Airbnb Experiences came through with an amazing tour of traditional pre-Hispanic family owned Mezcal distilleries. There are three diff kinds of distilleries- ancestral (traditional & authentic), artisanal (trying to replicate the original process w/ nuanced techniques) and industrial (big companies valuing quantity over quality). The town of Santa Catarina Minas is one of the only places left that practices ancestral distilling & there are roughly 28 distilleries in a town of 3,000.
We caught a bus to take us a few hours out of town and then were dropped off on the side of the road and picked up by a pick-up truck soon after for the final stretch of our journey to the agave farms.
Tequila & Mezcal both come from the Agave plant but while Tequila can only be made from blue agave in a few varieties, Mezcal can be made from many different types of agave, creating over 80 different kinds of finished Mezcal.
We learned so many fascinating things about the process and you'll see the whole smoking process photographed below.
To smoke the agave hearts (called pineapples). they build a huge fire in a pit using volcanic coal. Once the fire is hot enough, they cover it in a layer of already processed agave heart fibers (from the last distilling process). They they begin layering on the split agave hearts. Then add another layer of fibers which is then covered by a large tarp. This is then completely covered by sand. And once covered, it smokes for 5 days.
We got to watch that process take place and then walked across the street to another family distillery to see the fermentation & distilling steps explained.
The smoked pieces of agave heart rest for 10-15 days after the 5 day smoking process. Then the fermentation and distilling process takes 1 week during which two people switch on and off, closely monitoring it round the clock and only take power naps.
It was such an amazing experience and they also served us the most phenomenal mole for lunch! What a treat!
Another back-of-the-pick-up truck & bus ride back dropped us in the heart of the city right next to one of the best taco stands. 5 delicious, steaming hot street tacos for $3 U.S. dollars- you can't beat that!
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