It takes seven or eight years for an espadín agave plant to mature to the purpose at which Rogelio Juan Hernández, maestro mezcalero and co-founder of Agua Mágica, can use it to make mezcal. For 4 generations, his household has made mezcal within the area of San Juan del Río in Oaxaca, Mexico. “It’s an ancestral expertise,” Hernández says.
The method is laborious and time-intensive. As soon as the agave vegetation have matured, the guts of the plant, often known as the piña, is harvested after which roasted over firewood; a masking of river rocks and banana tree husks helps lure within the warmth. After 24 hours of cooking, the agave turns candy and honey-like. As soon as it’s cooled, a mule rolling round a tahona, a big stone wheel, crushes the agave in order that the fibers and the sugars can separate. These juices ferment after which the distillation course of begins. It’s the second distillation that creates Agua Mágica’s mezcal.
Regardless of having made mezcal since he was a teen, Hernández, who at all times wished his personal distillery, needed to go away Mexico for the USA for 18 years as a result of alternatives had been scarce. Agua Mágica, which launched in 2021 with co-founder and CEO Rafael Shin, needs to alter how mezcal is valued, paying mezcaleros like Hernández greater costs for the upper high quality of their product, versus the present system of pricing no matter high quality.
One among Hernández’s objectives, he says, is to present younger individuals locally alternatives in order that they don’t really feel the necessity to to migrate as a lot. His son, Julio Juan, now joins him in making mezcal.
Watch the newest episode of Distributors to study extra about how Agua Mágica is preserving custom in mezcal-making.