Talk to any South Florida bartender and they’ll tell you the trendiest spirit of the past few years is tequila, as the cocktail cognoscenti look for an alternative to whiskey and vodka. But for those seeking even more adventure, there is the smoky mystery of mezcal.
Often confused with one another — both are distilled from agave, the spiky desert plant of Mexico — mezcal may be having a moment: LeBron James has a signature bottle, as do musicians Maluma and Lenny Kravitz.
And this weekend brings the second annual Mezcal Lauderdale, a four-day celebration that is one of a small number of festivals around the country solely dedicated to mezcal.
Taking place Friday to Monday in downtown Fort Lauderdale at the recently revitalized Canyon restaurant and its intimate in-house tequila bar, Rio, Mezcal Lauderdale will include tasting dinners, mixology classes, food pairings, music and a luxury cigar lounge in a vintage Airstream trailer. Among the highlights: a 9 p.m. Saturday four-course dinner paired with Chacolo mezcal, led by master mezcalier Benjamín Nava Vargas from Mexico.
The festival has been organized by Andrew Martineau, the stylish synergist behind several popular cultural events in the city. A founder of the creative marketing agency UniteUs Group, he has helped create Art Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale Art & Design Week, FemAle Brew Fest, as well as Greater Fort Lauderdale Beer Week and events.
The atmosphere at Mezcal Lauderdale will be both convivial and educational, says Martineau, who admits there is much about mezcal he is still discovering.
Any spirit made from the agave plant is a mezcal, which includes tequila, distilled from the blue Weber agave. The spirit commonly referred to as mezcal is made from hundreds of different varieties of agave in nine officially designated states in central Mexico. A single brand may have 20 different “expressions” of mezcal, each with a distinctive flavor.
“I think it’s going to completely take over, just because of the many varieties and the nuances of the spirit,” Martineau says.
For those curious about trying mezcal, Martineau answered a few questions about the spirit. The exchange has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Everyone is looking for something different, but what distinguishes the taste of mezcal from tequila? Why should I make that leap?
A: Mezcal is a little more of a smokier sort of spirit. I think it’s closer in relationship to a bourbon or whiskey. So I think a whiskey drinker and a bourbon drinker would very easily get into mezcal, starting off with the reposados, which are aged in casks that have that sort of body and flavor of whiskeys and bourbons.
I would also say that tequila is only made from one type of agave. The processes are different for different tequilas, but that’s just one plant. When you get into the mezcal space, you have 250 different varieties, wild agaves and other agaves.
Every agave has got a different flavor profile, and every agave has got a different maturity age. Usually, tequilas get harvested after about four years, but with some of the mezcals it’s sometimes 20 years. So you have eight to 20 years that you’re essentially aging the sugars within the piña, that kind of bulbous part of the agave, before they harvest. So the varieties and the flavor profiles with mezcal are much, much wider than it is with tequila.
Q: What’s the best way to drink it?
A: It’s more of a sipping spirit, which I think is a little bit more interesting, compared to tequila, right? You know, everybody’s got a really bad story about a tequila experience. And most of those experiences are because it was shots. Mezcal is not really presented as a spirit for shots. It’s really presented as a spirit for sipping. So very similar to sipping rum, sipping whiskey, sipping bourbon. That’s how it’s traditionally consumed, by sipping, or sometimes they say, kissing the mezcal.
Q: What’s your favorite mezcal and your favorite dish to eat with that mezcal?
A: Recently, I’ve been really getting into Agave de Cortes, which we’re going to have here (at Mezcal Lauderdale). They’re a very old producer of mezcal. For my wife and I’s anniversary, I ordered a bunch of caviar, and the experience of the caviar pairing with the mezcal was just incredible. I’m really into food, and I’m really into experiences, and I’m really into, you know, the variances of food paired with different things. And that experience was really incredible. We’ll have somewhat of a reproduction of that here at the food pairing that we’re going to have on Sunday with Mezcal Amaras.
Q: Tell me something that would surprise me about mezcal?
A: It’s very low sugar. So there’s really no hangover the next day. Of course, I think the low sugar is a really big thing for, like, LeBron’s brand, right? I mean, if I’m an athlete, and I want to go out, I can have some mezcal and I can go to the gym in the morning. I’ve had it where I’ll go have a couple of glasses of mezcal and the next day, I’m perfectly fine. Now, obviously, if you’re making a cocktail and you’re putting in mixers and all that sugar, then different story. But drinking it neat, absolutely.
Q: Yes, you’ll have three celebrity bottles of mezcal from LeBron James (Lobos 1707 Mezcal Artesanal), Maluma (Contraluz Reposado Cristalino Mezcal) and Lenny Kravitz (Nocheluna Sotol). Is LeBron’s brand the best place for a novice to start?
A: They’re all actually really different. But, yes, the Lobos 1707 is a great introductory sort of mezcal. It’s not incredibly smoky. For some people, the smokiness of mezcal kind of throws them off a little bit. This is not as smoky, so it’s great for making cocktails and stuff like that, because it’s not very overpowering.
They’re all from different regions in Mexico, made out of agave, but a different process and a different type of agave. (Kravitz’s) Nocheluna is a sotol, and sotol is a little bit of a different process and a different sort of spirit than a traditional mezcal. Maluma’s Contraluz is a cristalino, which is another process, more of a refined mezcal.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Mezcal Lauderdale
WHEN: Friday-Monday, June 2-5
WHERE: Canyon, 620 S. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale
COST: Ticket prices vary by individual event; the all-access Mezcalation Package costs $350+
INFORMATION: MezcalLauderdale.com