For Mezcal San Cosme we use 100% Espadín agave. To secure the sustainability of this plant, we leave 5% of our harvest to bloom to guarantee health and genetic diversity. Santiago Matatlán Valley, in Oaxaca, reunites perfect conditions of sun, humidity, and soil for the agave harvest.
Our Maestros Mezcaleros, Don Neto and Wil, carefully choose mature agaves from our fields. It’s a long process, in which a lot of patience is required: Espadín Agave can take 8 to 10 years to ripen. When the agave flower, the quiote, starts to grow, the plant is ready to be harvested, because it has the highest concentration of sugar.
Jima is a key process in the production of a hand-crafted Mezcal. Out of this procedure, you obtain the heart of the agave, where the needed starches for Mezcal gather. You cut the tips of the plant; after that, you defoliate the agave until you get to its heart, which will be cooked to extract its precious and characteristic flavors.
The cooking of Mezcal San Cosme lasts for usually three days. The piñas (pineapples) of agave are cut into pieces and deposited in the classical conical stone oven. A great fire, out with mesquite wood, imparts the characteristic smoky flavor to Mezcal. Once the agave hearts are cooked, the starches will break down into sugars.
Once the oven is open, the agave hearts are taken to the Egyptian grinding. Pulled by a horse, our tahona stone grinds the agave until it becomes bagasse, which will be taken to our wooden fermentation tanks.
Maybe the most mystical step of the whole production is when the sugars turn into alcohol through the wild yeast of Santiago’s Matatlán Valley. The tanks made out of oak are filled with the grounded bagasse and water from a nearby well to start this magical process. Don Neto and Wil are the only ones that know when the fermentation is ready. This procedure can last from 2 to 12 days.
We distill two times in copper pot stills, heated by mesquite wood. Once distilled, the puntas and colas (head and tails), unwanted residual alcohol, are removed. Before bottling, the remaining liquid is brought under a thorough filtration process to clean all impurities left. This is the way Mezcal San Cosme is born, a young mezcal created out of work, passion, and tradition.
Before bottling, Mezcal San Cosme will be leveled at 40% ABV. It’s filtered through 12 carbon filters to ensure that no volatile substances are left in our Mezcal.
