Take the Bad with Mezcal

After the fall of Mexico Tenochtitlan,  the supplies of Spanish wines and spirits that the conquistadors brought with them ran out, so they had to resort to local ingredients and create new liquors

Meanwhile, the technologies introduced to Mexico during the 16th century, such as the alembic, the stone mill, glass bottles, cork stoppers and wooden barrels helped create the Mexican distillate industry.

 Thus, the consumption of mezcal spirit spread throughout New Spain, and the drinks were differentiated according to the regions where they were produced. The fame of Mezcal spirits, especially that of the region of Tequila, finally reached Mexico City.

Then a new drink was made: Mezcal, an agave spirit with Appellation of Origin whose production is guaranteed by the Consejo Regulador de la Calidad del Mezcal A.C. (Mezcal Quality Regulation Council). 

Certain peculiarities in the production of mezcal distinguish it from tequila and other agave spirits. To produce mezcal, any cultivated or wild species of the Agave genus, of the Agavaceae family, can be used.

The mezcal production areas comprise several municipalities in the states of Oaxaca, Durango, Guerrero, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Tamaulipas, Michoacán, Guanajuato and Puebla.

The most used species are: Agave angustifolia, also called Espadín and Agave potatorum, also known as Tobalá. Other species used are: Agave tequilana weber, Agave marmorata, Agave americana, Agave cupreata, Agave salmiana or Agave karwinskii.

Tequila mezcal is a world-renowned Mexican drinks for its intense flavor. One of the main peculiarities of this type of mezcal is that it can only be made with a species of agave known as agave azul.

Casa Cuervo is the oldest tequila producing company. José Antonio Cuervo began the cultivation of mezcal, as well as the production of agave spirits in the Cofradía de las Ánimas de Tequila in the 18th century.

His sons José Prudencio de Cuervo and José María Guadalupe de Cuervo established the foundations of the company. In 1795, José Guadalupe was granted the Cédula Real signed by the King of Spain, which granted permission for the production and marketing of Tequila spirits.

In the mid-19th century, Casa Cuervo began to use glass bottles for its products, since previously they only used wooden barrels. The name Casa Cuervo was established in the Porfiriato period (1970-1910) and remains to this day.

Casa Sauza was founded in 1873 by Cenobio Sauza. This house introduced many innovations to the production processes of tequila, such as the tower distillate in 1888, the use of exclusive blue agave in 1890 and the first export of tequila to Texas in 1873.

Tequila is the best known of the agave spirits, however in Mexico there are many more distillates. Sometimes it is difficult to identify their differences, since there are common points throughout their history.

Until recently, the name mezcal was used to refer to any type of agave spirit in a generic way.

However, he evolution of manufacturing processes has differentiated  these two drinks, so it is possible that in the future there will be other designations.

Still, it is clear that both are products with different characteristics, qualities, production regions, raw materials and  processes.