Hear the Bells – Convite Espadin Mezcal

Well, it seems that no matter how hard I try to write about other spirits, I always seem to circle back to mezcal. Of course, there is nothing wrong with tequila’s smoky ancestor, but I thought that I have some interesting ones and that should be enough. However, it turns out that there are still a lot of interesting bottlings to discover. In this case it is a smoky one which just seems perfect for “La Ultima Palabra” cocktails.

The agaves for the Convite Espadin Esencial Mezcal grow on rocky grounds for eight years. It takes around 10 kg of agaves for one litre of mezcal. After smoking the Pinas in conical stone ovens in San Baltazar Guelavila, Oaxaca, the agave hearts are crushed in a Tahona. The fermentation occurs naturally with the addition of some spring water. Next, the discontinued double distillation takes place on copper Alembic stills under the watch of the two mezcaleros Cosme and Daniel Hernández Martínez. The Convite Mezcal is bottled at an ABV of 40 %.

Smoky, but smooth

The Convite Espadin Esencial is an almost stereo-typical mezcal. Do not get me wrong, it is a high quality spirit. My point is this, if you hand a glass to someone who had never tried a mezcal before, he will afterwards know what this spirit is. You can find quite a lot of smoke in the Convite which reminded me of bonfire smoke. Apart from that, you also taste noticeable glue notes which in the case of mezcal are intentional. Additionally, I also found some grassy notes, worm salt and even a hint of white wine. In the taste the Convite has more spices. All in all, this mezcal is perfect for people who want to check out mezcal and of course also for cocktails.

Fruity and savoury

For my own cocktail creation with the Convite I chose a highball style drink. I kind of built the drink around the bitters here, because I always wanted to use the Dr. Sours Bloody Maria Bitters. However, until now I did not really find the perfect combintion. Yet, with this drink I paired them with mezcal, red currant syrup and ginger ale. To balance out the sweetness of the syrup and the lemonade I also threw in some lime.

The “Hear the Bells” starts of with some smoke and sweet ginger notes from the lemonade. After a while the red currant syrup and the lime become noticeable in an interesting sweet and sour mix. Obviously, you should not really be able to taste the bitters, but they add to the depth and complexity of the cocktail. Below you will also find the recipe for the “La Ultima Palabra” with the Convite which also turned out pretty well. The mezcal added enough smoke and flavour to stand up against the other flavourful ingredients of the cocktail.

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The mezcal was provided by Casa del Mezcal.