{"id":2313,"date":"2022-02-14T18:10:01","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T00:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/?p=2313"},"modified":"2022-11-16T12:31:41","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T18:31:41","slug":"smoky-by-design-or-by-adoption-version-1-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/smoky-by-design-or-by-adoption-version-1-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 1.0"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is this general market notion that mezcal is simply \u201csmoky\u201d.\u00a0 Almost to the extent that it was done this way on purpose simply to differentiate itself from Tequila<\/a>.\u00a0 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<\/a> is not smoky by design but rather by not abandoning any of the traditional and historic practices of Michoacan mezcal production.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

*SHOP NOW TO START YOUR JOURNEY WITH <\/span>LA LUNA MEZCAL<\/b>*<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

There are a few points of clarifications to be made:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  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<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  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 <\/span>HERE<\/span><\/a> to sign up<\/span><\/li>\n
  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\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Now, back to the original point of this newsletter: What gives with the \u2018smoke\u2019?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    In Michoacan, the traditional way to roast, or cook, agave for mezcal<\/a> is done underground in a conic earth oven.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The oven is usually cement lined with brick and\/or rock.\u00a0 Here is a picture of one of our ovens from our <\/span>vinata<\/span><\/i> in Cotija, Michoacan<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    To build up our oven to prepare to roast agaves, we first must insert firewood.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 As we all know, fire creates heat, which is needed in this case, but it also creates smoke!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    In this first \u2018Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 1.0\u2019 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!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    With the firing of the white oak, we get heat and smoke.\u00a0 The heat builds up in the lava\/volcanic rock as the flame of the fire keeps growing.\u00a0 As well as the growth of the flame comes the heavier smoke.\u00a0 This persists over the course of 8-12 hours that is needed to capture enough heat in the lava rock.\u00a0 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    We load the agave in one piece at a time by hand.\u00a0 Meticulously and strategically building up the height of the oven by loading the 6 tons (in the Cotija oven) of agave.\u00a0 Once the agave is all placed inside of the oven, we cover it with <\/span>petates, <\/span><\/i>which translates to \u2018dry, hand-woven, palm leaf mats\u2019, and then start \u2018closing\u2019 the oven by shoveling on dirt; one shovel load at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\" <\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    What happens next is a lot of the whole point.\u00a0 As we know, once you cut off oxygen from a fire the actual flame goes out.\u00a0 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!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    We choose to roast\/cook our agaves over the course of 5 days on average.\u00a0 That is what we deem as the \u201cperfect\u201d amount of time for La Luna Mezcal.\u00a0 Over the course of 5 days the heat is cooking the agave but, as you might imagine, the smoke is also penetrating it, also.\u00a0 We feel that our choice of 5 days of cooking is what also leads to our mezcal not being overwhelmingly smoky.\u00a0 For reference, there are other mezcaleros who might choose to roast underground for 10-30 days.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Therefore, in conclusion to \u2018Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 1.0\u2019, the smoke that is present in La Luna Mezcal is partially attributed to what has been mentioned here!\u00a0 This would be the 1 of 3 key points that we speak to in regards to the \u2018deft touch of smoke\u2019 you might find in our arsenal of expressions for La Luna Mezcal<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Here is a list of what the future versions of this \u2018Smoky by design or by adoption?\u2019 series will include.\u00a0 Make sure to sign up for the educational Mezcal Monday newsletter <\/span>HERE<\/span><\/a> to be a part of the journey:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u2018Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 2.0<\/b>\u2019: The crack of dawn lighting of an oven in Cotija<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u2018Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 3.0<\/b>\u2019: The second component of production that influences \u2018smoke\u2019 in your artisanal mezcal<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u2018Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 4.0\u2019<\/b>: Diving deeper into the layers that create a properly built conic earth oven<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u2018Smoky by design or by adoption? Version 5.0\u2019<\/b>: The third component of production that influences \u2018smoke\u2019 in your artisanal mezcal\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Thank you for taking the time to read this first version of this particular series.\u00a0 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!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Salucita!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There is this general market notion that mezcal is simply \u201csmoky\u201d.\u00a0 Almost to the extent that it was done this way on purpose simply to differentiate itself from Tequila.\u00a0 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 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2313"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2872,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313\/revisions\/2872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lalunamezcal.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}