“Go ahead and sip and enjoy. Salud!”
On a cold night in December, River Hawkins is hosting a two-hour class at the home of Tom Joyce and Susan Crandall -- sharing some of what he learned during a year of tending bar in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. His mission – to educate Virginians about the history and culture of a drink first distilled by Spaniards. They came to the new world, ran out of their own spirits and started distilling agave, a local plant beloved by the native Nawa people.
“They ate the pulp, they drank the liquid, they used the needles for sewing, they used the fibers for clothing and rope and the leaves for thatched huts, so they already believed that the agave was a very sacred plant, long before they learned to turn it into alcohol,” he says.
In fact, Hawkins claims, the Nawas did not distill agave.
“Anything that fell on the ground and rotted they knew how to make into alcohol, plus they had peyote and ayahuasca and magic mushroom and all that kind of stuff, so they were very familiar with intoxicants and very familiar with alcohol. They just didn’t distill, because they didn’t believe you should get that drunk.”
Today, agave is found all over Oaxaca.
“It’s a big spikey plant – looks like an aloe plant with razor-sharp thorns on it. It grows really big! It’ll have a wingspan of about 15 feet, and it’ll have a core base that’s 150-250 pounds, and it’s a dense rock of sugar," he explains.
That sugar fuels the growth of a stem that can rise 20 feet in the air – give birth to bright yellow flowers, drop seeds and die. The base is then used to produce mezcal and tequila.
“Any spirit made from agave is a mezcal, so tequila is a mezcal, just like bourbon is a whiskey.”
What defines tequila is the kind of plant used – the blue agave – and the way it’s distilled.
“The process of making tequila is they boil or steam it in above-ground ovens, and then mezcal they pit roast.”
Mezcal is infused with a smoky flavor, but that’s not all. Hawkins says the makers are prone to innovate – hanging a chicken breast or pechuga, for example, inside their still to impart a unique taste.
“I’ve seen lobster pechugas, iguana pechugas, rattlesnake pechugas," Hawkins recalls. "Mezcaleros will try anything and do creative, really bizarre techniques.”
Like making mezcal with goat droppings.
“They bottle it first, and then they stick it all in a big pile of goat poop. Goat poop holds a particular temperature that effects the flavor of the mezcal.”
What’s most important, he adds, is that people only consume mezcals made from 100% agave sugar and not what’s known as a mixto.
“A mixto is a mixture of agave sugar and something else. It only has to be about 51% agave sugar, and the rest is like high fructose corn syrup, glycerin, coloring agents and very toxic additives, and those are the things that give you a really bad hangover and a headache.”
Mezcals are traditionally served with crunchy fried grasshoppers and a colorful plate of lime and salt, cinnamon, orange wedges, a spice called tajin and a salty mix of powdered worms from the agave plant. The idea, he says, is not to mask but the enhance the flavor of mezcal.
“Any time you drink any spirits the first taste is going to be very robust. It’s going to be filled with all kinds of complex flavors, and then as your palate adjusts to it, it’s going to become more one dimensional, and so that’s when you’d reach for a little bit of orange wedge and sal de gusano — cleanses the palate and excites the taste buds again.”
In addition to making house calls, Hawkins’ tells these tales at one of two restaurants he co-owns in Charlottesville. Both the Bebedero and Mejicali are decorated with his art, a reflection of his colorful personality and unabashed passion for mezcal.
