Keep in mind:
This guidance is OPTIONAL. Use it for your own mezcal experiences, not to tell others how to enjoy their mezcal. You don’t need these things to be a “good” mezcal drinker or enthusiast.
Bottom Line:
Mezcal is alcohol. You have your relationship to alcohol, let others have theirs. Try to talk about it if it’s unhealthy or doesn’t fit mezcal.
Secondary Line:
Mezcal tastes good, so ask yourself if you like the sip or not. This is good enough for the majority of people, including most mezcal producers.
If you want more depth, this guide covers a wide range of topics from general tasting best practices to mezcal specifics. You can use these tips to just enjoy mezcal more, or to build your palate by tasting mezcal intentionally.
General:
Mezcal:
The 4 Cs of Learning (variations, standards)
- Companions
- Comparisons
- Categories
- Coach
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There are more layers of understanding that people can work towards if they want to. None is better than another but some do require more depth than others. Nobody needs to move up the ladder either, but the understanding is there if you want it.
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Identify a preference. “I like it” or “I don’t like it”. This is where most people are, it’s the easiest layer to ‘get’, and it’s all that most people consider when they buy almost anything. Comparing things is tricky since your personal preferences might be divisive with someone else’s, but doing so is a necessary evil if you want to know more about whatever you consume.
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Identify a difference. “This is sweeter, that’s stronger” etc. Putting the flavor differences between examples into words is important if you want to understand or share your reasoning for your preferences.
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Identify specific notes. Vanilla, Herbal, Funky, Floral, etc. Any specific labels are completely personal and based on your memory of previous experiences that you’ve had. A lot of people get this part wrong, thinking that notes need to be ‘right’ or agreed upon. They don’t. Getting good at this also isn’t the best you can do.
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Identity the flavor sources. A vanilla flavor is likely to have come from barrel-aging (or additives), herbal flavors from the agave, and funkiness from fermentation. Knowing these sources would help you pick one bottle or another off a shelf without having tried them, assuming that the brands are forthcoming with the details of their production.
Compared to most other tasty things, mezcal has a big hump called alcohol that can be pretty intense and will also cloud your judgement after a certain point. It’s best to account for that, but there are some unrelated things that you can keep in mind before, during, and after your tasting sessions that will enhance the experience. The following are things I’ve picked up from the mezcal community, general tasting staples, and some stuff I’ve learned after seeing what worked for others during one of my many mezcal tastings. Some examples are specifically good for mezcal while others are good for palate building in general. All of it can be useful in the right setting.
Before you taste any mezcal, think about how you’ve chosen this bottle or come to a place that it’s being offered. The things you taste will easily be missed or meaningless without consideration, so choose it and talk to yourself or your company a bit about why you made this choice. If you didn’t choose the mezcal, hopefully the person sharing it with you or the branding on the bottle can give you some context as to how it came to be; these stories do lend themself to the experience.
Sometimes it’s best for us to allow ourselves to be biased by the qualities of the experience other than taste. Warm company. Fellow curious minds. Halfbaked answers that leave you with more questions than you started with. A cultural backdrop that layers into the spirit in ways that we might convince ourselves we can taste.
Tasting is most potent when done intentionally. Part of that intention is setting an expectation for the experience by doing some things very much on purpose rather than retroactively figuring them out some years down the line after a series of happy accidents. That’s okay too, it just takes longer.
The best learning environments would have these four things to some capacity. They are easy for me to remember as the 4 C’s: Compare, Companions, Categorize, Coach. You don’t need them all and it would be overkill if you try to do all four all the time, but here we go:
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Compare: Make direct comparisons with multiple examples. Tasting more than one mezcal at a time is huge.
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Companions: Taste with peers, ideally at the same time but sharing notes later works too.
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Categorize: Apply a framework to your understanding, like a flavor wheel, tasting sheet, template, or format.
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Coach: Ask questions of the people who know more than you do, either about the flavors or about the mezcal.
Smell before you sip, from different distances. Bring the mezcal towards your nose slowly, sniffing lightly until you can perceive smells. Sometimes this happens as soon as the mezcal is poured, before I even think to smell for it. The alcohol can overpower the other smells if you rush in without a warmup. Another way to isolate the smells would be to evaporate the alcohol with a hand rub. This practice is popular with whiskey; you pour a few drops into your hand, rub them around like you’re spreading oil on your palms, then once they’re almost dry bury your face into your palms with a deep inhale. This can separate the congeners from the alcohol, of which there are many to be enjoyed within mezcal.
When sipping the first drops, sip the mezcal like you would a hot tea or coffee. Breathe over that sip with a big inhale then exhale, to help the alcohol evaporate more quickly. The little sip is to allow your mouth and tongue to get over the initial shock of the intensity of the mezcal, especially if you aren’t used to drinking spirits neat. In Mexico the saying goes, “Besos de mezcal”, or ‘kiss the mezcal’. The point is that you take your time with it, and patiently consider the flavors.
You’re in. Now what?
Why taste one at a time when you can taste two? The value of comparative tasting cannot be understated. This the standard tasting practice in every industry that considers the flavor of its’ products. Taking note of the difference between examples is rewarding for everyone, even people who might’ve not yet developed their palate enough to understand the flavors well enough to name them. Everyone can say “this one is more/less something”, or state a preference for one or the other. Going back and forth between samples is the best way to compare, and your preference for one or the other will become apparent as you allow the flavors from one experience to overlap with the other.
This is the right time to talk to your company about what you’re all tasting. Using colorful flavor vocabulary can be useful to inspire the palate of another person, but it’s not important. I find it more useful to state a preference for this or that, and where you think that preference is coming from. What’s ‘good’ about each? Bad? What do you know about the mezcal’s backstory or process that might be affecting that flavor? Consider if this word on the label or step in the process might be relevant to the flavor you’re picking up on. Separate the layers of the tasting experience. How does the nose differ from the first impression, or from what lingers? Maybe one of those aspects is more inspiring in one pour vs the other.
Take notes! Part of building a palate is eventually having the ability to accurately label your sensory experience. Accuracy is best judged by your tasting peers. Are they pickin up what you’re puttin down? You would be surprised by how often someone is new to mezcal (or even doesn’t like it!) but can apply a very well-labeled sense of taste or smell to it. Anyone can be aware of the subtleties even if they don’t know where those flavors are coming from or what to call them. It just takes practice. An easy template for notes would just be to document the details of your experience. What information on the mezcal is available to you, like brand name, mezcalero, agave, where it’s from, or how it was made? Write that shit down. If you’re dedicated to this process, you’ll have a little stack of references in no time. You might even have a realization like, “Whoa, I preferred the last 5 clay distillations that I tried, I think I might like that method more than copper.” Then you might know better what bottle you’d like to try next.
If you have the chance, having an intentional tasting experience is great to do while sitting at an agave bar. The people around you are often curious as well, and many are looking to have meaningful conversations about mezcal. Some of them, like the bartender or manager, might know more than you do about the mezcal being poured. Asking questions is a great way to find a possible mentor or coach for the session, someone who can point you in the right direction for your future preferences. Oh you liked that agave? Try this bottle that uses the same agave, but with an entirely different process! These references will stick in your memory the best when you as the drinker can draw sensible lines of understanding from one example to the next. A good coach will not only give good references, but also help you draw these lines.
You’ve done all the things, your cup is dry, and you can’t tell which is tilted: you or the room. What’s next?
How was the tasting? Did you get out of it what you were looking for and then some? How might’ve it been better? Consider the quality of your environment or company; if either wasn’t working for you maybe try a change of pace or scenery next time. Does your tasting buddy engage with and consider the mezcal in the same way that you would like to? I have never set myself up for failure harder than when I wanted an intentional tasting and my roommate just wanted to get drunk. The same can be said of a person that just wants to show off the specificity of their palate knowledge, but isn’t interested in whether their company is having a good time while they do it.
For my own tastings, I don’t attempt to train the labels for my palate. I only work to inform my preferences. I know my favorite agave. I know that I love a single distillation refrescadera, and how the flavors will differ after a second distillation. I know how aging in glass will soften the sharpest edges of what could have otherwise been an aggressive and unapologetic mezcal. I do my best to understand these things on their own terms, and keep my own flavor vocabulary rooted in the words that mezcaleros use to refer to their mezcal.
I see how flavor wheels are fun though, and I provide one and participate in them when I’m hosting tastings. I usually let my company share their palate, and try to inform them of what aspect that particular flavor might be coming from. Some of the flavors are easy to identify and point in the right direction. Others are difficult to grasp. Sometimes the mezcalero’s expertise is so unique that the qualities within his mezcal can only be attributed to his personal presence, the ‘hand of the mezcalero’.
Mezcal is something where so much of the quality of the drink 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 we can’t accurately label the nuances, or don’t have a personal preference for the intense thrill of a bold mezcal, everyone can tell the difference between Vida and Lalocura when tasted side by side. There is a difference. Let’s do our best to account for it, pay our respects, and give credit where it is due.
My friend and I had a bottle share recently! I hadn’t seen him in a while and since then his collection has expanded exponentially. I was already looking forward to catching up with an old friend and fellow agave guide/enthusiast. I was then blown away by his generosity, initial openings, and range of bottles to try. We let the flow of conversation dictate the order of the bottles over the course of 6+ hours, allowing ourselves to meander through the topic of mezcal and our place in the industry. The following recollections are numbered in the order they were sampled, from left to right, and bottom to top.
For this and almost all of my tastings I use a clay copita, the very same that I brought back from my first trip to Oaxaca that has since held some hundreds of pours. These unglazed vessels remain porous and ‘drink with you’, literally soaking up the liquid and inherent flavors of the mezcal. They become cool to the touch as the mezcal evaporates from their outer surface, noticeably heavier during use as the mezcal permeates through their material, and slightly darker with a ring on the outside that follows the meniscus of the inner pour. This cup retains some flavors from all previous mezcales it has held, and I will often take a chance to draw in a breath to savor the nose in passing.
As a result of using my copita many of the particular details from one pour to the next are quite literally lost; I am ok with this and I find the use of the copita to be a charming part of the tasting experience that reminds me of Oaxaca; being poured indiscriminate amounts of some of my favorite producer’s mezcal, by the producer themself. Unreal. They never had any concern or consideration for the other 2 or 3 palenques that I planned to visit that day, and with only one copita, I had to finish what I was given before I could try more. It was an irreplaceable chance to humble myself on labeling the experience of my senses. I didn’t have time, and often quickly, I didn’t have the right state of mind to capture all of the details. I learned to let those details go, as there was so much more to enjoy. For these and other reasons I will only include the boldest, most relevant tasting notes and avoid giving any ratings. The majority of my energy will (and often does) instead focus on sharing my understanding of the story of how the mezcal came to be. ¡Salud!
There isn’t really a ‘proper’ way, it’s just that different cup shapes serve different purposes. Some vessels are traditional and the same that the mezcaleros and their communities use, while others are meant to enhance the tasting experience with their shape or material. As has been said, an orange slice is best used as a palate cleanser in between different mezcales; the acidity of the orange will dissipate that of the mezcal. Of course this isn’t necessary.
Traditional drinking cups are just what the mezcalero’s communities have historically had available. There are a few different types called copitas, vaso veladoras, and jicaras. Copitas can be made of either clay (unglazed or glazed) or glass. Glazed clay, glass, and stone all function in essentially the same way since they are not porous and don’t interact with the liquid or have their own smell. Unglazed clay smells like clay and the mezcal slowly soaks into it. These are my favorite, but I’ll come back to them later. Traditional vaso veladoras are the little glass cups that are left after a candle is burned. The cross on the bottom is a reference to their source as part of someone’s spiritual practice, with the candle being lit during religious ceremony. Jicaras are hollowed out gourds, hard shells that slightly soak up the mezcal and are known to ‘drink with you’.
Then there are cups whose first priority is the quality or purity of the tasting experience. The most common are either a glencairn or a tequila tasting glass, but there is a relative newcomer called a jarrito made exclusively by Chisholm. All of them have two things in common: They are made of glass, which is inert and doesn’t interact with the liquid (unlike unglazed clay or jicaras), and their shape can be generalized to having an opening that is smaller than the bowl. This shape is intended to focus or channel the nose of the liquid’s wider surface area in the bowl directly into your nose, intensifying the experience and allowing you a better chance to note the details of the experience.
I like to use a combination of these considerations by using a traditional cup that has both smell and flavor enhancing qualities. The unglazed clay copitas that I referenced above accomplish the widest range of these aspects: They are made in Oaxaca by clay artisans, they are unglazed so they interact with and retain the flavors of the mezcal even after they are emptied, and their shape enhances the experience by channeling the smells into my nose. I love how they will continue to smell like mezcal for weeks after sipping from them, and that I get to support Oaxacan artists by buying directly from them. Here’s a little something that I wrote about the experience of the unglazed clay copita; how it makes me feel and think in ways that other vessels do not:
Aging in wooden barrels has a historical precedent from global trade in the 1800’s for storage, transportation, and distribution. At that time, the only version of mezcal that had enough product volume to meet global market demands was tequila. Since then, spirit producers and consumers have found the flavors of wood-aging desirable but that process comes with a pretty steep caveat: Whatever flavors the unaged spirit already had when entering the barrel will slowly be traded for barrel flavors over time.
For most of the spirits in the world (there are some exceptions), the barrel gives more flavor than it takes because the unaged spirit doesn’t have much range or variance in its flavors to begin with. This isn’t the case with mezcal though, where the spectrum of flavor often varies wildly right out of the still from one bottle, producer, town, or agave to the next.
On top of this, mezcal didn’t have enough production volume to necessitate the storage, transportation, or distribution that other global spirit categories require; at least until its regulation was published in 1994. Mezcal has had the potential to participate in the global spirits market for only the last 30 years or so, compared to multiple centuries for tequila and other spirit categories.
Mezcal does have a historical precedent of glass aging though. Mezcal production was illegal for decades and producers would bury jugs of their distillates to hide it from visiting authorities. This process settles the most volatile aromas, leaving a distillate that smells much less strong than it actually is. If the flavors do change at all, they do so very slowly. I’ve only ever noticed unique glass-aged flavors with mezcales that were resting for more than a decade.