Finding Mezcal By Ron Cooper
Magical and powerful: Mezcal is the best spirituous liquid of Mexico, and this is a story on how Ron Cooper deal to make Mezcal, a gringo living in the hearth of making Mezcal.
Top 3 takeaways
- You don’t find mezcal, mezcal finds you.
- Your passion should conquer or influence your work.
- Para todo mal mezcal, para todo bien, también.
Difficulty/complexity level: 4
What makes this book that complex?
It includes some jargon in both languages, Spanish and English. Some context of Mexican slang could be misinterpreted, and vice versa.
Overall quality/satisfaction from 1 to 10: 8️
Why?
I wanted a book that would let me know more about Mezcal, not stories from a man on how Mezcal found him…
Who is the intended audience?
Anyone who’s called “borracho” and anyone who wants to know where Mezcal comes from, meet the people who make it, how it is made, and how complex this magic liquid is.
Top 3 positive points
- Singular narrative.
- Useful if you don’t know anything about Mezcal.
- Great list of cocktails.
Top 3 negative points
- I feel like reading the history of Cristobal Colon again, but without deaths, at least not intentionally.
- I feel sad or disappointed after reading this and realizing that we (Mexicans) cannot help others more than ourselves.
- I don’t even know all the required ingredients for all these cocktails.
Finally from 1 to 5 stars
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Some exported notes from kindle
Every part of the process, from the type of firewood to the blanketing layer affect the final result. Roasting over mesquite wood, for example, may give you an overly smoked mezcal. Black oak will be more earthy and subtle.
The fruit flies that inevitably swarm an open bottle of Mezcal are known as borrachos: drunks. Real borrachos, drawn to the palenque like flies, are said to be good luck during distillation. The more of them around, the better the batch will be. So goes the lore.
Tobalá (A. potatorum) is known as the king of magueys. Indigenous people believe it was the first maguey. Tobalá likes rocky, high-altitude soil and only grows in the shade of oak trees, like truffles. It takes ten to fifteen years to ripen and about eight times as many piñas to equal the weight of one espadín. It has broad, flat, spiny leaves and roots that emit an enzyme capable of breaking down granite so that the plant can reach deep down into the earth to find water. Tobalá produces a complex mezcal marked by herbaceousness and intense minerality.
The juez pours the Mezcal, spilling a few drops on the ground to honor our ancestors. Always in the sign of the cross. The four directions. When we raise our copitas, we look into each other’s eyes with meaning and intent, and say, Stigibeu!
“Why do you make mezcal?” They answer, “Because it brings us closer to God.”
About difficulty/complexity measure
From 1 to 10, one is not complicated, easy to read, and ten is the most complex book ever.
About quality/satisfaction measure
One means low quality, poor satisfaction, and ten is the highest satisfaction you could get from a book.