Marca Negra Mezcal Tepeztate

“Marca Negra” translates literally as “black mark.” If you look carefully at the bottles of their premium Mezcal you will notice that — in addition to the modern label — a black hand print is silkscreened onto each flask-shaped bottle. That’s kind of creepy AND cool at the same time. They produce a variety of Mezcals that are differentiated by the type of agave used and the town in which it was made. This means that every release is in extremely limited supply.

Marca Negra Mezcal Tepeztate comes from the town of San Luis del Rio — a small riverside town smack-dab in the middle of the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Marca Negra’s motto is “Buen Mescal Hecho a Mano,” which means “good Mezcal made by hand.” And in this case, the hands that make Marca Negra Mezcal Tepeztate are attached to mezcalero Jorge Mendez. He exclusively uses wild Tepeztate Agave plants that are twenty-five to thirty years old. It can be REALLY hard to lay your hands on a bottle due to limited supply and because some fans claim it is the best Tepeztate Mezcals available outside of Oaxaca.