Short essays on rural Oaxaca mezcal production: Part II: Recicado the Mixtec Alta
Alvin Starkman MA, LL.B
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It will not win any contests for that quality spirit. And in fact, residents of the region, nor to say mezcal, but rather "recicado," name Mixtec, they say. But after five-hour drive from the city of Oaxaca, deep in a Mixtec Alta meeting distillation of the agave, which takes the price for a true fan like a true view is possible, the means and material for production, with which probably at the beginning of the Spanish Conquest: clay pots, Carrisi (reed river) hose, mud and stone still, reducing using a tree burl wooden trough, fermenting in the skin of the animal, and of course baking in the traditional in-ground oven.Â
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Pueblo Viejo is a small village an hour's drive from San Juan Mixtepec after badly potholed dirt road. quiet valley leading to a solution is known as the Rio Azucena, and for good reason ... Sà ¡nchez Cisneros family lives next to the river, pre-condition for recicado production in this part of the state.
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Nineteen years Hilda Sà ¡nchez Cisneros lives with his sister, Natividad Sà ¡Nchez, 47, and four of the six children. Natividad on two live and work in the countryside ina North Carolina. Fernando, Natividad This husband is gone this day, does tequio (community service). 10  Their son, Esteban, and daughter Dà ¡LIA, 16, are fully trilingual, since they and their mother spent several years living in the U.S., and therefore have the opportunity to participate in American public school. But here they are, earn the most modest of bare existence, producing recicado for sale on Friday in San Juan Mixtepec weekly market.
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Family also maintains a growing squash, corn and beans. It is clear that meat and poultry, are terminals in their diet, it is not unusual for families in most rural communities in state.Â
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Current is sometimes added providers and families with small fish in certain periods year. And then there's a rabbit, squirrel, opossum, and fox. "I know that the city folk will not eat small animals like squirrels a buck, "Natividad said," but we here when we get it, and it's actually quite good. " Esteban proudly adds, that sometimes you may find the coyote and the wolf, but more often it up in mountains.Â
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Hilda and learn distilled Natividad from their parents and grandparents. However, in the first years, the plants used in the manufacture of wild species of agave, which had to be collected climbing hillsides. Then a few years ago, Fernando went to Matatlà ¡n, recognized the world capital of mezcal, and brought number of children agave Espadan plants. Espadan still the only kind of maguey, which is successfully grown throughout the state. So Now the family is able to grow their own agave in the more sparsely populated fertile valleys, some of which are homestead. A, but to what extent the knowledge of family members of the scientific process and function, appears to be insufficient, or rather essential. Â
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appearance Chiou (stem) is the first sign that maguey fully matured. Allow the stem shoot up a plant to produce a child should be the main means of reproduction Agave espadÃn. But Fernando and family harvest before Chiou rising from the heart plant. This inhibits their ability to increase the number of fields under cultivation (the plant produces "hijos" or children through the root system, but it is by way of reproduction and not rely on commercial companies). And equally important is that the race early harvest, by waiting for Chiou, cutting, and then allow natural sugars opportunity to meet the basic or "pia ±" plants, negative effects on the quality of the finished product.
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But just as traditional mezcal production dictates pia ±, which are baked in a pit about eight feet deep and two meters wide, on top of fuel wood and river stone. Rather than use synthetic materials to cover the "oven" layer of palm leaf topped with country utilized. However, the similarity between the normal mezcal production, and recicado, stops here. Â
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Instead, shred roasted agave with a mule or pony pulling lime wheel over it, around the circular enclosure, the powder cooked product by human power through a tree or clump A long hand-hewn wooden mallet pound roasted agave fiber at five meter long canoe-shaped wooden vessel. Four posts --- thick, straight tree --- support large "bags" made of bull hide, about four feet ground. covered in plastic, it is left out in the sun to ferment mash, four to five days. Â
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Distillation takes place in a protected area of the laminated metal roofing, located 20 meters home.A the family has four photos in the shape of an igloo, in accordance with the directly row. fashioned from stone and mud, each of which is practically identical with another. Starting from the bottom, opening, where the firewood contains tubular stone, which supports clay cylinder in which fermented juice and pulp are placed. Steam rises from it into the bottomless pot. clay pots is covered bowl, or something else that is available for use.Â
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Water from half a hollowed tree trunk goes over the photos and completed all four pieces of the bowl over a concave front of agave leaves of the four exit holes in the channel above. as steam increases and reaches a bowl, now water-cooled, condensing the place. liquid droplets on another piece of agave leaves, this time located on the inside side in the middle of a clay pot, and angled down into the small hole on the side container. liquid exits the vessel through hole. excavated length of the river reeds, firmly plugged into the hole and facing downwards ensures that recicado slowly flowing from the pot and urn. Â
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Primitive process mirror many steps and held some of the principles necessary for the production of mezcal more craft technique. But key elements missing, no doubt reflected in the quality of the spirit:
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- 1) As indicated, pia ± is harvested at an optimal time;
- 2) fermentation is complete after just a third of the time usually required to adequately Espadan way to ferment for mezcal production in the central valleys of Oaxaca, though the sun, and it helps permanently, as well as protected Lowland semi-tropical environment;
- 3) recicado is distilled only once.
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The result is a relatively low-alcohol beverage is light, almost sour taste. Yet local people buy and drink, and pays about twice price that the cost of acquiring the traditional 40 to 46 percent alcohol mezcal in towns and villages around the city and to Oaxaca. sure, I try recicado manufactured by a competitor down the road, and found that it is only slightly less unpleasant.
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In my return visit to Pueblo Viejo, I intend to order two or three liters of my favorite village of Sà mezcals ¡Nchez Cisneros family to sample. hope is that Fernando, Natividad and Hilda will include the opportunity to experiment with the production, and conceivably begin burning spirit plausible stories ... and at least a little kick. So who knows, maybe the family will be sold as mezcal, so recicado die slowly, and perhaps even welcomed death.Â
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However, care should be taken to not undermine the basic equipment and materials currently used in production. They hold a strong attraction for enthusiasts willing to do trek to Pueblo Viejo. But more importantly, that the principles of distillation followed, must remain for time immemorial, to bear witness to claim the production of spirits, a mere fermentation of agave juice, developed in the Mixtec region of Oaxaca from Alta Conquest and independent science and technology in the Western world.
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