Mezcal

Jose Andres and Cedd Moses Give Del Maguey Mezcal Its Moment

Photo: Del Maguey

It might finally be the moment for Mezcal, urges Los Angeles Times Magazine, which details the difference between Mexico’s treasured hand-crafted spirit and the cheap, worm-floating artifice long marketed to northerners. Del Maguey Mezcal, developed by Ojai native Ron Cooper, is produced by different Oaxacan families faithful to the stone-ground Zapotec tradition, and the small batches contain just two ingredients, water and the pit-roasted heart of the maguey plant. Chef Jose Andres calls the single village mezcal, “the best thing a man can put in his mouth,” and so says the article, visiting the village of Teotitlan de Valle has become “a right of passage among international libation cognoscenti.” Mezcal could explode in popularity if cradled in the right hands, and 2010 will see the opening of Las Perlas, a planned paean to Mezcal in Los Angeles under the city’s cocktail king, Cedd Moses, and Cole’s Red Car Bar manager Raul Yrastorza, who was inspired by a trip with Cooper to see true Mezcal being made.

Mezcal Free Spirit [Los Angeles Times Magazine]

Jose Andres and Cedd Moses Give Del Maguey Mezcal Its Moment