Today in many of Mexico’s more  famous restaurants, well-heeled Mexicans and foreign tourists sip mezcal margaritas from tall glasses rimmed with ground gusano (worm) and salt, and garnished with a thick slice of fresh tropical fruit.

A good Mexican amigo told me “Normally with beer, or wine or tequila, I would have a hangover the next day, but mezcal doesn’t give me a hangover.”

Mezcal, though distilled from the same type of plant as tequila, has long been the poor cousin of the beverage most people around the world identify as the Mexican national tipple. But after hundreds of years in semi-oblivion, mezcal is finally coming of age and enjoying a resurgence among trendy urbanites in Mexico and beyond.

More and more bars specializing in mezcal, known as mezcalerias, are opening up in cosmopolitan cities in Mexico, the United States and Europe as people develop a taste for the potent drink. Once considered a poor man’s quaff made by small-batch producers in backward villages, the spirit has become sought-after among a generation of drinkers keen on rustic, natural and handcrafted products. Some  mezcal converts believe the spirit, when it is made the traditional way, is healthier than other alcoholic drinks.

Cheers and enjoy!

 

Green Mezcal Fizz

Ingredients:
5 trozos de pepino, 8 hojas de albahaca, 25ml de jugo de limón, 45ml de mezcal Montelobos, 25ml de miel de agave, 25ml de agua mineral

Vaso:
Collins

Método:
machacar albahaca y pepino en el shaker, agregar hielo, mezcal y miel de agave y agitar con fuerza. Colar en vaso Collins con hielo fresco y el agua mineral. Decorar.

Garnish:
Cabeza de hojas de albahaca