Ivan Vasquez spends about two months out of the year traveling throughout Mexico looking for the most authentic mezcals he can find. Usually he’ll just bring back bottles of rare mezcal made by master mezcaleros who follow centuries of tradition. The bottles line the walls at the bars of his four local high-end Oaxacan restaurants.
But this time he’s going a step further and instead of just bottles, he’s bringing some of Mexico’s best master mezcaleros to the U.S. for his inaugural Mezcal Por Siempre, a one-day festival where people can get a taste of the traditional Mexican spirit right from those who are making the ancient indigenous drink the way its been done for centuries.
“The traditional mezcal is not looking to satisfy the American palette, with all due respect. It represents the flavor and the historical taste of the community where it comes from,” said Vasquez, the restaurateur behind the new festival.
“They represent what the community has been drinking for many many centuries,” he added.
The festival will take place from 3-8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14 at LA River Studios. It will include more than 120 varieties of mezcals from 50 mezcalero producers from Mexico that Vasquez discovered personally from his many travels through his native country. The majority of the producers have never been to the U.S. before, and except for the times he’s able to get his hands on some of their products for his local restaurants, Vasquez said many of them don’t sell their products outside of Mexico.
So festival-goers can expect to taste real authentic mezcal made from indigenous traditional mezcaleros as opposed to large commercial producers, he said.
Those who attend the festival will be able to get unlimited mezcal samples poured by visiting mezcaleros from places such as Oaxaca, where most of Mexico’s mezcal is made, as well as mezcal hotspots like Puebla, Guerrero, Michoacan, Jalisco, San Luis Potosi, Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, Nuevo Leon and…
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