Spirit Type: Mexcal Joven

Producer: Tosba

Agave Type: Espadilla

Where: San Cristobal Lachirioag, Oaxaca

Country: Mexico

Taste:  This mezcal has notes of sweet plantain, herbed goat cheese, and papaya. There is a finish of winter spice and lingering smoke. Christmas fruitcake, honey, savory herbs like thyme, unripe fruit like mango, celery salt, a whiff of salt.

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About the producer:

Mezcal Tosba Espadilla is produced by mezcalero Edgar Gonzalez Ramirez in San Cristobal Lachirioag, Oaxaca using 100% Maguey Espadilla (Agave angustifolia Haw). Espadilla is endemic to the northern mountains of Oaxaca and the neighboring state of Puebla. Edgar and his cousin Elisandro have been sourcing young agave plants from around their Sierra Norte community for years and transplanting them near the family palenque to cultivate. Maturing faster than Maguey Espadín, the Espadilla plants in this batch grew their reproductive stalk (“quiote”) at just five years old. A portion of the plants were harvested “capón” for 3 to 6 months with the quiote cut off which redirects sugars into the plant’s heart to increase the sugar yield. This mezcal has notes of sweet plantain, herbed goat cheese, and papaya. There is a finish of winter spice and lingering smoke.

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Mezcal Tosba is a microbusiness founded by two cousins from San Cristóbal Lachirioag, Oaxaca, Mexico. While living in Silicon Valley, California in 1999, they were inspired and influenced by the entrepreneurialism that surrounded them. Concerned by the increasing migration from their home region of Cajonos-Villa Alta in the Sierra Juárez mountains, they decided to form a business that would rescue the disappearing mezcal production and bring economic opportunity to the area. Mezcal Tosba is created by using traditional, and what is now called sustainable, agricultural methods of harvesting and distillation passed down by generations of farmers and mezcaleros from the region of Cajonos-Villa Alta of the Sierra Juárez in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.