La Luna Mezcal
La Luna Mezcal

Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 1.0

There is this general market notion that mezcal is simply “smoky”.  Almost to the extent that it was done this way on purpose simply to differentiate itself from Tequila.  And while I will admit that some of the more broadly distributed, commercial brands of mezcal out there seem to play to that theory and, to some degree, adopt that theory, I am here to let you know that La Luna Mezcal is not smoky by design but rather by not abandoning any of the traditional and historic practices of Michoacan mezcal production.  

*SHOP NOW TO START YOUR JOURNEY WITH LA LUNA MEZCAL*

There are a few points of clarifications to be made:

  1. I am kind of putting the cart before the horse on this one because it would be important to start with the need to roast/cook agave at all for the process of making mezcal 
  2. Point 1 leads me to invite you to join our Educational Newsletter that we will work to send off every Mezcal Monday for more educational information on La Luna Mezcal; click HERE to sign up
  3. The depth of information sent on the Educational Newsletter will grow in richness as you let us know you are enjoying the stories and literature 

Now, back to the original point of this newsletter: What gives with the ‘smoke’? 

In Michoacan, the traditional way to roast, or cook, agave for mezcal is done underground in a conic earth oven.  This is hard to visualize but imagine a hole that is 6 tons in capacity, shaped like a shaved-ice cone, dug into the ground.  The oven is usually cement lined with brick and/or rock.  Here is a picture of one of our ovens from our vinata in Cotija, Michoacan

To build up our oven to prepare to roast agaves, we first must insert firewood.  In our case we would choose to load white oak as this is our preference and what would assist in ensuring our mezcal being much lighter in smoke as far as what consumers have told us.  As we all know, fire creates heat, which is needed in this case, but it also creates smoke! 

In this first ‘Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 1.0’ we are not going to go all the way as far as detail, as we will be releasing future Versions of this series, but for now we are going to get to the point! 

With the firing of the white oak, we get heat and smoke.  The heat builds up in the lava/volcanic rock as the flame of the fire keeps growing.  As well as the growth of the flame comes the heavier smoke.  This persists over the course of 8-12 hours that is needed to capture enough heat in the lava rock.  At the point of the proper temperature, it is time to load a protective layer on top of the rock (a longer story that will be covered in a future Version to this series) and then, finally, the agave itself. 

We load the agave in one piece at a time by hand.  Meticulously and strategically building up the height of the oven by loading the 6 tons (in the Cotija oven) of agave.  Once the agave is all placed inside of the oven, we cover it with petates, which translates to ‘dry, hand-woven, palm leaf mats’, and then start ‘closing’ the oven by shoveling on dirt; one shovel load at a time.

  

What happens next is a lot of the whole point.  As we know, once you cut off oxygen from a fire the actual flame goes out.  As you might imagine, the only left in the oven is the heat captured by the lava rock over the course of 8-12 hours, the agave, and, of course, smoke! 

We choose to roast/cook our agaves over the course of 5 days on average.  That is what we deem as the “perfect” amount of time for La Luna Mezcal.  Over the course of 5 days the heat is cooking the agave but, as you might imagine, the smoke is also penetrating it, also.  We feel that our choice of 5 days of cooking is what also leads to our mezcal not being overwhelmingly smoky.  For reference, there are other mezcaleros who might choose to roast underground for 10-30 days.  

Therefore, in conclusion to ‘Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 1.0’, the smoke that is present in La Luna Mezcal is partially attributed to what has been mentioned here!  This would be the 1 of 3 key points that we speak to in regards to the ‘deft touch of smoke’ you might find in our arsenal of expressions for La Luna Mezcal.  

Here is a list of what the future versions of this ‘Smoky by design or by adoption?’ series will include.  Make sure to sign up for the educational Mezcal Monday newsletter HERE to be a part of the journey: 

‘Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 2.0’: The crack of dawn lighting of an oven in Cotija

‘Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 3.0’: The second component of production that influences ‘smoke’ in your artisanal mezcal

‘Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 4.0’: Diving deeper into the layers that create a properly built conic earth oven

‘Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 5.0’: The third component of production that influences ‘smoke’ in your artisanal mezcal 

Thank you for taking the time to read this first version of this particular series.  We are working to bring you a wide variety of series that will cover many parts of La Luna Mezcal and the exciting journey to have you reading these very words and sipping on our mezcal! 

Salucita! 

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