Mezcal - is it love or hate?

[YouBelongWithMe]

I am partial to a meal at Wahaca, and my favourite cocktail is their Marmalade Mezcalita.

I decided I'd buy a bottle of Mezcal and aim to learn how to make my own Mezcalitas.

I've never known a drink create such polarised reactions. My husband is APPALLED. He thinks it's the worst alcoholic drink he's ever had, is worried the bottle is off. Says it tastes like burnt tyres and cigars. My DS is similarly horrified.

Whereas I have to stop myself from guzzling it in a oner. I LOVE it. My DD also thinks it's really tasty and has her own one on the go.

I'm wondering if it's like coriander and people have actual genetic variations that make them taste it differently!

So, have you had Mezcal / Mezcalitas and what's your thoughts?

Ooh I don’t know never tried. Will have to give it a go. I feel like this about tonic, I literally don’t understand how people can drink it, it takes like vomit/stomach acid in my mouth. I’m generally not a fussy person but I can’t drink it.

I have a bottle for margaritas!
I also have a regular tequila because when my nephew comes round we have margs and mezcal makes him very drunk and he says he feels something like the whisky rage 😂
I like it, it’s kind of deeply smokey and fragrant, I think it makes a superior drink personally but I do think it’s easy to see why some people hate the flavour, it’s pretty distinctive. Polarising I guess. A bit like liquorice (which I also love).

Is it Pechuga Mezcal, op? Is that what your DH finds weird?

One sip and I projectile vomited it…. Never had that happen with anything else but it’s like my body rejected the flavour.

I really like it, chilled and sipped. It's quite like a peaty whisky.

I agree OP ! It's on another level to tequila - and must be treated with respect. The agave mezcal is taken from is increasingly fragile (over harvested, loss of pollinators) in it's traditional habitat in Mexico, and Mexicans are very protective of it as part of cultural heritage. I think it makes a better margarita too, personally (after a comprehensive sampling all these years...) I have tasted some blow the bloody doors off prestige mezcal friends brought back from Mexico and it was delicious - yes, that smoky, tangy flavour. I have not, however, eaten the worm (at the bottom of the bottle) A friend did once at a party and she was found in the attic room with her head in a bean bag insisting she was 'nesting' ....🤷‍♀️But this is largely a marketing device and not connected to the quality of the brew.

I thought this was going to be misspelled a tribute to Paul Mescal’s GAA shorts.

Tequila is a mezcal, like scotch is a whisky. Tequila is a protected term and is made in Tequila and its surrounds. But tequila is just a mezcal, made in Jalisco from blue agave.

If you go to Tequila in Jalisco they will quiz you on this point!

I also LOVE tonic! I find it so refreshing.

Tbf, also a big fan.

Mezcal has a very distinctive smokiness that 'normal' tequila doesn't though?

I don’t mind it. I sometimes use it instead of gin for a mezcal negroni. I wouldn’t say I loved it though, nor do I hate it. I think it just depends on my mood.