Daily Life Food Mexico Trips & Travels

"Para todo mal, mezcal y para todo bien también"

 (For everything bad, mezcal, and for everything good, too)




Our first weekend in town we were invited to a rooftop party and we wanted to pregame properly–at a mezcaleria. Well, the mezcal set me “straight” and I spent the entire party drinking diet coke. But I blame the melted cheese for the queasiness!

My first experience with mezcal was at La Botica in Condesa. The bar was lined with bottles of mezcal in all sorts of flavors (including chicken breast, which I wasn’t adventurous enough to try the first time around). We ordered melted queso oaxaca along with a shot of mezcal and a bottle of beer to wash it down (apparently, the traditional side dish for a shot of mezcal is fried larvae ground with chili peppers and salt and lime slices).

There is a saying that mezcal was invented when a lightening bolt hit an agave plant and released its juice. As it was made over 200 years ago, mezcal is still made from the heart of the maguey plant.

My new friend Camila works at a mezcaleria in Coyoacan and her restaurant actually supplies the mezcal that La Botica serves. She says the process of making mezcal is really intense and amazing to see. So many reasons to go to Oaxaca!

Photos taken at La Botica (Alfonso Reyes No. 120 Condesa, México D.F. Tel. 5212-1167)

5 Comments

  • Reply
    Rebecca
    March 16, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    Love the photographs! x

  • Reply
    explicit.rex
    March 16, 2010 at 7:09 pm

    I love the idea that a lightning bolt creates a drink just by zapping a sweet plant.

  • Reply
    hannah
    March 19, 2010 at 10:49 pm

    so cool! you make me want to plan a trip to mexico, everything sounds yumm!

  • Reply
    Sewon
    March 20, 2010 at 1:01 am

    thanks! :]

  • Reply
    Anonymous
    May 8, 2010 at 4:11 pm

    For a great sipping mezcal, well 3 actually as they have a Joven, Reposado and an Anejo visit the fine folk at Ilegal Mezcal http://ilegalmezcal.com/

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