Destilado de Agave, Espadin de Milpa y Bicuixe 'Ignacio Juarez'

• Destilado de agave produced in Miahuatlán, Oaxaca
• Maestro Mezcalero Ignacio Juarez
• 50% Espadín (A. angustifolia) and 50% Bicuixe (A. karwinskii)
• Cooked in a conical earthen pit oven
• Crushed using a traditional stone tahona mill
• Fermented in open air cypress vats (tinas)
• Distilled once using a traditional copper pot still with condenser (refrescadera)
• Milk chocolate, candied yam, fennel, fig jam, lemongrass, ginger peel, and eucalyptus
• Distilled in May 2023; only 60 liters produced!
• 51.2% ABV

The term Espadín de Milpa refers explicitly to Espadín agave grown in the “milpa”—the indigenous method of cross-cultivating agriculture traced back to the Nahuatl people. Crops are integrated fully among one another, rather than rotated or farmed in rows, so that individual plants grow side by side with their neighbors—most classically corn, beans, and squash (“the three sisters”)—bolstering the nutrients, nitrogen, vitamins, and acids in their soil. Agave cultivated among this diversity of flora develop differently than those grown in the wild or in a monoculture of the genus, and they bring unique yeasts and flavors with them in distillation.

Subdued at first but deeply rewarding, Ignacio’s ensamble of milpa-grown Espadín with Miahuatlán’s signature A. karwinskii varietal Bicuixe leads with a soft nose of milk chocolate powder, candied yam, a touch of fennel and lavender, and a subtle note like a hard cheese rind with fig jam on a charcuterie plate; the palate makes an abrupt left turn into boldly aromatic herbal flavors, with lemongrass, ginger peel, and eucalyptus all making a pronounced showing, and a finish reminiscent of those chalky white after-dinner mints that look like little crunchy pillows…