In general, there’s a diminishing return with liquor ingredients in cocktails. This isn’t to say that a Weller Antique 107 or Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Manhattan isn’t going to be significantly better than it’s lower tier counterpart, but the $25 – 50 a bottle difference in price may not reflect as clearly with other ingredients involved. The joke would be something like taking Johnny Walker Blue Label and mixing it with diet coke. You can obviously do you (if you have the means), but perhaps for the rest of us, the question of scalability comes into play. Bozal Ensamble illustrates this difference in a smaller band, showing off the bottom of a higher grade of Mezcal
Bozal Ensamble
While Bozal Ensamble can be found in the mid $40 to low $50 price band, it still could be considered a little high compared to something like Del Maguey Vida which can go as low as mid $30s. If you are particularly into agave spirits, like Tequila or Mezcal, you’ll recognize the step here for artisanal quality most likely justifies price. Especially considering Mezcal can easily range up in the hundreds of dollars. But what’s the juice inside that intriguing ceramic bottle really taste like?
Sight: Clear
Smell: An amazingly complex nose leads with a sweet, caramelized, roasted agave smell wafts forward. Mixtures of smokiness with touches of flowers and tropical fruit come together creating a pungent mix with just a hint of heat. Touches of lime, green pepper, honeyed pineapple, and agave funk come forward with pink peppercorn and herbs.
Sip: The start has an amazing degree of sweetness that gives way to a savory flavors. As the sweetness fades, touches of pepper, agave, green herbs and peppers mingle with almost tropical notes. There’s a linger smoke to the background that builds, and there’s little to no burn all the way through.
Savor: The finish lingers beautifully mixing hints of tropical fruit with a strong agave and smoke background. The complexity gives touches of citrus, herbal, and spice.
The words to describe Bozal Ensamble are lacking, not for lack of flavor, but for the complexity of this mezcal. While you can buy cheaper Mezcal, the beauty of Ensamble shows what good Mezcal can be, without costing an arm and a leg. The flavor profile is so dynamic, and the flavor so complex, that just sitting and sipping you can keep finding new elements. Make no mistake, this Mezcal is certainly good enough to sip on, on it’s own.
In Cocktails – Developing a Testing Process for Mezcal
Unlike Tequila, there aren’t a host of ready made applications to pull from for tasting Mezcal in. There’s a plethora of reasons for this, ranging from that Mezcal can be more artisanal (and therefore expensive) or that Mezcal is just plain more aggressive in some of it’s flavor profiles. As a result, it took some experimenting to find a drink that’s more or less clean enough to evaluate the Mezcal. What I settled on is a drink called The Rising Sun from Toro Bravo that’s detailed by Saveur through the link.
The reason I chose this particular cocktails is because the flavors (lime, grapefruit, some salt, and maraschino liqueur) are good complimentary flavors that allow the Mezcal to demonstrate itself without disappearing. The similar to a daiquiri, there’s not a whole lot of additional conflict here to process. The resulting drink is bright, a little nutty, and mezcal driven. Bozal Ensamble shined nicely in this application, showing off a nice strong agave and smoke backbone, while adding to the touches of citrus, herbal notes, and touches of tropical fruit. The maraschino liquor balanced well, showing off it’s character without being overpowered or overpowering the mezcal.
To fully understand the comparison, we used Del Maguey Vida and Olmeca Altos Plata in the main role. Blanco tequila is insufficient here to provide the depth delivered by Mezcal. Del Maguey Vida serves as a great parallel to the Bozal Ensamble, but it gives off additional smoke that lingers and a hint of rubber. By no means is it bad, but rather it lacks the refinement of Bozal Ensamble.
Based on this, we’re going to keep using The Rising Sun from Toro Bravo as originally detailed on Saveur’s site to continue to test mezcal drinks.
Bozal Ensamble Overall
Bozal Ensamble is an eye opening Mezcal if you’ve been used to having lower quality Mezcal or are unfamiliar with Mezcal. The price point hovers in the mid $40s to low $50s, meaning this isn’t the cheapest option available. The step in quality is substantial though, and while Del Maguey Vida can certainly work and serve as a modifier, it won’t be as pleasing on it’s own or as refined in more delicate applications. For these reasons, we advise the extra splurge to pick up Bozal Ensamble, and expand your knowledge of agave spirits.
