Gracias A Dios or Thank God for Gin Made From Agave
When is a mezcal not a mezcal? When it’s the base for an agave gin!
Mexico is a vast and magical country that produces an incredible array of spirits: tequila, mezcal, and corn whiskey, dozens of world class beers, Mexican wine, most famously from the Valle de Guadalupe in Baja Norte, but increasingly from more inland regions, rums and artisan sugar cane spirits, known as charanda, and lesser known agave spirits like raicilla.
Agave Gin
Gracias a Dios Agave Gin is distilled using espadin mezcal as the base spirit, and flavored with thirty-two botanicals—one from each of Mexico’s thirty-two diverse states. The project, initiated by students at Oaxaca State University in 2013, took two years, as mezcaleros Oscar Hernandez and Xaime Niembro developed and perfected the formula.
Students from the university still participate in procuring and preparing local citrus peels and other native botanicals such as coriander seeds, avocado and eucalyptus leaves, hoja santa, cacao and coffee beans, passionfruit, mate, green tea, guaraná, and hibiscus and bougainvillea blossoms to flavor the recipe.
Espadin
Espadin, the most common agave plant, is the source of 90% of mezcal production—it’s one of the few magueys, or agave plants, that can be cultivated. Once the magueys are harvested, the leaves are removed, and the hearts, or “piñas,” are roasted for two days, the step that creates mezcal’s signature smoky flavor. The roasted piñas are then mashed in a stone grinder called a tahona. At GAD’s palenque, the stone grinding wheel is turned by a mare named La Gaviota. Water is added, and the mash is fermented in deep open-topped wooden barrels, then distilled in a 250 liter copper alembic still.
3 Distillations
Fourth generation mezcalero Hernández distills the first round of espadin in this traditional way, then, with the help of Niembro, they macerate the distillate with the botanicals, and then repeat the process a third time. “It’s the third distillation that makes the smoke flavor of the espadin descend, and the botanicals come to the forefront,” says Niembro.
New to the US, GAD’s second version of agave gin, the Receta Oaxacqueña, features eight botanicals native to Oaxaca plus juniper to make it…gin. Both gins are bottled at 90 proof and retail for about $55 in the states. As a gin drinker who loves tequila, I found the rich warmth, subtle smoke, and herbaceous tone of these gins to set them apart from the other high- end gins on my bar cart. The gorgeous and informative labels add another reason to own both bottles.
Agave Gin in Cocktails
The Oaxaca recipe agave gin works terrifically with soda—the cocktail shows the rich, fruity notes of agave with a peppery, pine-y bite and a smoky finish. The original, 32 botanical recipe behaves more like traditional gin—wonderfully dry with gorgeous herbal tones that play well with tonic and taste fantastic in a paloma made with fresh grapefruit and Mexican squirt. Niembro recommends using either in a classic French 75 (gin, simple syrup, fresh lemon juice, champagne). While you don’t need to invest in both bottles to understand the spirit, it’s fun to compare the two.