The sugar source used to make every other alcohol you drink takes a maximum of six months to reach maturity. The grapes used to make the finest wines, the grains used to make the finest Scotch, the cane used to make the finest rums … none of these takes more than six months to reach maturity.
But the sugars used to make mezcal come from the agave plant, and the fastest-growing agave varietal — the Blue Weber agave — takes a minimum of four years to reach maturity. Four years! And the Tepextate agave that Margarita and Carlos harvest to make their 100% Tepextate Mezcal can take up to 25 years to reach maturity.
The result is a far more complex sugar, with far more aromatic elements. And those complexities reveal themselves in the end flavors of the spirit.
