Tequila vs. Mezcal: How to Taste the Difference (and Find the One You Love)

The plant

Tequila is made from one agave, blue weber, and it comes from a defined region centered on Jalisco.

Mezcal can be made from a long list of agave varieties, with espadín the most common, and it comes mostly from Oaxaca. Different agave species carry genuinely different flavors, which is a large part of why mezcal covers so much more ground than tequila does.

The cooking, which is where the smoke comes from

This is the real difference and it is worth understanding, because it explains the flavor everybody notices immediately.

Agave has to be cooked to convert its starches into fermentable sugar. Tequila producers generally cook it in ovens or industrial autoclaves. Clean heat, no smoke.

Mezcal is traditionally cooked in a pit dug into the ground, lined with hot rocks and wood, and covered over for several days. The agave sits in contact with smoke that entire time.

That is where the smoky character comes from. Not from a flavoring, not from a barrel. From the fire it was cooked over.

What this means for what you should try

If you have only had tequila in a mixed drink, the thing to try is a blanco on its own. Unaged, straight from distillation, it tastes like cooked agave: green, a little sweet, peppery. Most people are surprised by how much is going on.

If you already like a peaty scotch, mezcal is going to make immediate sense. Different source, similar logic.

If smoke is not your thing, that does not close the door on mezcal. The intensity varies a great deal between producers, and there are bottles where it sits far in the background.

Do not decide from a description

Smoke is one of the most polarizing flavors there is. Some people take one sip and are done. Others say it is the most interesting thing they have tasted all year.

You cannot tell which one you are by reading about it. Four dollars a taste settles it in about ninety seconds.