Joven Mezcal

Joven simply means young: the mezcal goes from the second distillation into glass with no barrel time at all. Nothing softens the spirit, so every decision in the palenque shows up in the glass — how long the agave roasted in the earthen pit, whether it was crushed by tahona or by hand, how wild the fermentation ran, and where the distiller made the cuts.

The classic profile is woodsmoke and roasted agave over green herbs, citrus peel, wet stone and a warm mineral finish. Smoke should be a frame, not the whole picture; when a Joven tastes like a campfire and nothing else, the agave was usually over-roasted or the batch was rushed.

Almost every mezcal you will meet is Joven, which makes it the fairest way to compare producers, villages and agave species side by side.