Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Before Cascane's tequila was known for bold, high proof tequila, there was nuestres fracillas, an agave spirit that represents the roots, the philosophy and the methods of the flavors that built this brand. This isn't a side project. This is an agave spirit that's the foundation of Cascanes today. And I'm so excited that they actually went back out to the jungle and made the original juice that the guys first tasted. I got to go visit the distillery this week with the group from Cascanes and had an amazing trip. And one of the coolest things about about it was traveling down out of tequila into the valley of San Martin and driving up into the jungle where the vans couldn't even take us. We got to this water, we had to stop and get out of the van and we walked up this road into this little, hard to call it a distillery. That's a palenque, that's literally built at a house and that's where the original jungle juice was made. So when it got there, they wanted to show us the whole process. And of course it starts with great blue Weber agave, you know. And from there they have this wood fired oven that heats up a boiler and sends steam into what really kind of looks like a man made autoclave. It looks like they've taken just an old tank, cut a door in it, fit it with some pipes and fill it full of steam and those agaves are then cooked in there. And Umberto, he came out and showed us the way that he gets the fire going and cooks those agaves and had some agave in there for us to taste. It was fantastic. From there they take those agaves and they put them in the back of this old square body pickup truck. And I got to tell you, I don't think that pickup truck can go anywhere. Those agaves are loaded in the back of that truck and they are chopped up with an axe. So they're broken up into small pieces. And they fire up this old Chevy inline six cylinder that has a little transmission on it that runs a shredder. And from there they pitchfork and scoop the agaves into that shredder. They. The shredder then is throwing the agaves out of the of the shredder as hard as it can and it smacks into this wall and falls down on the ground. From there they pick up those agaves that have been shredded and they put them into a giant tank. Now, you know, you're thinking ruler mill or tahona or even a mallets. In a canoe. No, none of that. They just take those agaves, they put them in this big giant tank full of water and from there they squeeze the agaves by hand. They are squeezing and moving and pull those agaves and extracting those juices by hand in that tank. And from there, once that squeezing and all that juice is out of there, they just leave those fibers in there with that and they let it ferment from that fermentation point. No matter how long it takes. Wild yeast, it's ambient in the area, nothing else done to it. Whatever nature does to make that come together, nature does it. So once it's all fermented, they move it from there to two wood fired stills. So again, firewood underneath, heating that still up and. And out comes this amazing juice again, twice distilled. This product came out at 47% ABV still strength. Nice picture of Humberto right there on the bottle. I'll tell you, the first time I seen him, to me he looked so cool. It looked like John Wayne and Burt Reynolds had a baby. He had a big smile on his face. Knowing that he makes some fantastic juice. What I want to do is I want to compare these two a little bit together. I have a little bit of last year. So let's pour that in the good old agave social club glass and let's, let's give it a nose.
[00:03:40] First of all, it's a little funky. It's got a real earthy cooked agave smell to it. Very vegetal. Pick up some of that wet earth.
[00:03:51] There is a hint of citrus, a hint of sage.
[00:04:00] So many flavors in this, but it still has that essence of great tequila. So let's take a taste of it.
[00:04:11] Creamy buttery cooked agave. That grassy hay straw note is there, the earthy note, just fantastic. And this sold out. You can't buy it. So why am I doing a video about it? Well, I want to do a video to show what the distillery looks like in the process of making it and let you know what this batch 2 cascane still strength is going to taste like. Now here's a guarantee it's not coming to the market at this strength because we were right in the puntas of the cut, which is the distiller's cut. It's the highest proof piece and Umberto told us this was probably somewhere around 65 to 70% alcohol, so 47 when it came to market. This is the highest proof part of distillation and this is that on steroids. That minerality that cooked Agave, you get some pepper in the nose, the vegetal notes in the nose, and some real baking spices as well. Now, I tasted this a little bit last night. This thing is fire. It's so high proof. You get all these flavors. So I'm going to dive into it.
[00:05:25] You get celery, earthy notes, that grassy note, or sage notes, like, really kicked up. And the finish has, like, this really white and black pepper hit that kind of becomes a little bit minty and oddly enough, a little bit citrus. And I don't get any citrus in this one, but I do in this one. So it's really a different flavor, I think, basically because it is in the heart of that cut and the proof is so high. So I will tell you this next release. The second batch of this new estherase riceas is coming out in June, So you're gonna have to keep your eyes out for it. We got a couple of months they're making it now. It's not a giant release, and it won't be exactly like this one just because of nature and how this is made, but it is a different profile than what we're used to in some tequilas, and it gives you a little bit more of that traditional type flavor. So if you understand cascanes, they are a brand that is making some fantastic products. They put their whole heart into this, trying to make the best product that they can and going back to their roots to find out what the original flavor was that they originally tasted. To fall in love with tequila, and this is it, our roots, you have to check it out. If you care about how agave spirits are made, why they taste the way they do, or you want to hear more reviews or more information about tequila, make sure you hit that subscribe button, that like button. If you've had this version, let me know what you think. And if you're excited about the next one, put it in the comments. Have a great night, guys. Thanks for watching my videos. Cheers.
