Tio Pedro Hernandez

“Tio” Pedro Hernandez is a mezcalero from Santa Catarina Minas (not to be confused with Pedro Hernandez from San Baltazar Guélavila. He worked at Mezcal Real Minero many years ago. He works with his nephew Lalo (not the same Lalo from Lalocura) when producing his mezcal.

A government agency gifted Tio Pedro a gas-powered mechanical mill to shred his cooked agave. Though it offered the chance to save dozens of hours of heavy labor and accelerate his production process, he tried the mill once and never fired it up again. The mezcal simply didn’t taste the same way so he rejected the convenience of a modern shredder in favor of the traditional method – hand-mashing with wooden mallets.