What a Sommelier Learned About The Difference Between Mezcal & Tequila

First Sip, First Assumptions

When I took my first sips of mezcal years ago, I thought I knew what was going on in the glass. I'm a sommelier, after all.

I was wrong.

A barrel-aged tequila at Dos Perros, my restaurant in Durham.

I owned an upscale Mexican restaurant in Durham, N.C., so I knew tequila. In the 2010s it was having a day, with new aging techniques showing up and celebrity projects driving sales in the U.S. It was no longer just the stuff you got sick on in college.

But what modern tequila boasted in "newness" it lacked in authenticity, and mezcal — known to me as smoky, unadulterated, and harder to find — checked that box. Always looking for the next cool thing for my guests (for me and Chrissy too), I went down the mezcal rabbit hole.

I learned that my first forays into mezcal tasting were severely limited by the very thing we thought made it cool: it was indeed hard to find. The small, inexperienced U.S. market expected a smoke-forward version of tequila, and that's about all we got.

It took me traveling to Oaxaca, its birthplace, to uncover what makes traditional mezcal so extraordinary.

Up First: The Mighty Agave

Mexico reveres its agave plants, and for good reason — this distinctive succulent is highly adaptable to Mexico's varied growing conditions and has been used for centuries by Mesoamerican cultures.  Agave fibers make ropes and textiles; the dense, sugary heart is roasted and eaten, turned into sweet agave nectar, or fermented into alcoholic beverages. Lightly alcoholic pulque is one, as are distilled products like sotol, mezcal, tequila, and a few others.

For both mezcal and tequila, the agave is harvested, its spiny leaves trimmed back, and the sugary heart, or piña, roasted to make it soft and juicy. But that's where the similarities end.

Tequila: Straightforward, Consistent, Simple

Tequila is made primarily in Jalisco and exclusively from blue agave, which matures in five to 10 years — an easy and profitable crop. Its distillation process requires little finesse, often mechanized in what amounts to tequila factories — speedy production, high yields, and quick to market.

After roasting the piña, the juice is pressed off the skin and fermented, resulting in a clear liquor with great consistency in flavor from one batch to the next.

During the 1980s tequila popularity boom (when many of us were either in college or about to be), even the fast-maturing blue agave couldn't keep up with demand. Big brands behind these tequila factories petitioned to allow grain alcohol in their final product, to stretch it. In case you were wondering: tequila with grain alcohol is garbage. No wonder so many of our first tequila experiences were awful; we were buying cheap, nasty tequila that was cut with white lightning.

Today, most isn’t cut, but many brands rely on long barrel aging — sometimes in used bourbon or wine barrels — to add variety to their product line and interest to an otherwise simple flavor profile.

I'm not one to judge, but I'll say this: mezcal wows you straight from the still, no gimmicks necessary.

(It's also worth mentioning that there exist traditional tequila makers who are undoubtedly preserving a more authentic, complex spirit. Perhaps we'll branch out into Jalisco in search of them one day.)

What Makes Mezcal Different than Tequila

Even mass-produced mezcal, like those I tried in the beginning, is arguably more interesting than tequila, and it all starts with the agave.

Oaxaca is a wonderland of agave varieties; some, like the blue agave, are domesticated for crop production but many others grow wild, sought by suppliers wielding machetes, often hauled out of scrubby hills by burros before landing at the feet of a maestro. Some wild agave take 25 to 30 years to mature, so you never know when the suppliers will find them.

Mezcaleros skilled in working with wild plants can accomplish the most amazing, complex and terroir-driven spirits, using traditional methods passed down through generations. Yes, there are large-scale mezcal producers and some of what they produce isn't bad; but if you want your mind blown, taste as small, as local and as wild as you can get.

The next difference between mezcal and tequila is in the fermentation style. For mezcal, piñas are roasted hotter, charring them before crushing and fermenting the entire thing. This method deepens the flavor notes and allows the mezcaleros to choose how much smoke to pull forward into the flavor profile, though it's usually not much. Traditional mezcal (loved by the purists) is big on complex flavors, small on smoke.

If you want your mind blown, taste as small, as local and as wild as you can get.

Today, we are fortunate that mezcal is trendy, and Americans, perhaps also looking for the next cool thing, are seeking out more small-batch producers and rare varieties. The result is a host of importers going south to establish relationships with family producers, and bringing their wares to stores near us. We should be careful about pushing higher yields at the expense of the heritage and art behind the craft, but in my opinion, overall, this is a win-win.

When I first sipped those smoky mezcals years ago, I had no idea of the adventures that awaited.  What I learned after voyaging to mezcal hallowed ground in Oaxaca would awaken in me a whole new love for the misunderstood spirit — and help launch The Oaxaca Travel Collective.

You can discover it too, when you journey with us on a six-day deep dive in the heart of mezcal country. Check it out; we'd love to have you.

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