Beyond Mezcal: Meet the next Mexican spirits primed for UK entry

Mexican spirits have enjoyed a steady rate of growth in the UK over the past few years, with trends driven by tequila and boosted by the emergence of mezcal. Indeed, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) last year revealed that volume sales of tequila rose by 83% in UK shops and supermarkets compared to pre-Covid levels, and up by 94% in value. And, in UK pubs and restaurants, the tequila category had outgrown pre-Covid times by 8% in volume and 11% in value.

In the US, tequila recently surpassed American whiskey in value terms to become the country's second most valuable spirit category, with its 'smokier cousin' Mezcal riding the wave of interest in Mexican spirits to become one of the trendiest options for mixologists and barmen across the pond.

And, in the UK, mezcal started making waves from around 2020, with Nick Gillett, managing director of spirits distributor Mangrove, revealing that "demand for mezcal [that year] was up a mouth-watering 1,000%", albeit from a small starting point.

But it's just the start, with broadening UK consumer demand for traditional, high-ABV, premium Mexican spirits to give rise to Sotol, the distilled, 38% ABV spirit made from the Dasylirion succulent (or Desert Spoon) rather than agave - a key differentiator from the norm.

Bright, grassy and with subtle pepper notes; Sotol's complex flavour profile will be used to great effect by cocktail bars in the UK, with the agave-based Raicilla and Bacanora also to benefit from ever-rising interest in traditional Mexican spirit options.

Tequila is just the start of the Mexican spirits category. Made from the blue agave plant (agave azul), tequila is only produced inside the Mexican state of Jalisco and in some municipalities in Guanajuato, Michoacan, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas. Traditionally, any agave-based distilled spirit produced outside of these regions is referred to in Mexico as mezcal.

According to these traditional Mexican classifications, spirits such as sotol, bacanora and raicilla are subtypes of mezcal, even though the former is made without agave. It's all to do with the distillation techniques, with oven-roasting a distinctive stage. Once harvested, the hearts of the agave plants (or in the case of sotol, the desert spoon) are then cooked either in an above-ground conical ovens or in large underground pits, before being crushed, combined with water, and allowed to ferment.

It's this cooking stage that gives mezcal its distinctive smoky flavour. In contrast, the blue agave hearts used to make tequila aren't cooked.

So, with mezcal increasingly finding favour among a growing consumer cohort seeking authentic, flavourful drinking experiences within the realm of Mexican spirits, either in cocktails or served neat; it seems logical that regional subtypes of mezcal will soon enter the spotlight, with sotol, raicilla and bacanora now primed to enter the fray.