Mezcal Trippin'

What's that at the end of the arco iris, the rainbow? Ah yes, better than gold for some, an olla of mezcal.
It was a trip into the heart of the mezcal producing region today. Actually, mezcal is made all over Oaxaca, but this is prime mezcal territory. We made a large circle, or should I say we attempted to make a large circle, starting by heading south towards Ocotlan and then cutting east through Santa Catarina Minas, Chichacapam, and north through Matatlan to Mitla and then due west back home. My traveling companions will remain anonymous. Trust me, they were both experts and I was designated driver.

In Santa Catarina, at the first place we stopped, we sampled some $150 a bottle - this is at the source!!! - from plants that take 25 years to mature and make about six liters a plant. Some mighty rare stuff to say the least, the best of the best. I listened as they talked to the seller about plants and process. It turns out that Oaxaca has the most varieties and diversity of plants in all of Mexico. Acting in good faith, we bought a $35 bottle and we moved onto the house of Yolanda, the widow of an old friend, Ishmael who died a couple of years ago. Here they are a few years ago. She looks the same and seems very happy. We sampled her mezcal. Sublime! Better than the high priced spread. The experts said it was some of the best they had tasted in twenty years. We bought 15 liters at $5 a liter. Then off to the Chichacapam, a village about 20 miles into the mountains, to see, Faustino, the mescalero I had photographed last year. We went to the wrong house first. but it was his brother's place and he had plenty of mezcal from the same palenque or distillery which was right next door, a small rustic operation. His mezcal was pretty good and quite strong. As I was driving, I barely had a taste at each of these places, but by this point, the others were... let's say, very happy. We bought 5 liters there and went next door to his brother's. Fuastino was not there, but we got five more liters, just because we had gone there to see him. It wasn't his fault that his brother had snared us first. If I said fried, would that suffice? With one expert passed out, snoring in the back seat it was time to head home. I thought I knew where I was going, having been there before, but as I was taking a turn to head back to Mitla, the other expert said no, it's the other way...... so an hour and a half later, on s-curves in the rain in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere,he said we were going the wrong direction. Ah well, we made it back safely with our precious cargo and we did get to see this amazing full rainbow. I could not get the whole thing in my lens. There was this cliff behind me.The fields and mountains of Chichacapam. The maguey was glowing
A sign of good mezcal is the longevity and number of "pearls" or bubbles as you pour it into a container. In this case, the pearls were gold.