Michoacan is a land full of culture and own traditions, which change from one community to another. In the case of the mezcal it is not the exception, our processes, tools and agaves are different, which makes us unique and help us to enrich the mezcal culture. The origin of the mezcal of Michoacan does not have date neither an exact place, nevertheless by oral tradition from the ancestors and some documents of the XVI century we can know that in Michoacan the mezcal was distilled since more of 400 years ago.
HARVEST
The maestro mezcalero is the one in charge of selecting the best magueys that are ready to be sacrificed after a lot of year of maturation. By using the “trinchera” the maguey`s leaves are cut to get to the heart of the maguey and after cut it from the root and carry it in horses or mules to transport it to the vinata (Name given to the palenques in Michoacan).
COOKING
The cooking of our agaves it is made in an ancestral way in a conical stone oven. First the stones are heated with oak wood for more of 8 hours, later the maguey is place above of the stones and after is cover with pine`s leaves and soil to leave it under the ground for 5 to 7 days.
MILLING
In this process the piñas of the cooked agave are ground to extract their juice and stimulate the fermentation. We have 2 grinding methods, the manual one in canoes with wood mallets and the one with an agave shredder.
FERMENTATION
Our fermentation process is made in a natural way by just adding spring water and the cooked maguey to the fermentation tubes. Here the native yeasts transform sugars from maguey into alcohols, the fermentation period varies from 7 to 10 days depending on the weather conditions. Here most flavours and aromas are provided that will result in our precious liquid.
DISTILLATION
Here one of the tools that makes us different appears “the Philippine Alembic”, an internal condensation distiller brought by the Spanish in colonial times. In this process wort is heated in a copper pot so it can be evaporated and after be condense in a copper cup to obtain the mezcal, this process is made twice to obtain the quality and purity required.