“Well National Mezcal Day seems like as good of a day as any to start a little ‘Round The World’ Cocktail series.” And that, which I wrote on Instagram, is how it started a year and a half ago. It was October 2020, month 8 of a pandemic that didn’t seem like it was going anywhere anytime soon. I had built a career in travel, as a writer, photographer, and content strategist, and well if this is your first pandemic like it was mine, or if you’d read Station Eleven, then you know that travel is typically the first thing to go. Some people immediately took up bread baking, language learning, instrument playing, or home bartending, but I evidently sat with the reality of this new normal. And then on National Mezcal Day, I decided to put my nerdiness, travel knowledge, cocktail making, and photo skills to use. What I thought may turn into a few weeks and a handful of cocktails and Instagram posts about the history of said cocktails, has now turned into some 75 weeks and 20 posts.
So, considering Instagram’s word count limitations, and since like the Energizer Bunny, this series has kept going and going, I’ve decided to start posting some of the stories and photos from my Instagram drink series onto my website. If you want to see the entire series, head over to my Instagram page, @spencerspellman. Continue reading for the first iteration, about one of my favorite spirits, mezcal, with some additional commentary from yours truly.
While this was originally published on National Mezcal Day in 2020, it seemed fitting to publish ahead of Cinco de Mayo this year. Though Cinco de Mayo in America often has appearances of a boisterous affair involving margaritas and tequila shots, I like to shed a light on some of Mexico’s lesser-known spirits and flavors.
While I’m not going to get started on why there’s a National Mezcal Day in America for a spirit rooted in Mexico, I am going to share about one of my favorite spirits, and what I think is the most interesting spirit in the world. In short, mezcal refers to spirits distilled from agave. Tequila then is technically a type of mezcal. But tequila can only be made by blue agave (and distilled in specific Mexico states). A majority of mezcal is made with the Espadin species of agave (and often made in the state of Oaxaca), but there are more than 200 species of agave (though many aren’t able to be distilled into mezcal).
The species of agave, combined with the terroir of the region its grown, creates a wide range of flavors across different mezcals. Families and villages for hundreds of years have taken part in the traditional method of distilling mezcal, in which agave is roasted in earthen wood-fired pits and then the agave juice is distilled in copper pot stills. Hence the “smoky” flavor profile. I’ll never forget being on the Oaxaca coastline a few years ago, in Puerto Escondido, and walking down the town’s main drag when a restaurant owner excitedly pulled me off the sidewalk and brought me into his open-air restaurant overlooking the Pacific in order to try his uncle’s mezcal. I kid you not, the label on the bottle was clip art. But I don’t know if I’ve met someone who was so excited and proud to share with me a taste of something that their family had made.
I’ve discovered a similar sense of passion and pride from others I’ve met who are involved in mezcal’s production. This includes Fausto Zapata, co-founder of El Silencio, who I met years ago in L.A. What began as a quick meet-and-greet with El Silencio’s PR agency, which years later would employ me, evolved into a mezcal and taco tour of the Hollywood bars that carried El Silencio. It’s one of my favorite nights out in L.A. Later, while living in Sonoma County, I met Sal Chavez, of La Luna Mezcal, at the Wine Country Distillery Festival, as he passionately shared about La Luna’s expressions of mezcal. It’s stories like these that have drawn me so much to Latin American food, drinks, and culture.
The history, uniqueness, process, and family nature of mezcal all makes it one of my favorite spirits. I love how in Mexico I’ve often had it served to me in small clay copitas alongside orange slices topped with ground pepper, and in some cases served with worm salt and/or crickets (yes, seriously). So for National Mezcal Day, I created this mezcal cocktail featuring El Silencio mezcal and another one of my favorite cocktail ingredients, Ancho Reyes.
Why yes, that is worm salt on the grapefruit and a mound of crickets
Smoke, Spice, and All Things Nice
🍹1 oz. Mezcal
🍹1 oz. Ancho Reyes
🍹.25 oz. cinnamon simple syrup
🍹.75 oz. lime juice
🍹Sparkling grapefruit (Fever-Tree, Bundaberg, or Q Mixers, for example)
Method: Add all of the ingredients, except the grapefruit, to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake. Strain into a glass with ice and top with sparkling grapefruit. Garnish with a lime, and if you have it on hand, a cinnamon stick.
