Lot 20, 05/22 production date

Review #65: The nose has lemon juice, plastic, chlorine, and vanilla. The palate has more acidic lemon, plastic, chlorine, vanilla, with some honey, sweet florals, and some sort of lightly sour but sweet fruit, maybe pineapple.

My one word review of this would be “ok”. There’s some fun flavors and there’s some not so fun flavors. The acidic fruits help this a lot. The plastic and chlorine keep this down. I can find this enjoyable enough, and I even think it would be interesting in a cocktail. I think if you found this at a good price it’d be worth picking up.

Lot 22, 03/22 production date

Review #64: nose has caramel, buttered popcorn, Hershey milk chocolate, and butyric acid. The palate has all the caramel, buttered popcorn, hersheys, and butyric acid, with some more poking its head out like mushroom, weird rotten meat funk, and light smoke on the finish.

You can call my palate scuffed after my review of this and the the higuera cedrosanum. I just can’t get past the butyric acid. It’s too much and it ruins everything for me. I can tolerate a small amount with chocolate presenting flavors, but this is bordering on undrinkable for me. If it weren’t for the off note, this would be interesting. I hope this is also a batch issue like i believe the cedrosanum is. I’ll look out for other batches but i would not willingly drink this again.

Lot 21, 03/22 production date

Review #63: nose is full of caramel, coconut, buttered popcorn, hershey milk chocolate and butyric acid. All of the caramel, buttered popcorn, hershey chocolate, and butyric acid show up with some type of wood, earthy, maybe a touch of melon i got one time, and light smoke and minerals on the finish

I had to try this multiple times because everyone has great reviews. This is not it for me. The butyric acid is overpowering for me, and while i can get other notes from it, it’s honestly slightly gross. It reminds me of really old and bad chocolate. I hope i can find another batch to maybe redeem this, but for this batch I would not buy this again.

Lote DS063-E, 48% abv, august 2022 production date, glass rested 3 months

Review #62: Sweet lemon, cream, saltwater taffy, light florals, and vanilla on nose, palate has more citrus oils, vanilla, bouquet of flowers, sweetened condensed milk, buttered asparagus, and then a touch of sweet grass and smoke on the finish

This is a really well done espadin. Lots of delicate notes but also dialed up. It has a very pretty sweetness to it that is balanced with a touch of vegetals. The florals and light creaminess to it make this stand out from other espadins I’ve had. Definitely worth the price too as a solid bottle for anyone new or old to mezcal.

batch DRMM2-12, 52% abv

Review #61: big notes of lime, orange and vanilla on the nose. The lime, vanilla, and orange stay on the front of the palate, then some under-ripe pineapple as it transitions it into more vegetal and grassy, some celery, minerals, and clay and light earth on the finish.

The big citrus notes surprised me a bit. I was expecting a bit more of that earthy and vegetal palate to show up on the nose after tasting, but no dice. This is a pretty good ensamble. As others have noticed, and I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a negative, but it is a bit soft. Not much of a boldness from any note in particular on the palate. This is what i could call crushable. No need to think too deep about this one, but still easily able to drink this all day.

Lote WC0121, 46% abv

Review #60: the nose is a bit light with some sweet florals and light caramel. The palate is more expressive with more caramel, sweet florals, vanilla, crisp red apple, banana, cinnamon, and bit of rubber on the finish.

This is pretty good, if not a bit tame. The nose is fairly mellow. The palate definitely shines more with extra fruits and a bit more baking spices showing up. I imagine this as a gateway for people who drink wild common tequila to possibly branch out into their mezcal offerings, and on that point i think they do a good enough job. It’s enjoyable without being too overwhelming in any way. The rubbery finish is a bit unfortunate but i still enjoyed this.

Lot 0322, 46% abv

Review #59: nose is eucalyptus, honey, chlorine, milk chocolate, and anise.
Palate has more eucalyptus, honey, milk chocolate, milk, anise, and a campfire with smoked meats.

The flavors and aromas are pretty gentle here. I do enjoy the profile but I just wish there were more of it. This is decent but it doesn’t leave much of an impression.

Lot E2019206, 45% abv

Review #58: nose is a bit light with predominantly notes of honey. The palate has milk chocolate, orange peel, and honey.

This is okay. If anything, it’s just boring. The nose is really tame, so much so that I really had a hard time smelling anything at all honestly. Only if I put it in my hands could I smell something. The palate is also pretty light overall. There’s nothing I would say is bad about the flavors, but it’s all pretty plain.

Lot 7, 48% abv

Review #57: Nose is a bit sour and acidic, with lemon juice, orange oils, brine, and cream cheese. These aromas carry over to the palate which includes bubblegum, sweet cream, parmesan cheese, watermelon, powdered sugar, guava, some mint and minerality on the finish.

This is a really great raicilla. Really easy to drink but still complex if you look closer. The only real drawback is how mellow it is whereas some more punchiness could have really put this on top for me. Besides that, this is very well put together and definitely a crowd pleaser.

I Didn’t get a batch number or abv.
Disclaimer: This was tried at a tasting as a half ounce sample, so these are short notes. I’ll update if I get to try this again.

Review #56: grass, some fruit tartness, salty, licorice, herbal finish.

This was really only being held back by too much grassiness for my tastes. I was happy to find some licorice flavors in here and it worked really nicely with the rest of the herbs on the end of the palate.

I Didn’t get a batch number or abv.
Disclaimer: This was tried at a tasting as a half ounce sample, so these are short notes. I’ll update if I get to try this again.

Review #55: cinnamon, dry toasted wood, earthy, tobacco, peppery. After i come back to it as it opens up more fruit like orange and cherry.

Very dark flavors are all over this. The cinnamon really pops with those fruits when the sneak out. The fruits aren’t very sweet either, they’re more like an added touch to everything else.

I Didn’t get a batch number or abv.
Disclaimer: This was tried at a tasting as a half ounce sample, so these are short notes. I’ll update if I get to try this again.

Review #53: black pepper, honey, ash, carmelized squash, grape candy.

This had a nice balance to the sweetness. Nothing truly unique and a bit light, but solid nonetheless.

Batch number was blank, 48% abv

Review #52: Vanilla, old wet wood, yellow butter and milk chocolate are present on the nose. These all carry over to the palate with just a hint of butytic acid, fresh durian, hazelnut, and some cinnamon, light smoke, and wet soil on the finish.

I really enjoyed this one especially for the price. It seems like on certain earthy sotols i get some butyric acid, but this one it isn’t very dominant so it works well with the profile. There’s some fun stuff going on here with a funky fruit note that I thought of as durian, but otherwise it is not really sweet or fruity. Besides that, there’s nothing too fancy going on with this, but it’s well balanced and easygoing.

Lot: OI1208, 43.2% abv

Review #51: lime, smoke and wood dominate the nose. More of that comes to the palate with dry earth, bitter grass, dry peppers and some cinnamon covered apples. The finish is smokey and vegetal.

It’s a fine entry level mezcal but I would recommend many others to start with. I think it is a little hot for the abv. Also i find it brash and astringent on the mid palate and finish. The flavors are not bad but they certainly aren’t very good.

Lot: WHK-052, 40% abv

Review #50: Nose is light with lemongrass, lime, and vanilla. The palate follows it with more vanilla, fruit loops, grass, a bit of florals, and then smoke and wet soil on the short finish.

This has so much potential! The 40% abv is really a disappointment. Theres not much of a finish and the flavor falls off quickly. The nose is hard to notice and the palate is just watery. If this has a higher abv I think these flavors could really shine. The citrus, fruit loops, and vanilla taste good, but there’s just no staying power. Very unfortunate how close but how far this is from hitting the mark

Lot co422, 45.5% abv

Review #49: vanilla, light cream, and smoke are present on the nose. It’s soft and sweet. The nose carries over to the palate with some banana, mango, and honey with a grassy finish.

This is an easygoing choice at it’s price. There is nothing too offensive but also nothing outgoing. A bit subtle in it’s flavors and that’s not a bad thing here. Good enough to sip on although i think this would have great uses in cocktails.

lote g1yh, 46% abv

Review #48: Pink lemonade, bubblegum, and acetone on the front palate and nose, has some acidity and moderately oily mouthfeel, rosemary, juicy fruitiness to this like an orange and strawberry starburst, juicy pineapple, and candied rose on the finish.

This is so close to being exceptionally good. The acetone is holding this back unfortunately. I usually don’t mind or perceive much of this note, but it is just off-putting sometimes. The flavors are solid and bold and I think if they worked out the acetone note it could be top tier stuff.

Lote e1yh, 46% abv

Review #47: Pine and japaleno as a strong base on the nose and palate, a bit of spice, mixture of fresh and light fruits like watermelon, underripe mango, and red apples, with some lime oils and fresh lavender on the finish.

This was unexpectedly fruity and it has a nice complexity to the fruits that keeps things fresh. There’s a bit of vegetals but not much for a Tepeztate. It’s overall quite good, but not how I thought it would be

Lote f1yh, 46% abv

Review #46: Jalapeno and bell pell pepper are on the nose and dominant on the palate, then turns ashy, smokey, and dusty. There’s dry earthiness, dried smoked herbs, lime oils, pine, grass, and a very soft and light fruit like strawberry on the finish.

I found this to be overall very dry and dusty. I did not really enjoy that aspect of it and there’s not much more to it that I thought was intriguing. A bit brash and rough around the edges with the smoke and ash as well.

Lote 12, 12/21 production date, 44.8% abv

Review #45: Lime, minerals, and vanilla are present on the nose and transfer to the palate, then there’s sugar, icing, white chocolate, a touch of butytic acid, and sweet potato.

This is much like a very good tequila. It has that range of familiar tequila sweetness to it and I would probably guess it was in a blind. The only thing marking this as different is that white chocolate/butyric note along with the sweet potatoes. If I wanted a mezcal, I wouldn’t necessarily reach for this. But if I wanted tequila (but not really), this is an easy pick.