Río de Parras, Michoacán is a small community of around 600 residents. It is about an hour drive northeast of Morelia, the state capital. Río de Parras landed on our radar after we tried mezcal from Jorge Perez. Bottled under the labels Mezonte and Siembra Metl, Jorge produces amazing destilado de agave using Maguey Alto […]

The mezcal brand Palomas Mensajeras first landed on our radar in September 2019 at the Mezcal Reviews 3rd anniversary party. That night, we were honored by the attendance of legendary Mexican spirits importer William Scanlan of Heavy Metl Imports. He arrived with a few agave gems not-yet-available in the US. Holding up a bottle, he […]

After the Mexican Revolution, a new constitution was drafted in 1917, which included the empowerment of the government to expropriate privately held resources, including land. Sweeping land reform followed and continued to evolve for the years following. By 1934, Lázaro Cárdenas became president and he introduced policies that allowed for rural farmers to petition the […]

While the sugar cane plant originated in southeast Asia, the people of Mexico have been using it for a variety of different purposes since the plant arrived via Spanish colonists in the 1500s. It was those same Spanish colonists who prohibited the production of “homemade spirits” through the late 18th century in order to protect […]

We first heard of Emilio through the Mezcalero brand. Throughout the 2010s, the Mezcalero brand was known for bringing new producers, agaves, and distillation methods to the US market. It’s something they still do today, and they were the first brand to bring Emilio’s mezcal to the US in 2015, as single batch named Mezcalero […]