2019 batch. This is a pretty typical madrecuishe. It has the classic aromas and taste of woody pine, jalapeño peppers and ancho chiles mixed with citrus and marzipan. This would be a great everyday madrecuishe sipper – accessible, enjoyable and you don’t have to worry about running out of your special bottles.

BCX02-19
This is an amazing Bicuixe!

From the first smell you can tell this is special. The complexity of the aromas take you through a journey across the desert and through oases. Briny, citrus Bicuixe smells mix with complex notes, which are both bright and vegetal but also earthy. Garden leaves, green peppers, celery, rye and caraway seeds.

The palate is both insanely smooth and sweet at the same time, full of bready flavors and spices mixed with dried peppers and orange blossoms. It has umami to the max.

Finish and aftertaste is cinnamon water and minerals, which lasts even 20-30 minutes later.

This is definitely special juice, it has that extra quality that the best mezcal has. If I find a bottle, this will definitely be on the to-buy list.

Picked this up at Cancun airport when it came out, not realizing it was the same recipe as the San Andres. This one has a predominantly bubblegum profile, that turns into pepper and smoke. It was a bit of a letdown as I wish they had the madrecuishe at the time.

Predominantly Espadin, this is smoky and earthy with lots of black pepper and a bit of greenness probably from the bicuishe. One of my first entry level mezcals and not something I would go to today, but it could be a decent mixer.

Harvest: 2022
Batch: 12/205

Nose: This smells like the chewing tobacco that my dad used to dip when I was a kid. It smells of tobacco, mint, and menthol. A bit chalky and the smell of some alcohol that’s been sitting out for a while, or that was spilled. There’s a hint of that artificial vanilla someone mentioned, or the rosewater.

Palate: Briny, grassy, and flavors of the chewing tobacco that I mentioned before. Maybe a hint of Dr. Pepper or Cherry Cola in there too, but thinned out like you’re drinking a La Croix instead of the real thing. This isn’t bad, but also not bursting with flavor for a lone sipper. Maybe it’ll open up more. Considering the price it’s pretty good, but I’ve had much better sotols.

Nose: light roasted agave, cheese funk, citrusy-lime flavors, kind of like a margarita as Ben mentioned.
Palate: agave, very close to a high end tequila, but with a note of funk or cheese and a taste reminiscent of plastic tubs, a bit of greenness and sweetness. Quite different from your average mezcal. It’s interesting as an educational experience but not something I would go back for.

This is tequila made in the artisanal way, like it used to be made – a window to the past. It is far more complex than tequila blanco with so many other flavors going on. Where most blancos are fairly tasteless or just taste like agave, and aged reposados and anejos introduce the oak and caramel notes, this has flavor right out of the gate.

Nose: Toasted agave, but with a sour cheese note and some spices and pepper.
Palate: Cooked agave, fruits, spices, Camembert cheese and pepper. It’s sweet and very tasty.

Nose: Burnt brown sugar, molasses, otarashi-dango tare (grilled mochi balls on sticks with brown sugar sauce that you have at festivals in Japan). Smells delicious!

Palate: Okay, this is not at all what I was expecting but it tastes exactly like mold. I don’t know if this is a bad bottle (it was the last pour) but it doesn’t taste at all like it smells and I can’t say I enjoyed this at all. Try as I might, I can’t really get around the this one overpowering flavor and taste anything else but distilled mold.

Okay, update: I tasted a bit straight out of the bottle, and it didn’t have the moldy taste. It tasted like a classic cupreata – autumn notes, pumpkin seeds, earthy tones. I don’t know, maybe it was the veladora?

nose starts with a bit of smoky minerality, but then that overripe fruit smell that jabali has
reaches through and smacks you in the nose. It’s a sour, funky smell mixed with Russian tea and baking spices and apricots, jackfruit and pineapple.
Palate: contains everything that the nose primroses and more. The heat of the spirit works perfectly with the flavors to bring out this explosion of flavors. This is nice and complex with everything working together well. Fruitcake comes to mind as spices and ripe fruits mix together with toasted bread, burned orange peel and rye.
The finish is all raisin, woodsmoke and rye, to the point that I could have thought I was drinking straight rye. Delicious mezcal.

Nose: Nerds candy, grape and strawberry and watermelon. Poblano pepper, minerals, perfumey aromatics, classic tepeztate smells
Palate: Baking spices, chili powder, cooked agave, tepeztate essence, green beans and other garden veggies, perfume/potpourri, pepper, grape candy. Delicious!

From Gonzalo Martinez

Grassy, herbal and citrus all mixed together. Toasted agave flavors predominate with an herbal karwinskii undertone and just the right amount of burn. Good madrecuishe on par with those I’ve had from Mal Bien.

Note: Chocolate cream pie with meringue, all day long and all night too. Raw sugar cane.

Palate: Sugar cane, molasses and more chocolate cream pie, please! Some coppery taste in there, some cooked agave, a little bit of greenness. This is really good and reminds me of a tepemete I have.

I’ve noticed that Angustifolia can vary widely based on terroir and region, which really challenges my initial assumptions about the maguey and gives me a newfound respect for it (I used to think it was only espadin, which turned me off). This however is really good despite its relatively low abv, and while it’s not quite as good as some offerings by Lamata for example, it pairs very well with some chocolates or desserts.

Rakhal is totally right on this one; this doesn’t taste like tepextate AT ALL. None of the trademark aromatics or green jalapeno notes are there.

The nose is quite sour, and the palate is a little fruity, sour-sweet like an overripe peach. Kind of tastes like hairspray if I’m honest.

I’m sure these mezcaleros will get better with time, but as one of their first batches it’s not ready for international distribution.

2022 batch CX-5 bottle 41

Nose: orange blossom, Jasmine, green karwinskii, mushroom,
Palate: WOW! A bursting delicious umami flavor. Green vegetal trunk flavor and a bit of citrus but with so much richness it really dominates everything else. I am becoming a huge fan of cirial agave. This is insanely drinkable and tasty in an indescribable way.

Nose: brown sugar! Notes of dates and figs.
Palate: Juicy brown sugar, dates, light smoke, pepper, green vegetation, agave, earth and minerals. Delicious and sweet.

Nose: green vegetation, classic madrecuixe woody trunk smell
Palate: Juicy, green madrecuixe goodness! Greens, mint, cinanamon and pure love.

Nose: Green karwinskii goodness, smoked pine, peppers
Palate: Cucumber, smoked peppers, pine sap, banana. very juicy and peppery at the same time.

Consider my world rocked! What a unique expression, this is why I love mezcal! This brings back childhood memories!

Nose: Strawberry and grape Laffy Taffy, Sweettarts, Juicy Fruit gum, rotten pineapple.

Palate: Just this juicy explosion of fruit flavors that makes me want to get up and dance. Juicy Fruit gum and concentrated Laffy Taffy, which I haven’t had in 30+ years… amazing what memories mezcal can bring back to you. This stuff tastes like the color yellow had a party with a bowl of fruit that got blended together and left sitting for a few days in the sun. I need more!

Nose: Prickly pear, melon, sharpie pen, some sour notes reminiscent of an inacquidens.

Palate: overripe fruits, including banana, melon and kiwi. Moves into minerality and stewy fruits.

Decent but not on the level of other capon’d papalote I’ve had.

53% Mexicano 36% Arroqueño 11% Bicuishe 617 L, 51.5% ABV

At first opening this was pretty subdued in flavor and hot on the burn, but after about a quarter of the bottle was gone and it had some time to mix with air, it really began to open up. The Mexicano flavor comes out on the nose with a bit of the arroqueno and bicuixe following.

Nose: Ripe fruits, dried peppers, light smoke, ash, earth and minerality. Big mexicano fragrance.

Palate: Juicy fruit gum, dried stone fruits, unripe banana, wet cave rocks, desert sand. Delicious and juicy mezcal.

Finish: Wet river rocks, oysters, brine, ash.