You Know Mezcal and Tequila, but Here are 4 More Regional Agave Spirits to Try

Photograph by Isa Zapata, Prop styling by Christina Allen, Food Styling by Thu Buser

Agave-based spirits are some of the most complex spirits on the planet. This is largely because the pineapple-shaped cores of the spiky plant can take up to 14 years to ripen, giving plenty of time for unique flavors to develop before distillation. And like wine, agave flavor also varies based on species, wild yeasts, distillation vessels (copper versus the more traditional clay, which date back to at least the 1600s), and terroir. Every bottle is a unique expression of all of these different factors.

Any spirit derived from agave—native only to Central America—is technically a mezcal. (Tequila is a type of mezcal made from blue agave and cooked with steam.) Thanks to growing interest among serious drinkers here in the US, a surfeit of previously inaccessible regional mezcal varieties are now being imported from Mexico.

What’s important to know is that many of these spirits won’t have the word mezcal on the label; instead you’ll find their local name, which denotes the bottle’s specific geographic origin and the culture behind it. In Chihuahua, the earthy agave liquor is called sotol. Along the coastal edges of Jalisco, you’ll find fragrant, floral-tasting raicilla. In Sonora, it’s called bacanora and tastes piney. In Colima, it’s tropical tuxca. In Chiapas, the name changes to comiteco.

These names honor the communities—many of them Indigenous—from which these spirits originated and are part of a growing movement to keep mezcal production transparent, independent, and Mexican- and/or Indigenous-owned. The differentiation also preserves biodiversity within the agave plant kingdom, ensuring that the distinct species from which these spirits come continue to flourish.

Here are four types of regional agave spirits to know—and four independently produced (and seriously excellent) bottles to look out for.

The World of Agave Beyond Tequila and Mezcal: Four Regional Spirits to Try Now

1. RAICILLA: Mezonte Japo

In Jalisco, raicilla is the low-key, small-batch, fire-roasted alternative to the region’s primary export: tequila. Local brand (and nonprofit) Mezonte pioneered removing all the marketing fluff around its raicilla, naming each of its bottles after the producers themselves. This one comes from Hildegardo “Japo” Joya. The flavor is leathery and tropical due to the salty ocean breeze that blows through the agave fields of Jalisco’s Cabo Corrientes every morning.

2. SOTOL: Lamata

This is one of the wildest-tasting spirits in Mexico thanks mainly to Chihuahua’s arid climate. You’ll get dew-soaked pine in there, freshly sliced bell pepper, perhaps even some raw peanut. This one is made by maestro sotolero Lupe López for the Lamata Project, which Luis Loya started to share tiny-batch mezcal from northern Mexico and other places that are underrepped in the market. Grab your favorite bottles quickly; once they’re gone, they’re gone.

3. DESTILADO DE AGAVE: Chacolo Lineño
Labeling one’s mezcal “destilado de agave” (instead of “mezcal”) is
a political act. Some argue mezcal certification is corrupt; others say it threatens the artisanship and diversity of multigenerational production. But one thing is clear: In this anarcho-agave scene, Chacolo is king. The distillery sits near a volcano on the edge of Jalisco and Colima; there, maestro tabernero Don Macario Partida Ramos produces a spirit known as lineño, the common name for the agave in this region. Its intensely dank bubblegum flavors come from the area’s humid climate.

4. BACANORA: Don Jecho

These agaves are grown in the harsh Sonoran desert, giving bacanora a brute agave flavor that hits like a punch to the face. It’s the unofficial spirit of Sonora and pairs great with the state’s most famous dish: carne asada. If minerality is your thing, this bottle’s for you. Made in the small town of Colorada by Enrique Aguirre Call, the first person to earn the official certification for making bacanora, it’s distilled from a species of agave named after the region’s primary Indigenous group, Yaquiana.

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit