The Mezcal Made for the Dead? | Prolijo Pechuga Día de Los Muertos Review

[00:00:00] Welcome back to tasting tequila with Brad. Today we're not in Jalisco. We're heading south to Oaxaca for something truly special. Trujillo Mezcal. Pachuga Dia de los Muertes. The Day of the Dead. Pachuga. This stuff is special. It's not your average mezcal. This bottle is literally crafted with the spirit of ancestors in mind. Maestro mezcalero Oscar Ramirez Santiago distilled this right right after the day of the Dead, using the same fruit that's been placed on his family altar to welcome the loved ones home. That's where the name Dia de los Muertes comes from. Two days after the celebration, Oscar began distilling inside those copper stills where he placed the same fruit. Guava, apples, and bananas. Then he suspended three chicken breasts above the still to capture those savory vapors. On top of that, he added molinegro, spices, cinnamon, clove, cacao, pepper, and chili. The result, pachuga, which in mezcal terms means a mezcal redistilled with fruit, nuts, spices, and meat. Traditionally done for only one of the most sacred occasions. It's made in etel, Oaxaca, from semic cultivated espadine agave grown on the hillside, harvested after five to 10 years of maturity. The batch size, only 600L. That's about 800 bottles worldwide. Let's dive into this one on the nose. Right away, you get roasted agave, dark chocolate, a little bit of that warm mole spice, cinnamon and clove. And then to me, you get, like a dried fruit, some kind of plum or fig, a little bit of citrus zest, and a little bit of funkiness in there as well. Let's dive into the palate. Man, that is rich and layered. This is where that pachuga magic really hits. Sweet baked fruit up front, balanced with a little bit of earthy smoke. Then it becomes really savory. [00:01:47] Those have to be from the undertones of that chicken breast infusion. And the spice in this just keeps building. It's very complex. It is 48 ABV. And this thing is. This is just really good. It's very beautiful. The sweetness in this. It's really hard for me to explain how this dried fruit flavor, along with this interesting agave flavor, becomes sweet peppery. The finish is long, it's warm. You get a little bit of that smoke there. It kind of lingers. But I also pick up a little bit of cacao and pepper, and there's almost a type of nut. Kind of want to say almond, but it's very Nutty. In the end, when you think about the rituals that go behind this, it's almost like you can taste those rituals in each sip. This mezcal right here isn't just a normal mezcal. The pachuca makes it so much more special. You drink this in a sipping manner that would be a crime to me to put this into a cocktail of some kind. And it's really something to share. Oscar and his family believe their souls or their ancestors are within every bottle. So when you share this, you're inviting everybody to the table and to give a little story. On top of that, a very good friend of mine who is from around US Mexico, who moved here to Indianapolis, just bought his first home. And I got him one of these bottles as a gift to open for him purchasing his very first home. And we did something that's done a lot in Mexico that's a ritual of honoring those ancestors before you. The very first glass we had went to the soil. We poured our glasses, we dumped some onto the ground to give that first taste to the ancestors that I'm sure were there cheering on Johnny purchasing his first home. So this is something that you share and you sip on. It's incredibly, incredibly special. There's only 600 liters. I don't know how many of them are left. You definitely want to go to Frolio's website and see if there's any left. If you enjoyed this deep dive into a traditional mezcal, hit the like button. Drop a comment. Check out my full review library at. Tasting Tequila with bread. Salute. Cheers.