Tequila and mezcal may be Mexico’s liquid ambassadors to the world, but if tequila is the polished, suit-and-tie professional, mezcal is the wild, spiritual poet communing with the earth and singing songs of nature and time.

Both spirits derive from a spiky succulent called agave, yet their paths diverge quickly in the rugged hillsides and valleys of Mexico, where mezcal is born in fire, fermented by wild yeast and bound forever to the land that raises it.

Unlike most spirit bases, which are made from grain or sugarcane harvested annually, agave takes time … a lot of time. Most agaves mature between eight and 14 years before harvest (some can even take 30+ years). This isn’t corn. You don’t just throw another seed in the ground and expect more next season. The agave plant devotes its entire life to building a single, sugar-rich heart—the piña. When each plant flowers, it dies. To keep the lineage going, jimadors cut the flowering stalk and nurture the offshoots—known as pups (or hijuelos)—that grow around the base. These pups, clones of their mother, can be placed into a “nursery,” where they are cared for and raised.

That deep relationship between plant, land and human defines mezcal. It isn’t just the species of agave that gives mezcal flavor. It’s the altitude, the soil, the water, the air, the roasting in the ground—all adding up to the terroir, a term most commonly applied to wine.

I’ve been fortunate to spend time in Oaxaca, exploring the palenques—those sacred spaces where mezcal is cooked, fermented and distilled, often in a mezcalero’s home. It’s more than production—it’s communion. The people of Oaxaca are some of the kindest, most open-hearted humans you’ll ever meet. They welcome strangers into their homes, their palenques and their lives. It’s a deeply humbling, unforgettable experience and one I’d recommend to anyone curious about mezcal. To walk among the agaves, to see the hands that shape them into spirit, is to understand mezcal not just as a drink—but as a living tradition.

12 Agaves, 12 Voices

Espadín (Agave angustifolia)

• Region: Oaxaca (widely grown)
• Flavor: Bright, herbal, peppery, sometimes smoky
• Notes: The workhorse of mezcal. Fastest to mature (around 7–10 years). Accounts for over 90% of mezcal production, which helps keep it accessible.

Tobalá (Agave potatorum)

• Region: High-altitude Oaxaca, Puebla
• Flavor: Rich, fruity, floral, hints of tropical fruit and minerality
• Notes: Small plant with low yield. Wild harvested. Expensive due to its size. (It takes about 8–10 Tobalá agaves to produce the equivalent volume from one Blue Weber (tequila) piña. Nowadays they are grown from seed, as wild harvesting them is akin to truffle hunting—they grow in the shade of oak trees in high-altitude, rocky terrain, which can be challenging and difficult to reach.

Arroqueño (Agave americana)

• Region: Oaxaca
• Flavor: Big, bold, spicy, earthy, with a long finish. Some may have some tropical and floral nuances, but usually very dry.
• Notes: One of the largest agaves, it can take up to 20 years to mature and is thought to be the “mother” of Espadín. The piñas can weigh up to 400+ pounds.

Tepeztate (Agave marmorata)

• Region: Rocky cliffs in Puebla and Oaxaca
• Flavor: Herbal, green, vegetal (think celery, bell pepper, jalapeño), wet stone, smoke
• Notes: Wild. Rare. Can take over 30 years to mature. Complex and unpredictable. The time in the ground, the weather experienced during its life span and how both affect the soil all play into the resulting flavors and are why it’s one of the more complex and aromatic mezcals, and more expensive.

Cuishe (Agave karwinskii)

• Region: Oaxaca (south), Sonora
• Flavor: Citrusy, subtle spice, vegetal, slate, savory
• Notes: This agave is unique in that it has a trunk that comes up off the ground, looking like a small palm tree. Wild or semi-cultivated. The plant has a narrow piña—meaning less juice per plant—which also makes this mezcal more expensive.

Mexicano (Agave rhodacantha)

• Region: Guerrero, Oaxaca, Durango
• Flavor: Full-bodied, earthy, leathery, fruity, subtle spice and less intense smoke.
• Notes: Loved by mezcaleros for its strength and complexity. Often mixed with other agaves.

Cupreata (Agave cupreata)

• Region: Guerrero, Michoacán
• Flavor: Earthy, subtle tropical fruit and smoke, herbaceous
• Notes: Popular in western mezcal-producing states. Takes 12–15 years to mature. Notable physical characteristic is its broad, flat, serrated leaves.

Cenizo (Agave durangensis)

• Region: Durango
• Flavor: Can run the gamut from smoky, leathery, complex savory notes (sometimes associated with a ‘meaty‘ or even a vinegar-like nuance from wild yeast lactic fermentation), to bright and fruity.
• Notes: Grows at higher altitudes. Increasingly recognized for its unique profile.

Bacanora (Agave angustifolia haw)

• Region: Sonora
• Flavor: Dry, spicy, heavy minerality, smoke and desert herbs. More distinct mesquite aroma.
• Notes: Desert-born. Once banned by the government for 77 years (the state’s Prohibition in 1915.) Now protected by denomination of origin. Comes from the same agave as Espadín, but due to climate and soil variations, they taste different from each other.

Sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri)

• Region: Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila
• Flavor: Earthy, grassy, slightly nutty with desert minerality
• Notes: Technically not agave but closely related. Wild harvested and deeply tied to northern Mexican terroir. Often small batch and rustic, with centuries of tradition among indigenous communities.

Pechuga (Agave Espadín, et al.)

• Region: Primarily Oaxaca
• Flavor: Rich, savory, spiced, with a round, slightly meaty complexity
• Notes: Pechuga isn’t a species but a method—mezcal that is re-distilled with a basket of fruits, spices and a raw protein (traditionally chicken breast). Ceremonial and rare, Pechugas are deeply personal expressions of a mezcalero’s craft and typically made in small batches for festivals and special occasions.

Mezcal Classification

Prior to 2017, mezcal was a broad category that included ALL agave spirits. With the rise in popularity of small, more-artisanal mezcals compared to commercially produced mezcal, efforts were made to distinguish them using three classifications, the point being to preserve the methods that have been passed down through generations—methods that don’t scale easily.

Mezcal: Can be produced using modern techniques: autoclaves, stainless steel stills, cultivated yeasts. Industrial and often mass-produced.

Artisanal Mezcal: Cooked in earthen pits, crushed by tahona wheel or hand, fermented in wood or stone or rawhide, and distilled in copper. If you are big fan of mezcal, most of the village and smaller productions of mezcals fall into this classification.

Ancestral Mezcal: The most labor-intensive off all the classifications. Agaves are cooked in underground pit ovens. Once cooked, it is crushed by hand or with a tahona wheel. Fermented with wild yeast in stone, or in clay pots. No metal tanks allowed. Distillation also includes the agave fibers.

Mezcals in Cocktails

I highly recommend drinking mezcal neat, in a copita (clay cup), at room temperature. However, you can also enjoy it in many cocktails, as both a main spirit or a float. I recommend simpler drinks as they can enhance the many aromatics or add a fantastic smoky element to them. A simple Margarita, Michelada, Bloody Maria, or an M&M. An M&M (Montenegro Amaro & Mezcal) cocktail is a wonderful freezer cocktail for sipping neat. Montenegro is an amaro with chocolatey-orange nuances, bringing out those same flavors from mezcal. Try it with any mezcal of your choice, although it works particularly well with those imbued with leathery, earthy aromatics. The sweetness and coldness make it sippable, creamy and delicious.

Stigibeu! (Stee-gee-BAY-you)

Before you sip a mezcal, there’s a ritual. A toast. A blessing. It’s a traditional mezcal salute, often offered from a clay copita. The host may pour a small amount of mezcal onto the ground, drawing a cross on the earth, then raising his or her cup while saying, Stigibeu—a Zapotec word that honors Mother Earth and the ancestors. It’s a quiet gesture, but one that speaks volumes.

Because mezcal isn’t just a drink. It’s a reckoning. A punch of flavor and tradition that makes you sit down and listen—to the land, to the people, to the decades it took to produce that single bottle. If tequila is a conversation, mezcal is a sermon—smoky, spiritual, raw and beautiful.

Stigibeu!