THE LIFESPAN OF AGAVE

There are over 200 varieties of agave, and Mezcal can be made out of 40 to 50. As Wahaka’s managing partner Eduardo Belaunzaran says, “It’s not a matter of if, but when we will discover how to make delicious mezcal from every type of agave.” For now, some of the most popular agaves include Espadin, Tobalà, Tepextate and Cuishe. Each agave varies in size, shape, flavor and maturity rate; some agaves grow for 40 years until they are ready to be harvested. On our reforestation trip, we planted 500 baby Tobalà plants in Wahaka’s mountainous fields. In 12-15 years, those same plants will be harvested and fermented into an aromatic mezcal with light tropical and spiced notes.

On our second day in Oaxaca, it was time to get our boots on the ground and hunt for wild agave in the mountainous outskirts of town. Much of the world’s agave is sustainably farmed, but some rarer variations are still foraged in the wild. In true rural fashion, we loaded into a flatbed truck like livestock and began our search for green gold. Our guides, Eduardo Belaunzaran and Alejandro Santa Cruz pointed out Tobalas clutching at cliff sides and Cuishe growing proudly in the sun, the Utahns gave “oohs and ahhs” and tried unsuccessfully to avoid the menacing barbs that grow on the tips of Espadin plants.

Later that evening, with Oaxacan earth now firmly in our bodies and souls, it was time to explore the city’s vibrant nightlife scene. The Water Witch/ACME boys connected with a bar owner downtown to host a takeover at Mezcal Speakeasy. Utahns and locals mingled, sipping on delightful fusions of indigenous

At the crack of dawn on day three, it was time for the main event. Our ragtag crew of sleep-deprived tipplers loaded into a van and set our sights on Wahaka’s fields, where we would be spending the afternoon planting agave. Determined to repay the kindness of our hosts, we worked as one, digging holes and placing Tobala sprouts in neat rows (in which the field workers only had to correct a few times). Our work finished, we stood like proud parents surveying the 500 Tobala plants that would one day be harvested and distilled into Mezcal that those around the world might enjoy.

Satisfied with our hard-day's work, we returned to Wahaka’s palenque, where a full-blown fiesta was waiting. A ten-piece band accompanied by a school of dancers offered entertainment throughout the evening. We ate our fill of chicharronnes pulled right off the pork spit-roasted in the back and danced with Wahaka’s entire family that gifted us this extraordinary peek into their world.

When it finally came time for our goodbyes, I began to reflect on how this experience will bleed into our own culture back home. Each of us will undoubtedly bring our own piece of Oaxaca into our respective establishments, from menu creation to spirited conversations with curious customers. And in some small but meaningful way, we’ve left our mark in Oaxaca as well. Between the conversations had with locals, agave planted in fields and stories shared over copitas full of mezcal, there’s a remnant of Utah spirit that will live on down south. Not bad for a bunch of Mormons.

ABOUT ‘WAHAKA’

Wahaka is a fifth generation artisanal mezcal producer located in the rural village of San Dionisio Ocotepec, about an hour and a half from downtown Oaxaca. The global brand’s present maestro mezcalero is Alberto Morales, whose knowledge of mezcal distillation was passed down from his father, who learned from his father, so on and so forth. At the core of Wahaka’s ethos is tradition. Their palenque isn’t crowded with industrial machinery or factory lines, rather simple tools like wood-fired ovens and a horsedrawn stone mill (called a tahona). Listening to Morales’ family interactions offers another glimpse into the past, as they speak their fading indigenous language Zapotec. The native Zapotec people founded one of Mexico’s earliest civilizations in Oaxaca, thousands of years before the Aztecs, today Morales’ family is one of the 12% of Zapotec speakers in Oaxaca.