Mezcal Reviews: 2019 Annual Review

September 17, 2019 marks the 3rd anniversary of Mezcal Reviews. It seems like it was just yesterday that Tyler and I were sketching out our plans for the site on a piece of white lined paper, sipping Alipus San Luis in my living room. So much has happened in mezcal since then, but as Spock said, “change is the essential process of all existence.”

So here we are, nearing the end of 2019 with too many milestones to count. Legends like Lalo Angeles are still taking us back to the roots of mezcal production, while newcomers like Edgar Gonzalez are shining new light on Oaxacan mezcal. And, quite remarkably, Amando Alvarez is doing both; capturing the traditions of the past while paving the way for a new, brighter future. Indeed, it’s a great time for mezcal, and we should all feel lucky to be alive in this time and place.

Now that the website is three years old, here are some Mezcal Reviews stats we’d like to share:

• Today, more than 30,000 users visit Mezcal Reviews each month.
• The Mezcal database that powers the site now contains more than 700 bottles. Over 200 new bottles have been added this year alone. Big thanks to all of you for bottle suggestions. Anything still missing? Send us an email.
• Users like you have created nearly 2,500 reviews of these bottles.
• We also added 11 new blog posts this year, covering palenque visits, tastings, and more. You can read them all here.

In addition to tons of new content from the last twelve months, we’ve also added some killer new features that you may have noticed. The first was an addition to the homepage, where we added a Latest Member Reviews Panel that allows you to see the most recent reviews from the community. We also implemented half-star reviewing for the first time, so you have an outlet for giving 3.5 stars to that bottle that is not quite a 4.

Lastly, we increased the number of bottles listed on the Highest Rated bottles page so you can see more of the top bottles (according to mezcal-heads like you).

We’re currently working on lots of new content and some great new features that we think will improve the site. One of our current projects is posting photographs of the mezcaleros and mezcaleras on the site. After all, they’re the rockstars we really want to highlight. We’re using a lot of our own photos for these, as seen with mezcaleros like Daniel Hernandez.

Do you have any photos of mezcaleros that you’d like to contribute to the site?

As mezcal becomes more popular internationally, many different types of people diving head first into the world of distilled agave spirits. Among the people who frequent Mezcal Reviews are bartenders, restaurant owners, brand owners, artists, musicians, web developers, programmers, bloggers, real estate agents, nurses, archaeologists, urologists, and more. It’s great to see such a diverse group of individuals come together to celebrate this great spirit, and we look forward to seeing what the future holds.

As Spock said after drinking a shot of Scalosian Water, which is presumably a local space name for Mezcal, “It is somewhat…. stimulating.”

Salud y Dixeebe!

Jonny and Tyler