Guides / The smoke problem: when mezcal is too smoky
The smoke problem: when mezcal is too smoky
The category's most stubborn myth is that mezcal is characterized by smoke. It isn't – and the bottles that prove it are the ones you should be drinking.
By The Editors · · 5 min read
Every mezcal convert eventually meets the same conversational wall: friends who 'don't like mezcal' because 'it tastes like a campfire.' They aren't entirely wrong. Most commercial mezcal – especially the kind ordered in margaritas or poured at wedding bars – is aggressively smoky, sometimes to the point of tasting like a burnt tire. But that profile is a production choice, not a category essence, and many of the best mezcals in the catalog are barely smoky at all.
Smoke in mezcal comes from the pit-oven–cooking stage. Agaves are roasted for three to seven days over hardwood and volcanic rock; the smoke permeates the agave hearts and carries through distillation into the final spirit. The choice of wood (mesquite, encino, oak), the length of the cook, the density of the pile, and the humidity during roasting all influence how much smoke ends up in the glass.
Commercial producers aiming for a broad market often push the smoke higher – it's the most legible category marker, the one-word brand identity mezcal has in the public imagination. Specialty producers, especially those working in wild agaves, often tune the smoke down deliberately; a tepeztate that tastes like a campfire has been cooked wrong, and the producer will admit it.
The bottles that disprove the 'mezcal is smoke' argument: Mestiza Negra (faint smoke, light body, butter and citrus forward), NETA Tobala Capón (floral, mineral, almost no smoke), Real Minero Espadín (savory, mineral, barely any smoke despite being clay-pot–distilled), Derrumbes Zacatecas (the closest thing to tequila in the category, negligibly smoky), Nuestra Soledad San Baltazar (clean, food-friendly). Pour any of these for someone who 'doesn't like mezcal' and watch them recalibrate.
The bottles that earn the 'smoky mezcal' reputation honestly: Del Maguey Vida (bar-well standard, assertive smoke), Ilegal Joven (mid-smoke, commercial profile), Siete Misterios Doba-Yej (smoky house-brand espadín), Casamigos Mezcal (industrially smoky in the worst way). These are fine in cocktails, but not the bottles to open when trying to convince someone that the category has more to offer.