You know Wagyu beef as a high-end food ingredient — but how about using it in a liquor? That’s the idea of a unique new mezcal which brings real Wagyu into the distillation process to add a rich, savory note to the agave spirit.
The invention comes from brand Paquera, an artisanal mezcal cooperative out of Oaxaca. Paquera makes mezcal which is categorized as ancestral, a strict certification which requires the spirit to be prepared using traditional methods. The agave must be crushed by hand using mallets or using a mule-driven stone mill, and it must be cooked in an underground pit oven using rocks or firewood. The agave juices are left in vats made of wood, stone, clay, or animal skin to ferment naturally, and the distillation includes both the fibers and the juice of the agave.
All of this creates a mezcal which is rich in flavor and which keeps the traditional methods of mezcal making alive. But ancestral mezcals needn’t be purely traditional, as the new release from Paquera shows.
Paquera’s Mezcal Ancestral with Wagyu uses open-range Tajima Wagyu from the Arrington Ranch in Twin Bridges, Montana. The beef is wrapped in twine and suspended in the clay pots in which the first part of the distillation process happens, letting flavors drip from the Wagyu and into the mezcal. This brings along not only flavors but also texture, adding a rich buttery finish to the spirit.
The brand is also releasing its Mezcal Artesanal with Mango, which uses mangoes to add fruity notes to the mezcal.
You can purchase the limited edition Wagyu mezcal from tomorrow, July 31, from Paquera’s website.
