A Step-By-Step Guide to Hosting an Epic Mezcal Tasting Party
When it comes to entertaining your friends or business associates, the typical host just phones it in.
Instead of throwing a great event that people talk about for months, a gathering today usually involves random bottles of wine and five different kinds of buffalo-something-dip.
That’s what happens when no one takes the reigns.
But not you.
You aspire to greater things!
You aspire to one-up your neighbor’s lame “wine & cheese” parties. You long to show your boss how worldly you are so she gives you a raise. And you yearn to catch the eye of that special someone by showing them a good time at a party that YOU orchestrated.
Whatever your reason, hosting a mezcal tasting is unique and on-trend enough that, no matter who you invite, I’m willing to bet they’ve never seen anything quite like it before.
And that, my friend, is how you elevate yourself in the eyes of the entertaining Gods!
PREPARING TO HOST A MEZCAL TASTING
While you might be thinking that you lack the creativity or knowledge to host an extraordinary event, don’t worry. In this article, we’ll show you a step-by-step plan to help you execute a mezcal tasting party that delivers rave reviews at a house party, an office setting or in your own bar or restaurant.
Here are the five essential elements you’ll need to consider, followed by a detailed explanation of each one:
The Perfect Guest List
An Authentic Mexican Food Menu
Five Bottles of Mezcal
A Mezcal Tasting Presentation
An Evening Logistics Plan (plates, first hour, snacks, mains, music playlist, etc.)
Now let’s take a look at each one.
The Perfect Guest List For Your Mezcal Tasting
The key to a great mezcal tasting is keeping the size of your gathering small. We recommend approximately 10-15 people. Keeping the event small helps you build deeper relationships with the people you invite. It also makes it easier to manage the logistics of the event and keeps your costs under control as well.
Deciding who you invite to a small gathering is the hardest part of this process.
Depending on your goals for the party, you want to make sure that you have the right mix of people. With a tight-knit group, everyone will have to interact so you need to give strong consideration to the chemistry of the people who attend.
Eventually, mezcal will make everyone friends but you don’t want the first hour of your party to be awkward for anyone.
To illustrate, here are some typical party goals and some things that you want to consider in each situation.
— If you want to expand your network and meet new people...
Invite 4 to 5 good friends who are known to appreciate mezcal and tell them they need to bring 1 or 2 “mystery friends”. Typically they’ll bring someone you would like too.
— If you want to deepen your relationship with people you “sort of know” but want to get to know better…
Invite a core group of friends that you might have in common with these people and make sure everyone is aware of the guest list. It will ease anxiety and increase anticipation for the event.
— If you want to impress a girl or guy...
Just make sure that they don’t bring a date! And make sure they know someone else at the party so they don’t feel isolated when you’re entertaining everyone and can’t spend very much one-on-one time with them.
— If you want to increase sales of mezcal or launch a new mezcal brand....
While this article is geared more toward a small gathering, it should also resonate with mezcal brands and restaurants/bars. In this case, pick your most influential customers, investors, tastemakers, industry pundits and local socialites. The goal here is to boost word of mouth.
— If you want to connect deeper with mezcal connoisseurs...
To impress some mezcal aficionados, you’ll need to splurge on the type of mezcals you bring to sample because these folks won’t be impressed by much. In these settings, I like to bring some off-market mezcal that I smuggle into the US from Mexico. Consider inviting local celebrities like bar owners, musicians, politicians, etc.
— If you want to impress a potential client or existing business associates….
Invite some fun people who know how to schmooze in a business setting and won’t act like an amateur when their buzz kicks in.
The main thing to consider, no matter what your goal might be, is to make sure that the people who will attend your event will actually appreciate mezcal. Mezcal can be heavy on the pallet if you’ve never experienced it before and the last thing that you want is some idiot bad-mouthing the taste because they’re a lightweight who thinks that drinking Miller Lite counts as an alcoholic beverage. For the record...it doesn’t.
Some other things to consider...
Make sure you get confirmation from these people that they will come. Send a formal invitation via email or eVite. Your guests need to know that they have been carefully selected to attend this event. I like to send a formal email and/or eVite that builds excitement and gets people talking in the days and weeks leading up to the event.
——> Here’s an example of the last invitation I sent out. This might not be your style but I can attest that it got people talking about the event before, during and afterward!.
On the topic of invitations, make sure you have some backup friends that you can invite because a small gathering can be too small if someone bails. Especially if you went through the trouble of buying lots of mezcal and made some good Mexican food.
Speaking of food...
Design An Authentic Mexican Food Menu
Once you’ve carefully selected your guest list, it’s time to start planning your menu. And remember, you’re not just going for “ordinary”, you’re going for “memorable”.
The key to having great food at a party is maintaining 100% control of the menu. Let me explain.
Invariably, when you invite someone to a party, they will immediately ask you “What can I bring?” It’s critical that you have a plan in place when you get this question. Your “plan” should be a list of things that you’re willing to let people bring. If you don’t have a list, you’ll end up with a boring vegetable tray, store-bought chips with salsa and three versions of buffalo chicken dip. That makes your party is exactly the same as the last 50 parties they went to.
So when your guests RSVP and ask you “What can I bring?”, be ready to tell 75% of them to bring a 12 pack of Modelo, Corona and specific bottles of wine. Space it out so you know exactly what will arrive and who will bring it. For the other 25%, tell them to bring bags of ice.
If someone offers to bring mezcal to the party, tell them that it’s fine, but you’ll be using a pre-selected group of mezcals for the tastings. Keep their mezcal as a gift that you can open and share with them at a later date.
By giving people specific instructions, it takes pressure off of them and stocks your fridge or cooler full of Mexican beers for the party. And you’ll usually have plenty left over!
So we’ve established the fact that you’re not going to let anyone mess with the food and that we’re shooting for an amazing menu. The main thing I like to do is focus on really authentic Mexican food that typical guests wouldn’t be used to. Even if they are experienced foodies.
Specifically, I’m talking about mole sauce, roasted chapulines (crickets), salsa de chicatanas (ant salsa), tamales and unique guacamoles.
If some of the items above made you gag, that’s okay. You don’t really need people to eat crickets, you just need them to remember that you SERVED crickets at your epic mezcal tasting party.
People will talk about that for years.
——> Here is a link to the menu that I like to use when I’m hosting a tasting. It’s inexpensive, authentic, delicious and easy to execute.
If you can’t cook or don’t want to deal with it, there’s no shame in having it catered. Just make sure you’re not outsourcing your food buffet to Chipotle or some other burrito joint. You do that and you’re dead to me.
If you’re a major baller, consider hiring a personal chef who knows their way around a hot comal.
The Mezcal Tasting Menu - Mezcal Selection
So you have your guest list taken care of and you’ve landed on a solid plan for an impressive Mexican food menu. Now it’s time for the main event -- purchasing a thoughtful selection of mezcal.
Depending on where you live, a good selection of mezcal could be easy to find or it could be nearly impossible. In the United States, unless you live in a major city, it’s typically difficult to find liquor stores that carry a good selection. As a result, I normally travel to a big city like New York or Chicago to stock up. Or, I order it online.
Just be careful with the online idea. It can take up to 10 days for your mezcal to arrive and it might be illegal in your state. For the record, if you’re going to jail don’t worry. Smuggling mezcal across state lines gets you major street cred in the pen.
On a serious note, the first thing that we need to cover is the cost. For the most part, mezcal is not cheap. Even on the low end, you can expect to pay around $50 per bottle. But to throw the type of event that I’m suggesting here, I’m going to recommend picking up some bottles that run north of $75. Some can be as high as $150+.
The key thing to consider when putting together your mezcal line up is that you want to take your guest on a journey. Similar to a wine tasting where you would typically start with a lighter, fruitier wine first (so as not to overwhelm the pallet early), you’ll want to do something similar with mezcal. You should also come up with a theme for the evening.
Here are a few different ideas to get your wheels turning.
Multi-brand | Multi-varietal Mezcal Flight
This is the most common tasting setup. You basically choose 5 to 6 mezcal varietals from different producers and line them up so participants can taste the difference between the different varietals.
For example, it might look something like this:
#1 - El Mero Mero Espadin
#2 - Cuentacuentos Cuishe
#3 - El Jogorio Mexicano
#4 - Vago Ensamble
#5 - Bozal Pechuga
In general, no matter what theme you choose, I recommend that you start with a brand of 100% Espadin agave mezcal that has a lower alcohol volume (40%) and work your way up to some rare agave mezcals made in clay pots that will have higher alcohol volumes that run north of 50%. This strategy allows your guests to enjoy a progression of flavors without overwhelming their taste buds early on in the process.
Single Producer Mezcal Flight
One of my favorite flights is the single producer kind. So instead of buying 5 random bottles from 5 different brands, try to get 4 or 5 different bottles from the same producer. While they might not have been made by the same Mezcalero or even in the same palenque (mezcal production facility), using a single brand plays a cool jedi mind trick on your guests in a positive way.
Since they’re less focused on WHO makes the mezcal, they tend to focus more on the differences in flavor from bottle to bottle. And that’s one of the outcomes that you want from your tasting. You want people to be able to identify the nuances of different types of agaves and production methods. Here’s an example:
#1 - Real Minero Espadin
#2 - Real Minero Cuishe
#3 - Real Minero Largo
#4 - Real Minero Ensamble
#5 - Real Minero Pechuga
Regional Mezcal Flights
If you’re dealing with a savvy mezcal crowd, you might be able to impress them with a regional line up. Mezcal can only be produced in specific states of Mexico and they tend to have a certain “terroir” depending on where they were produced. Here’s an example of a regional flight of mezcals:
#1 - La Luna Cupreata (Michoacan)
#2 - Amaras Cupreata (Guerrero)
#3 - Leyenda Puebla (Puebla)
#4 - Derrumbes Durango (Durango)
#5 - Derrumbes Tamaulipas (Tamaulipas)
Single Agave Mezcal Flight
If you know that you like the taste of a certain agave, consider doing a single agave tasting. This probably isn’t the best choice if you’re dealing with a group of people who are relatively new to mezcal because they won’t get the range of flavors that you might get from doing one of the tastings mentioned above. With this line up you’re tasting the same plant, made by different mezcaleros who might have used different methods. So you’ll need a refined pallet here. Here’s an example:
#1 - Banhez Tobalá
#2 - Quiquiriqui Tobalá
#3 - Erstwhile Tobalá
#4 - Lalocura Tobalá
#5 - El Mero Mero Tobalá
Single Mezcal Production Method Flight
If you want to get really wild and crazy, do a Pechuga flight. Pechuga Mezcal is unique in that the Mezcalero hovers a sack with some form of meat (turkey, lamb, etc) along with some aromatic spices above the mezcal in the final distillation process. It imparts a unique flavor that some like and some don’t. Either way, the flavor profiles tend to be quite different from producer to producer. And even batch to batch! Here are some good ones:
#1 - Pierde Almas Mezcal de Conejo
#2 - Siete Misterios Pechuga
#3 - Yuu Baal Pechuga
#5 - Bozal Pechuga
#5 - Real Minero Pechuga
The main idea with putting together a theme is to give your guests more knowledge about the different variety of mezcals on the market and also to expose their pallet to the different flavors from one region, one agave or one production method from the next.
In addition to your mezcal, you’ll definitely want to consider providing some additional elements that make the experience more enjoyable.
-- Sal de guasano
This is the equivalent of margarita salt except it contains chilies and ground up worms)
-- Orange slices.
Oranges or grapefruit slices are preferred to limes because the sweetness works will with the smokiness of mezcal.
-- Copitas or Jicaras
These are the really cool cups that serious drinkers use when sipping mezcal. We have some available in our online store if you need them.
One other thing to mention regarding alcohol. You should hold off on letting people sample any of the mezcals until it’s time for the tasting. If they’re new or relatively new to mezcal, you really want them to experience it together with an educational presentation. They’ll appreciate it more and it will hopefully hook them on the unique story of how mezcal is made so they become advocates for the rest of their lives.
The Mezcal Educational Presentation
The story of how mezcal is made is the number one aspect that is fueling its popularity at the moment. Most mezcals are still physically made by hand in Mexico, in small batches, by a Mezcalero with a family recipe passed down over several generations.
As a result, I have found that simply lining up a few different mezcals for a tasting without telling your guests about mezcal culture doesn’t have nearly the same impact as doing some mezcal education beforehand.
When you educate your guests prior to tasting, the story of mezcal forms a bond with your tasters and they appreciate it more. When they learn about the differences between ancestral, artisanal and industrial mezcal, they will actually taste the difference. And when they see how much labor goes into a single bottle of mezcal, they’ll be able to explain where the smokiness comes from and why it costs so much.
To help you tell this story, I’ve prepared a presentation that you can download and use. The presentation uses pictures to illustrate the mezcal production process and will educate your guests about the differences between the types of mezcal available on the market.
Download it here --> (Coming Soon)
If you don’t want to be so formal, you should at the VERY LEAST put together a one-pager that you can use to simply talk your guests through the tasting. It should cover the brand, the production method, the alcohol content and if, known, the mezcalero.
I’ve done that here for you as well --> (Coming Soon)
How To Run Your Mezcal Tasting - The Plan
So we’ve covered the perfect guest list, an amazing mexican menu, a thoughtful mezcal selection and an educational element to wow your “audience”. Now it’s time to put it all together so that you can execute a perfect evening.
The best way to do that is to have an event logistics plan.
I’m not a professional event planner but I’ve catered enough family and friend parties to know that sitting down and sketching out a plan on how the evening should flow is an essential move.
Everything from when you want people to arrive, to where you’re going to do the tasting, to where you’ll store the extra beer that doesn’t fit in the refrigerator, to what music to play -- it’s always good to script it out.
The number of details are endless but you should think through each one so that you’re not running around like an idiot trying to make decisions when your guests are starting to arrive.
You should be relaxed, prepared and ready to entertain.
Here are a few items to think about:
As your guests arrive:
Have appetizers out and ready to be eaten before your first guest arrives.
Have drinks visible and on ice with glasses nearby so you can serve your guests a beverage within the first 2 minutes of their arrival. Or they can self-serve.
Unless you’ve hired a bartender, avoid coming up with complex cocktails that you or your guests will get stuck making (and making a mess). Keep things simple by serving beer and wine. If you’re going to do cocktails pick one or two that can be made quickly with two or three ingredients.
Have a plan for where to put shoes, coats, hats, etc.
Have the music playing.
Set the correct lighting.
Introduce people to each other.
The first 30 minutes:
Try to get around to each guest and give them a rough overview of the event. “We’re going to have a couple drinks and snacks. We’ll serve dinner in about an hour. Then we’ll do the mezcal tasting. Then we’ll probably dance naked or something.” You never know with mezcal!
Make sure people are snacking and not drinking the mezcal or getting too drunk. Mezcal is strong and you don’t want anyone getting out of control or sick.
Start setting up for dinner.
Serve Dinner:
Make it simple by preparing a buffet. See the sample menu above. It’s designed for self-service and ease of eating.
Clean up as best you can but leave the food out for people that want to continue picking to offset their buzz throughout the evening.
Hold the Tasting
In your prearranged area, have your mezcal bottles, presentation, cups, oranges, etc ready.
Start getting people over to the tasting area. They’ll probably be slightly intoxicated by this time so you’ll need to be patient with the chatty ones. This is why it’s important to keep the size of the group small. Consider splitting the party up into two groups as well. Separating men and woman tends to work well too :)
After the Tasting:
Turn the music up and just enjoy yourself. You’ve nailed it!
Make sure people have an option to crash at your place or call a friend/cab/uber/lyft.
The Next Day:
Send a thank you email to everyone for coming. Make sure you say that you found a pair of women’s panties in the kitchen and you’d like to return them to their rightful owner :)
Now go host your own mezcal tasting!
Hopefully this article has given you some good ideas or helped you visualize the playbook for how you’re going to host your own mezcal tasting party. While you don’t need to go to the extremes that I’ve listed here, just know that you can always just get a couple friends together, grab a couple bottles of mezcal and enjoy them over some light conversation. I’ve done that many a night and have never been disappointed.