5 Sentidos Tobala y Cuixe – Tio Pedro & Lalo

About this destilado de agave

This small batch of Tobala y Cuixe was made by “Tio” Pedro Pascual Hernandez and his nephew, Eduardo “Lalo” Barriga, in their hometown of Santa Catarina Minas, Oaxaca. The pair worked together to co-roast, co-ferment, and co-distil two different species of agave: wild-harvested Tobala (Agave potatorum) & cultivated Cuixe (Agave rhodacantha), both of them harvested in nearby Santo Domingo Jalleza. After the agaves were cooked together in an underground oven with guamuche firewood, they were allowed to rest for eight days. Lalo, along with neighbors and friends, used machetes to cut up the cooked agave, then feed it through a small mechanical shredder that covered the cooked agave pieces into a fermentable mash. That mash was allowed to dry ferment for a couple of days in pine tanks, before well-water was eventually added. Fermentation then continued for another week. Lalo, with the help of neighbors and friends, then proceeded to double-distill the fermented mash in a set of four clay-pot stills at his uncles’ palenque, “La Esperanza.”

Proofed with heads, heart and tails by Lalo. Distilled in August 2023 and rested in glass demijohns for six weeks prior to bottling.

5 Sentidos

5 Sentidos (or Cinco Sentidos) is named after the five senses that their mezcaleros use to produce their agave spirits. The producers of this mezcal do not use any model machinery or tools, being guided only by their senses throughout the production process. The brand was launched by El Destilado restaurant in centro Oaxaca. The restaurant is known for it’s creative menu, unique cocktails, and exception agave spirits. The brand is a curated tour of Mexico with a wide range of expressions that are made by some of the best mezcaleros in the region. Cinco Sentidos is uncertified mezcal and is labeled as “Destilado de Agave”.

Learn more about 5 Sentidos:

• Cinco Sentidos and El Destilado on Mezcal Reviews
• Santa María Ixcatlán: Rawhide Fermentation with Amando Alvarez on Mezcal Reviews
• What’s in A Name? on the K&L Wines Spirits Journal blog