Most mezcaleros are quick to point out connection between the quality of their materia prima and the quality of the spirits they make. Garbage in, garbage out is hardly a concept unique to agave spirits. Of course, part of what makes a mezcalero good at their job is the ability to get their hands on quality maguey, either by growing it themself, or more often, by purchasing it from talented magueyeros (agave farmers). Towards the bottom of the pile, you’ll find mezcaleros who don’t know or care enough to source quality maguey, and wind up working with immature or poorly raised plants. Moving up the ranks, we find most mezcaleros know the difference between good and great plants, but are limited by what they’re able to get their hands on.

At 35, Javier Barranca, the man behind the papalote Velilla in Agave Mixtape Vol 6, is relative newcomer to the maguey market, which might put him toward the back of the line for quality plants if it wasn’t for his abuelito Ciro, one of Guerrero’s super OG distillers, whose name rings bells with the region’s magueyeros and lovers of agave spirits across Mexico.

The relationship between magueyero and mezcalero in Chilapa sometimes involves cash sales for maguey, but like many other parts of Mexico, the standard arrangement is to work a medias or “on halves.” Magueyeros give a crop of maguey to the mezcalero, who turns it into spirits, and then gives half of the production back to the magueyero who can sell it or have it for parties. On more than one occasion, we’ve offered to pay a magueyero for his half of a batch and been turned down because they’d rather have a party with mezcal and use the money to buy beer for the same party. It’s a dynamic that asks a lot of trust on the part of the magueyero - trust that the mezcalero will be honest about how many liters were produced, trust that the spirits they receive will make a top quality party. Given the stakes on both sides of the deal, it’s no surprise that these relationships become multi-generational.

The maguey used in this batch came from the village of Ocotitlán in the area known as Las Joyas, some 15 miles (1-2 hours depending on the weather) North of the Barrancas home in Ahuacuotzintla. Las Joyas has long had a reputation among mezcaleros as being home to some of the best maguey in Guerrero, but this is the first batch that either Ciro or Javier have ever sourced from the area. In their opinion, it lives up to the hype.

Mature papalote (A. cupreata) suitable for making agave spirits comes in two forms velilla and capón. A plant is considered velilla when it enters its reproductive state, just before the quiote (flower stalk) begins to sprout, and can be identified by the pencas at the center turning a light shade of green. A plant is considered capón once the quiote has been cut. After its quiote is cut, the plant requires at least 3 months of rest in the field before it’s ready to be harvested (if harvested sooner, the plant will give an “off” taste), but it can allowed to sit for up to two years. Bottles of Mal Bien papalote labeled capón are all 2 year capón. Generally speaking, maguey that’s been capón for 1-2 years is the most highly prized, but a true batch of maguey velilla is considered quite special as well, partly for its flavor, but also that it requires all the plants to have reached maturity simultaneously and the schedule to be determined by nature, as opposed to being caponed and kept until the mezcalero is ready to work with them.