Mezcalita Oaxaqueña

This is a Oaxacan drink. The mezcal is from Oaxaca, the agave nectar is from Oaxaca, the sal de gusano on the rim is from Oaxaca. Take any one of those ingredients out of context and you have something else. The mezcalita is not a tequila margarita with a smoky substitution. It is its own cocktail, built around a spirit that has been distilled in clay and copper stills in the Valles Centrales for centuries.

The mezcal must be espadín. Tobalá is too precious, too floral, and too expensive to mix with lime. Espadín is the agave that the maestros mezcaleros plant for the everyday work of feeding the palenque, and it is the agave that handles a cocktail without losing itself. Buy it joven, unaged, from a small producer who names the village on the label. The smoke comes from roasting the piñas in earth pits lined with hot volcanic stones, and that smoke is the whole point. Cover it with too much sweetener and you have wasted the mezcal.

The sal de gusano on the rim is not a gimmick. It is a Oaxacan condiment with a long tradition: maguey worms toasted, ground with sea salt and chile costeño, served alongside mezcal at every village fiesta in the Sierra Sur. The brick-red color is the chile. The depth is the worm. Lick a little before you sip and the cocktail makes sense. Saber cocinar es saber vivir, and that includes knowing how to drink properly.

My mother did not drink mezcal. She was from Jalisco and she drank tequila like a Jalisciense, neat with a sangrita on the side. The first time I sat in a Oaxacan mezcaleria, in 1998, an older woman behind the counter taught me the mezcalita and refused to let me shoot it. She said: si lo tomas de un trago, ¿para qué viniste? Cada estado, su propia cocina. And every state, its own way of drinking.