The Mr. Mezcal Guide

Mezcal 101

What mezcal is, how it is made, and why no two bottles taste alike.

The basics

Mezcal in one minute.

Mezcal is Mexico’s original agave spirit: the roasted heart of the agave plant, fermented and distilled. The name comes from the Nahuatl mexcalli, “oven-cooked agave.” Tequila began as one regional style of it.

100%
Agave, by law. Since the 2016 standard, anything labeled mezcal must be made from agave and nothing else.
89%
Comes from Oaxaca. 89.47% of certified mezcal in 2025. The protected origin covers nine core states.
40
Agave species, roughly. Tequila may use only one. Espadín alone is about 85% of all mezcal.
35–55%
Alcohol by volume. The legal range. All four Mr. Mezcal expressions are bottled at 42%.
91%
Is Mezcal Artesanal. That is Mr. Mezcal’s category. And 95.5% is joven: clear and unaged.

Sources: COMERCAM, Informe Estadístico 2026 (2025 data); NOM-070-SCFI-2016.

Three ideas that explain everything else

The plant. Mezcal tastes of its agave. Different species give different flavors, and some take 25 years to grow.

The fire. The agave is roasted underground over wood and hot stones. That is where the smoke comes from.

The hands. Most mezcal is made in small batches by families at a palenque, not in a factory.

Say it right

mezcal: mes-KAHL
Oaxaca: wah-HAH-kah
maguey: mah-GAY
palenque: pah-LEN-keh
tahona: tah-OH-nah
joven: HOH-ven
Espadín: es-pah-DEEN
Tobalá: toh-bah-LAH
Cuishe: KWEE-sheh
Tepeztate: teh-pes-TAH-teh

How mezcal is made · the traditional method

From field to bottle.

Six steps, done by hand at the palenque. This is how Mr. Mezcal is made, and it is why mezcal tastes the way it does.

Two workers tending agave plants in a field

Grow

6 to 25+ years

The agave stores sugar in its heart until it is ripe. It is harvested once and does not regrow. Time in the field is the biggest cost in every bottle.

Harvest

by hand

A cutter trims off the leaves with a machete or a coa, leaving the heart, called the piña. The round ones come from agaves like Espadín. The long ones are the trunks of karwinskii agaves, the family Cuishe belongs to.

Roast

3 to 5 days

Piñas are piled into an earthen pit, on top of stones heated for hours by a wood fire. Tequila is usually steamed instead, which is the first big difference between the two.

Workers covering a smoking pit oven with agave fiber

Buried to cook

The pile is covered with agave fiber and earth and left to cook slowly underground. The roast turns starch to sugar, and the smoke it soaks up is the smoke you taste in the glass.

A horse beside the stone tahona wheel in its round pit

Mill

1 to 2 days

The cooked agave is crushed under the tahona, a stone wheel pulled by a horse or mule. Slower than a machine, but juice and fiber stay together.

Ferment

4 to 10 days

Juice, fiber and water rest in open wooden vats called tinas. Natural yeast from the air does the work and the weather sets the pace, so no two batches are identical.

A copper pot still with its long arm, beside a pile of spent agave fiber

Distill

twice, 2 to 4 days

Two passes through a small copper pot still over a wood fire. The vapor travels down the long copper arm and turns back to liquid in a tank of cool water.

Mezcal poured from a gourd bowl, showing its bubbles

The cut

The maestro mezcalero keeps only the heart of the run. He judges its strength by the perlas, the bubbles that form when mezcal is poured from a jícara, a gourd bowl.

One batch, after the years in the field: about two to four weeks

Roast
3–5 days
Rest and mill
2–4 days
Ferment
4–10 days
Distill twice
2–4 days

Typical ranges for traditional Oaxacan production. Times change with weather, agave and batch size. Photographs show traditional mezcal production in Oaxaca.

The question everyone asks

Mezcal vs. tequila.

Tequila is one branch of the mezcal family. It was once sold as vino de mezcal de Tequila: the mezcal from the town of Tequila. Today they are two protected spirits with separate rules, and they taste different for three reasons: the agave, the fire and the scale.

Mezcal vs. tequila.	Mezcal	Tequila
Agave	About 40 species can be used, and it must be 100% agave.	Only Blue Weber. May be 100% agave, or “mixto” with as little as 51% agave sugars.
Origin	Oaxaca makes about 89%. Nine core states in the protected region.	Jalisco plus parts of four other states: 181 municipalities.
Cooking	Roasted in an earthen pit over wood and hot stones. This is where the smoke comes from.	Usually steamed in brick ovens or steel autoclaves. Little or no smoke.
Milling	Stone tahona or wooden mallet in traditional production.	Mostly mechanical roller mills. A few distilleries keep a tahona.
Fermenting	Open vats and natural airborne yeast, often with the agave fiber.	Mostly closed steel tanks, often with cultured yeast.
Distilling	Small copper or clay pot stills, one batch at a time.	Pot stills or continuous columns, at far larger scale.
Additives	Joven mezcal is bottled as distilled. Flavored styles must say “abocado.”	Up to 1% sweetener, color, oak extract or glycerin is allowed without label disclosure.
Time to grow	6 to 35 years, depending on the agave.	About 5 to 7 years.
Rulebook	NOM-070, certified by COMERCAM.	NOM-006, certified by the Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT).
Taste	Smoke, earth, mineral, fruit, herbs. It changes with the agave and the village.	Cleaner and sweeter: cooked agave, citrus, pepper; vanilla when barrel-aged.

In one sentence

“Tequila comes from one agave and is usually steamed. Mezcal can come from dozens of agaves, roasted underground over fire, so each bottle tastes of its plant and its place.”

The plant · time is the main ingredient

Why the agave matters.

A grapevine gives fruit every year. An agave gives one harvest in its whole life. The longer it grows and the less it yields, the rarer the mezcal.

Years in the field before harvest

Years

Blue Weber5–7 years
the tequila agave
5–7 years
Espadín6–8 years
Agave angustifolia
6–8 years
Tobalá10–15 years
Agave potatorum
10–15 years
Cuishe12–18 · Mr. Mezcal: 18
Agave karwinskii
12–18 · Mr. Mezcal: 18
Tepeztate25–35 · Mr. Mezcal: 25+
Agave marmorata
25–35 · Mr. Mezcal: 25+

Typical ranges from published agave guides; Mr. Mezcal figures from the producer. Wild plants vary with altitude and rainfall.

What certified mezcal is made from, 2025

Tobalá 1.78%

Espadín 84.53%

All other agaves together: 13.69%

Espadín is the farmed, everyday agave.

Cuishe and Tepeztate do not appear in COMERCAM’s top five agaves, which puts each of them under 1% of production. Source: COMERCAM, Informe Estadístico 2026 (certified production in 2025, at 45% alc. vol.).

Liters of mezcal from one ton of agave

Espadín110–125 L
110–125 L
Tepeztate50–60 L
50–60 L

Source: Aspectos socio-económicos del Agave-Mezcal (2024). Yields vary by batch.

What this means

Farmed or wild. Espadín is planted and sends out pups, so fields can be renewed. Tobalá grows only from seed. Tepeztate grows wild on rocky slopes and cannot be farmed at scale.

One plant, one harvest. Cutting the agave ends its life. A bottle of Tepeztate holds plants that began growing around the year 2000.

Less mezcal per plant. A ton of Tepeztate gives about half the mezcal of a ton of Espadín.

The place and the people · Tlacolula, Oaxaca

Where it comes from.

A large blue-green agave on a hillside in Oaxaca — Agave country in the hills of Oaxaca.

The villages. Mr. Mezcal comes from two mezcal villages in the Tlacolula district of Oaxaca: Santiago Matatlán and San Juan del Río. Oaxaca makes about nine of every ten bottles of mezcal.

The family. One family has made it for three generations. The maestros mezcaleros are Rodolfo, Silverio and Temo. The operation is small on purpose, and nothing is outsourced.

Single-source. Every bottle traces to the family and its own agave. No blending plants, no spirit bought on the open market, no industrial diffusers.

The agave. Espadín is cultivated. Tobalá and Tepeztate are wild agaves, harvested by hand in the hills.

“We are not a marketing company that found a distillery.”

Welcome arch reading “Bienvenidos, San Juan del Río, Tlac., Oax.” — The road into San Juan del Río, Tlacolula, Oaxaca.

Rows of young agave plants in a nursery bed — Young agaves in the nursery, waiting to be planted out.

Mr. Mezcal · four single-agave expressions · joven · 42% ABV

The four expressions.

Each is distilled from one agave variety, so the difference in the glass is the difference between plants.

Espadín

The everyday classic, the bartender’s pour.

Agave angustifolia · cultivated · about 6 to 8 years

The plant

“Little sword,” named for its long, straight leaves. The most planted agave in Oaxaca and a close relative of tequila’s Blue Weber.

In the glass

Nose: Roasted agave, green apple, gentle hearth smoke.
Palate: Round and balanced: cooked pineapple, citrus, light salinity.
Finish: Warm and even, built for cocktails.

Signature cocktail

Mr. Mezcal Margarita

Tobalá

Small, wild, and the judges’ favorite.

Agave potatorum · wild · about 10 to 15 years

The plant

A small, broad-leafed agave of the high, rocky hills. It makes no pups: every plant starts from a seed. Only 1.78% of certified mezcal is Tobalá.

In the glass

Nose: Wild herbs, white flowers, a thread of mineral smoke.
Palate: Bright and delicate: green melon, river stone, soft pepper.
Finish: Long, clean, faintly floral.

Signature cocktail

Flor de Tobalá (honey and lemon)

Recognition

Best Mezcal, Platinum 96/100. Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards 2023.

Cuishe

Eighteen years in the field before the fire.

Agave karwinskii · 18 years to maturity

The plant

Tall and slender, with a woody trunk and a crown of narrow leaves, like a small palm. The trunk is the piña. It gives a dry, mineral mezcal.

In the glass

Nose: Dry earth, fennel, candied citrus peel.
Palate: Vegetal and savory: celery root, mineral, dried herbs.
Finish: Lean, dry, lingering smoke.

Signature cocktail

Cuishe Cucumber Cooler

Tepeztate

The rarest pour, decades in the making.

Agave marmorata · wild · 25+ years

The plant

A big wild agave with broad, wavy leaves that clings to steep, rocky slopes. It cannot be farmed at scale and yields about half the mezcal of Espadín.

In the glass

Nose: Tropical fruit, jalapeño, wet stone.
Palate: Intense and layered: mango, green chile, herbaceous depth.
Finish: Expansive, peppery, unforgettable.

Signature cocktail

Mango Silvestre (mango and lime)

Recognition

Gold Medal, The Fifty Best, New York 2026. Tasted blind.

See all awards →

The authorities · the law behind the label

Who makes the rules.

Mezcal is a protected name, like Champagne or Scotch. Three things stand behind every certified bottle.

The origin

Denomination of Origin (DO)

Since 1994, only spirit from the protected region may be called mezcal. Nine core states: Oaxaca, Guerrero, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Michoacán and Puebla. Parts of a few more states were added from 2018 and have been contested in court. The name belongs to the Mexican state, through IMPI.

The standard

NOM-070-SCFI-2016

The official rulebook, in force since 2017. It requires 100% agave, sets alcohol at 35 to 55%, defines three categories and six classes, and says what every label must show.

The certifier

COMERCAM (the CRM)

The Consejo Mexicano Regulador de la Calidad del Mezcal, founded in 1997. It inspects palenques, certifies batches and publishes the industry’s yearly statistics. Look for the NOM number on the label.

Three categories, defined by how the mezcal is made

Mezcal — Modern methods allowed
Mezcal Artesanal — Traditional · Mr. Mezcal
Mezcal Ancestral — The oldest methods only

Three categories, defined by how the mezcal is made	MezcalModern methods allowed	Mezcal ArtesanalTraditional · Mr. Mezcal	Mezcal AncestralThe oldest methods only
Cooking	Pit oven, masonry oven or autoclave	Pit oven or raised masonry oven	Pit oven only
Milling	Tahona, mill, shredder, roller mill or diffuser	Mallet, tahona, Chilean or Egyptian mill, or shredder	Mallet, tahona, Chilean or Egyptian mill
Fermenting	Wood, masonry or stainless steel tanks	Stone, earth, tree trunk, masonry, wood, clay or animal hide	The same vessels as artesanal
Distilling	Pot stills or continuous columns, in copper or stainless steel	Direct fire, in a copper pot still or a clay pot	Direct fire, in a clay pot with a clay or wood cap

Mr. Mezcal is certified Mezcal Artesanal, the category that covered 91% of certified mezcal in 2025. At each step it uses the most traditional option: pit oven, tahona, open wooden vats and copper stills.

Six classes

Joven or blanco: unaged (all four Mr. Mezcal bottles)
Madurado en vidrio: over 12 months in glass
Reposado: 2 to 12 months in wood
Añejo: over 12 months in wood
Abocado con: flavored after distilling (worm, fruit)
Destilado con: distilled with added ingredients

What a certified label tells you

The category: Mezcal, Artesanal or Ancestral
The class: joven, reposado, añejo and so on
“100% maguey” or “100% agave”
The agave it was made from
The state where it was produced
Alcohol, lot and the producer’s NOM number

What is in the bottle

Nothing added.

100% agave.

Agave and water are the only raw materials.

No additives.

Nothing is added to sweeten, color, flavor or change the texture.

Naturally grown agave.

The family farms its own fields, and the wild agaves grow on their own in the hills.

Made by hand.

Roasted in an earthen pit, crushed by tahona, fermented in open wooden vats, distilled twice in copper.

Single-source.

Every bottle traces to the family that made it. No bought-in spirit and no blending plants.

Unaged.

It is joven, so what you taste is the agave and not a barrel.

Mezcal is a spirit, bottled here at 42% ABV, and it is made to be sipped slowly. We make no health claims about it.

At the table

How to taste and serve it.

Mezcal shows itself in the glass. A small, unhurried pour does more than any description.

Five steps

1
Pour small. Half an ounce, neat, at room temperature. No ice, no lime, no shot glass.
2
Look. Swirl the glass and watch the “pearls,” the bubbles that show its strength.
3
Smell twice. Lips slightly apart. The first sniff is alcohol; the second is the agave.
4
Kiss it. Mezcal is sipped in “besitos,” little kisses. The first sip wakes the mouth, the second shows the flavor.
5
Take your time. Notice how the flavor changes between the first sip and the last.

Taste in this order

1
Espadín
round
2
Tobalá
floral
3
Cuishe
dry
4
Tepeztate
intense

LightestMost intense

From lightest to most intense, so every glass can still be heard.

Glass and sides

The traditional cups are the clay copita, the jícara (a dried gourd) and the veladora, a small ribbed glass. A small wine glass works too.
Orange slices with sal de gusano, salt ground with chile and toasted agave worm, are the classic side.

Four signature cocktails

Espadín: Mr. Mezcal Margarita
Tobalá: Flor de Tobalá, with honey and lemon
Cuishe: Cuishe Cucumber Cooler
Tepeztate: Mango Silvestre, with mango and lime

The three rare expressions show best neat.

See all cocktails →

Five myths, five answers

“Where’s the worm?”: Good mezcal never had one. The worm was a marketing idea from around 1950, used on cheap bottles.
“It’s all smoke.”: Smoke is one note among many. Try the Tobalá: floral, delicate, barely smoky.
“It’s just strong tequila.”: Different agaves, different cooking, different rules. At 42%, Mr. Mezcal is close to the strength of most tequila.
“Mezcal has mescaline.”: No relation. Mescaline comes from the peyote cactus. Mezcal comes from agave.
“Aged is better.”: Not here. Most fine mezcal is joven. The age is in the plant, not in a barrel.

The vocabulary

Words to know.

An agave (maguey) and its parts

Diagram of an agave with its quiote, penca, piña and hijuelo marked

1
Quiote: the flower stalk
2
Penca: a leaf
3
Piña: the heart
4
Hijuelo: a pup

The plant

Agave or maguey.: The same plant. Maguey is the everyday Mexican word. It is a succulent, not a cactus.
Piña.: The heart of the agave once the leaves are cut off. It is the only part that is cooked.
Quiote.: The flower stalk. An agave flowers once, at the end of its life, and then dies.
Hijuelo.: A “pup,” a clone that sprouts beside the mother plant. Espadín spreads this way. Tobalá does not.
Silvestre.: Wild: an agave that grew on its own instead of being planted.

Young agave pups pulled up for replanting — Hijuelos: agave pups pulled up for replanting.

The place and the people

Palenque.: In Oaxaca, the traditional mezcal distillery: small, open-air and usually family-run, with the pit oven, tahona, vats and stills in one yard.
Maestro mezcalero.: The master distiller. The craft passes down in families; at Mr. Mezcal, through three generations.
Tahona.: The large stone wheel, pulled by a horse or mule, that crushes roasted agave in a round stone pit.
Horno.: The oven. For traditional mezcal, a cone-shaped pit in the ground lined with stones.
Bagazo.: The crushed agave fiber. It ferments with the juice and is later used to cover the pit oven.

A stone tahona wheel crushing roasted agave, with a horse behind — The tahona at work: a stone wheel, pulled by a horse, crushing roasted agave.

A pile of dark brown roasted agave hearts — Piñas after roasting: brown, soft and sweet, ready for the tahona.

The process

Tina.: The open wooden vat where the crushed agave ferments.
Tepache.: The fermented agave mash, before it is distilled.
Alambique.: The copper pot still.
Ordinario.: The weak spirit from the first distillation. The second pass turns it into mezcal.
Puntas, corazón, colas.: Heads, heart and tails: the first, middle and last parts of a run. The heart is the part that is kept.
Perlas.: “Pearls”: the bubbles that form when mezcal is shaken or poured. Maestros read them to judge its strength.

The bottle

Joven or blanco.: Unaged and clear, bottled as it came off the still. All four Mr. Mezcal expressions are joven.
Artesanal.: The legal category for mezcal made by traditional methods.
Single-agave.: Made from one agave variety, so the plant’s own character comes through. A blend of agaves is an ensamble.
NOM.: Norma Oficial Mexicana, an official standard. The NOM number on a label identifies the certified producer.
DO.: Denomination of Origin: the protected region where mezcal may legally be made.

At the table

Copita, jícara, veladora.: The clay cup, the gourd bowl and the small ribbed glass used for sipping.
Besitos.: “Little kisses.” Mezcal is sipped slowly, never shot.
Sal de gusano.: Salt ground with chile and toasted agave worm, served with orange slices.

How a still works

Fire heats the fermented mash in the pot. The alcohol turns to vapor, rises into the cap and runs down the arm to a coil cooled by water, where it becomes liquid again. Doing this twice concentrates and cleans the spirit.

The still, piece by piece

A copper still cap above a wood fire — **The pot.** Copper, set over a wood fire. Mr. Mezcal is distilled in copper.

A copper arm running from the still into a tank of water — **The arm.** Vapor leaves the copper cap and runs down to a tank of cool water.

A metal condenser coil inside a water tank — **The coil.** Called the serpentín. Cooled by the water, the vapor turns back to liquid.

A clay pot still with a pan of cooling water on top — **For comparison.** A clay pot still, the method required for Mezcal Ancestral.

Sources and further reading

Where this comes from.

The authorities

NOM-070-SCFI-2016. Bebidas alcohólicas, Mezcal, Especificaciones. Mexico’s official mezcal standard, in force since 2017.
COMERCAM. Consejo Mexicano Regulador de la Calidad del Mezcal. Informe Estadístico 2026 (2025 data). comercam-dom.org.mx
IMPI. Declaration of protection for the Denomination of Origin Mezcal, 28 November 1994, and later amendments.
NOM-006-SCFI-2012 and the CRT. The tequila standard and the Consejo Regulador del Tequila. crt.org.mx

Research

Foods 14 (2025), article 1408. “Mezcal: A Review of Chemistry, Processing, and Potential.”
Aspectos socio-económicos del Agave-Mezcal (2024). Yields per ton of Espadín and Tepeztate.

Books

Emma Janzen. Mezcal: The History, Craft & Cocktails of the World’s Ultimate Artisanal Spirit (2017).
Ron Cooper with Chantal Martineau. Finding Mezcal (2018).
Sarah Bowen. Divided Spirits: Tequila, Mezcal, and the Politics of Production (2015).
Gary Paul Nabhan and David Suro Piñera. Agave Spirits: The Past, Present, and Future of Mezcals (2023).
John McEvoy. Holy Smoke! It’s Mezcal! (2014).

Guides and reference sites

Mezcalistas. Encyclopedia of mezcal terms, NOM-070 and agave species. mezcalistas.com
Mezcal Reviews. Agave and producer database.
Difford’s Guide. Varieties of agave used in mezcal production.
Whisky Advocate. Tequila 101 and agave glossary (2025).

About the numbers. Statistics are the latest published as of October 2026. Agave ages and process times are typical ranges and vary by batch. Photographs show traditional mezcal production in Oaxaca.

Now taste it.

Four agaves, four flavors, one family.

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