There’s more to Mexican spirits than tequila

From mezcal to sotól, the agave plant delivers a bounty of styles and flavours to explore

“We were amazed,” wrote the Spanish conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo as he beheld the extent of the Aztec empire in 1521. “Some of our soldiers even asked whether the things that we saw were not a dream.” I remember feeling a similar vertigo when I first saw the wall of agave spirits at the long-since-closed Los Angeles mezcaleria Petty Cash more than a decade ago. Agave spirits are distilled from the fermented heart (or piña) of the agave plant – not a cactus, but a succulent, like aloe vera or that thing dying on your windowsill.

Tequila, from Jalisco, is the most famous kind, but it’s far from the only one, much as burgundy is just one way the French make wine. And here was an entire continent to (respectfully) explore: not only refined tequilas, but hundreds of mezcals from wild, untamable agaves: madrecuixe, arroqueño, tobalá and pulquero, some of which take 25 years to reach maturity. Beyond these foothills were spirits that had barely penetrated European bartending consciousness: sotól and raicilla, bacanora and pox (“posh”) made from maize, as well as pechuga, whose ingredients include, yum, poultry breasts. And all this at a time when a lot of tequila sold in Britain came topped with red plastic sombreros.

Happily, in the intervening years, the quality of Mexican eating and drinking in the UK has dramatically improved, though we still have some way to go to catch up with the Americans, who apparently drink 185,000 margaritas every hour. Tequila is now the UK’s fastest-growing spirit, and forecast to grow by about 10% each year until 2030, while mezcal, too, has developed beyond its hipster niche. I’d pitch the paloma – that is, tequila and grapefruit soda – as the cocktail most likely to “do an Aperol spritz” in the next few years, not least because, among its many plus points, it is one of the few cocktails that works really well in a can.

Tequila remains the most approachable way into agave, partly because it’s just so fun to mix. Two pieces of advice for anyone traumatised by teenage mishaps: a) always look for “100% blue agave” on the label; and b) avoid celebrity brands, unless you want to donate £10-15 to said celebrity.

Mezcal is more of an acquired taste, thanks to its faint tyre-fire notes – I have come to love it – but if you really want hipster points, skip straight to sotól, which is distilled in Chihuahua from the desert spoon agave: it’s herby, grassy, piney, ethereal and yet earthy.

Five Mexican spirits that are worth a try

Ocho 8 Blanco Tequila £30 (500ml) Waitrose, 40%. Pioneering “single-rancho” tequila that’s so much better than the celebrity brands.

Ojo de Dios Mezcal Espadín £47.10 (700ml) MexGrocer, 42%. A delicate, almost floral mezcal from a third-generation producer.

La Higuera Wheeleri Sotól £51.25 (700ml) The Whiskey Exchange, 44.1%. “Woah, slow down, maestro … there’s a new mezcal”? Meet your new obsession.

Arette Tequila Reposado £36 (700ml) Hedonism Wines, 38%. Deliciously smooth, barrel-rested tequila, perfect for sipping and mixing.

Moth Paloma £4 (200ml) Sainsbury’s, 10%. If you must drink a canned cocktail, make it a paloma. But, por el amor de Dios, please pour it over ice.