Manufacture of mescal in sonora, Mexico

Abstract

Mescal, the popular liquor of Mexico, is a brandy distilled from the fermented mash of the cooked stems of certain wild and cultivated agaves native to the arid and semiarid regions of Mexico and the American Southwest. The most famous mescal (also spelled mezeal or mexcal) is tequila, the generic name for mescal made in or near the town of Tequila, Jalisco (Crist, 1940; Helbig, 1960). Although tequila and mezcal de Oaxaca (known for the agave moth grub suspended in the liquor of some bottles) are made legally, most mescal is bootlegged. The state of Sonora is particularly renowned for its bacanora, a bootleg mescal made in the region of the town of Bacanora from wild Agave pacifica (Fig. 1). In Sonora, the drinking and making of mescal is not only traditional and common, but expected behavior of men living in the scattered ranches and small riverine agricultural villages. In many years, the sale of mescal accounts for much of the income for many poor rural Sonoran households, especially when droughts limit the success of farming and ranching. In some small villages, nearly a quarter of the households make and sell mescal. Owen (1959, p. 28) reported that 13 of 59 households in Meresichic made and sold mescal in the late 1950s. Although largely the liquor of the Sonoran lower classes, mescal bacanora is commonly consumed at upper-class social affairs in major cities, not only because it is a source of regional pride, but because its flavor and proof are superior to some of Mexico's finest tequilas. Indeed, aficionados of mescal often spend long hours discussing its merits and even its healthful properties. Unlike tequila, which is made from cultivated Agave tequilana, Sonoran mescal is made predominantly from 2 wild agaves: Agave pacifica (maguey) and Agave palmeri (lechuguilla). The former, most preferred for mescal, is abundant in the coastal thorn and short-tree forests of southern Sonora, while the latter is common in the oak woodland and grama grassland communities of northern Sonora (Gentry, 1972). The word mescal is derived from the Nahautl words metl (the general word for agaves) and ixcalli (a word meaning cooked or baked) and refers not only to mescal liquor but to the agaves themselves (Bruman, 1940, p. 11). According to Bruman (1940, p. 7), the baked hearts of certain agaves were the most important aboriginal food in arid and semiarid Mexico and the American Southwest before the development of agriculture. Agaves served a considerable variety of purposes: as food, ceremonial objects, nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages, fiber, and medicine (Castetter et al., 1938). Glyphs of agaves and agave products in the Aztec codices point clearly to the traditional economic and social significance of these singularly American plants in Mexico (Gongalves de Lima, 1956; Bottorff de Barrios, 1971, pp. 10-21). Lumholtz (1902, I, p. 256) reported that the Huichol