality in pursuit of another while searching for the right answers or a well-labelled palate, so focus on enjoying mezcal first. Inform your preferences by exploring various agaves, regions, and processes. Learn about how the producers refer to these things in their own words and consider rooting your vocabulary in theirs.

  • Flavor wheels can be fun, especially when you start connecting flavors to certain aspects of mezcalā€™s production like funky to fermentation, or the flavor identities of certain agave species. Ask your company what they taste and do your best to connect with their experience. Some flavors are straightforward and easy to identify while others are complex and difficult to grasp. Your ability to navigate them has nothing to do with your ability to appreciate mezcal.

Credit The Makers

  • Sometimes the mezcaleroā€™s expertise is so unique that the flavors captured within his mezcal can only be attributed to his personal presence; the ā€˜hand of the mezcaleroā€™. So much of mezcalā€™s quality is influenced by how it was made, who made it, where they did their work, and what motivates them to do that work. Even if you canā€™t accurately label the nuances or donā€™t prefer the intensity of a bold mezcal, you can tell the difference between Vida and Lalocura when tasted side-byā€“side. Do your best to account for that difference, pay your respects, and give credit where itā€™s due.

  • Tasting intentionally can make a mezcal experience more meaningful, even if the meaning is abstract and subjective. Youā€™re more likely to consider and respect a sip that you take slowly. This can have an effect all the way to the producer if you begin to measure the value of your experiences by their outcome and not by their price.

What do you think of while sipping mezcal?