Reviews / 5 Sentidos Ticunchi
Review · · by The Editors
5 Sentidos Ticunchi
Alvarez's solo ticuchi – a micro-agave, a micro-review
Score: 3.5/5 agaves
- Producer: 5 Sentidos
- Maestro: Amando Alvarez
- Region: Santa María Ixcatlán, Oaxaca
- Agave: Ticuchi
- ABV: 45%
- Price: $155 ($$)
Verdict
One consensus rating and a range of possible proofs makes this hard to grade confidently. The Alvarez palenque runs honest work, and if you land a bottle at the higher end of that range it plays more interestingly. If you're curating a Mixteca flight it earns a slot for agave diversity; otherwise his papalometl or papalome ensambles will teach you more about Ixcatlán. Not a priority buy.
When the label says '45-50%' you're buying luck along with the liquid
Tasting notes
Nose: Dry stone, cooked agave, a thread of green herb
Palate: Ticuchi is genuinely niche and the bottle is proof-variable (labeled 45-50%, which itself tells you batch-to-batch variance). At the lower end the agave feels compressed; at the higher end it opens usefully. Alvarez's hand is steady either way
Finish: Short-to-medium, dry, chalky
The bottom line
A pass unless you're building a complete Alvarez set