Para todo mal...mezcal y para todo bien...tambien!
6/19 - Feliz Cumpleaños Mateo!
They love their Mezcal here in Oaxaca and are quick to point out that Tequila is a very different and inferior animal. Tequila uses a chemical acelerator in the manufacturing process while Mezcal is pure and made by distilling the heart of the maguey cactus and then aging the spirit in Oak casks.
"Once the agave, or maguey, has reached maturity, it is harvested. The leaves are cut off; the heart of the agave, called the piña is used. Traditionally, the piñas are baked in rock-lined conical pits, or palenques, and then ground to a mash with a stone grinding wheel. The modern industrial producers cook the piñas in stainless steel steam ovens and use mechanical crushers. The mash is then fermented and double-distilled. The mezcal may be bottled immediately, or aged. Aging times are quite short compared to some other spirits (a 4 year old whiskey is young, a 4 year old mezcal is old)."
6/20 - We are headed out to see the ruins of Monte Alban today and tomorrow we plan to do a day long mountain bike tour with John & Judith´s nephew Pablo and a local tour company. I am very much looking forward to experiencing the countryside here at a lower velocity than what I have become accustomed to on the beemer.
The goal is to head south to Chiapas on Thrusday and then into Guatemala by the end of the weekend. Much of this hinges on the fact that Mateo needs to return to the Bay Area by July 6th and this doesn´t give us a whole lot of time to explore either Guatemala or El Salvador. We are looking into the possibility of using a transport company to ship the bikes from Southern MX to the border (TJ or Mexicali), flying to San Diego and then riding the bikes back from SD to SF. This will greatly increase the time that we will have available to explore Central America and Southern Mexico and also eliminate the need to "monkey butt" our way from El Salvador to San Fran...a trip that would look something like 10 hour days for a week through the Sinora Desert (temps reaching 110 degrees) to get home. I have more time but I don´t really want Mateo to have to do that trip solo and I´m not sure how crazy I am about traveling through Central America solo at the present time.
Stay tuned...
They love their Mezcal here in Oaxaca and are quick to point out that Tequila is a very different and inferior animal. Tequila uses a chemical acelerator in the manufacturing process while Mezcal is pure and made by distilling the heart of the maguey cactus and then aging the spirit in Oak casks.
"Once the agave, or maguey, has reached maturity, it is harvested. The leaves are cut off; the heart of the agave, called the piña is used. Traditionally, the piñas are baked in rock-lined conical pits, or palenques, and then ground to a mash with a stone grinding wheel. The modern industrial producers cook the piñas in stainless steel steam ovens and use mechanical crushers. The mash is then fermented and double-distilled. The mezcal may be bottled immediately, or aged. Aging times are quite short compared to some other spirits (a 4 year old whiskey is young, a 4 year old mezcal is old)."
6/20 - We are headed out to see the ruins of Monte Alban today and tomorrow we plan to do a day long mountain bike tour with John & Judith´s nephew Pablo and a local tour company. I am very much looking forward to experiencing the countryside here at a lower velocity than what I have become accustomed to on the beemer.
The goal is to head south to Chiapas on Thrusday and then into Guatemala by the end of the weekend. Much of this hinges on the fact that Mateo needs to return to the Bay Area by July 6th and this doesn´t give us a whole lot of time to explore either Guatemala or El Salvador. We are looking into the possibility of using a transport company to ship the bikes from Southern MX to the border (TJ or Mexicali), flying to San Diego and then riding the bikes back from SD to SF. This will greatly increase the time that we will have available to explore Central America and Southern Mexico and also eliminate the need to "monkey butt" our way from El Salvador to San Fran...a trip that would look something like 10 hour days for a week through the Sinora Desert (temps reaching 110 degrees) to get home. I have more time but I don´t really want Mateo to have to do that trip solo and I´m not sure how crazy I am about traveling through Central America solo at the present time.
Stay tuned...
posted by J. at 8:22 AM
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