400 Conejos Espadin Mezcal Joven, Oaxaca, Mexico

At Flaviar, we respect the Spirit Gods and so did the ancient Mesoamericans.

Alcohol was a serious deal for the Aztecs and in their ancient society, only priests were allowed to drink during rituals to establish a communication channel with all sorts of Gods (we know which profession we’d choose in those days). But who were these Booze Gods, anyway? Well, they were 400 rabbits, it seems. Apparently 400 represented an infinite number for the Aztecs and these drunken rabbits were the children of the Goddes of Alcohol Mayahuel and the God of Medicine, Petecatl, symbolizing 400 different ways you could get intoxicated from alcohol. When you drank, you could never one which of the 400 would take over your body and each rabbit had a different effect (if all 400 of them possessed you, we imagine the next morning was tough.)

Rooted in an ancient mezcal-making tradition, 400 Conejos Joven – conejos means rabbits in Spanish – is created by Don Tacho and his son Joel Santiago in Tlacolula, Oaxaca, Mexico. After the Espadin agave reaches maturity in about 8-10 years, the Maestro Mezcalero carefully picks it and the piñas are slow cooked for 3-5 days in a cone-shape wood oven, milled by stone, drawn by a horse, fermented in a wooden tub and then double distilled in copper. It’s all very slow and ancient, sure, but that’s just what it takes to make this fine, artisanal mezcal that’s bottled at a pleasant 80 proof.