Tequila and mezcal are both Mexican agave spirits with Denominación de Origen (DO) protections. Both are regulated, both are traceable, both come from the same plant family. After that, the differences are large enough that pretending they're the same does both categories a disservice.

The agave

- Tequila can only be made from one agave species: Agave tequilana var. azul (blue Weber). One plant, one region (mostly Jalisco, plus parts of four other states), one DO. - Mezcal can be made from dozens of agave species: espadín most commonly, but also tobalá, madrecuishe, tepeztate, arroqueño, cuishe, and more. Mezcal's DO covers nine states; Oaxaca produces ~85% of the volume.

This is the single most important fact. A "mezcal" might be a quick-growing espadín or a 25-year-old wild madrecuishe, and the price, flavor, and complexity will differ accordingly.

The cooking

- Tequila producers cook the agave in autoclaves or stone ovens, often steam-fired. Clean, repeatable, scaled. - Mezcal producers cook the agave in earthen pit ovens lined with hot rocks and covered with palm fronds and dirt. The smoke from the wood fire is what gives mezcal its signature savory-smoky character. There's no autoclave equivalent in traditional mezcal production.

The proof

- Tequila's Mexican legal minimum is 35% ABV, but bottles exported to the US are required to be 40% ABV or higher: so virtually every tequila you'll see in a Florida bar lands at 40%. - Mezcal is traditionally 45-48% ABV or higher, and high-proof variants (like Sacrvm 48) can run into the high 40s without water reduction.

The character

- Tequila blanco: bright, vegetal, peppery, citrus-driven. Clean. - Mezcal espadín: balanced, lightly smoky, herbaceous, accessible. - Mezcal madrecuishe: mineral, dry hay, pine, surprisingly low on smoke for the category, the variety for people who say they "don't like mezcal." - Mezcal tobalá: floral, citrus zest, tropical fruit, expensive (12+ years to maturity in the wild).

Where we land in the portfolio

We carry Mezcal Sacrvm because it represents what mezcal can be at its most considered: single-variety expressions, traditional pit-cooking, copper-distilled, named for the agave rather than the marketing concept. If you want to actually train your team on mezcal, not just stock it, Sacrvm is where to start.

📚 Want to go deeper? See our companion piece on the Sacrvm line for a breakdown of each expression and how to sequence them in service.