The agave spirits universe covers a wide spectrum of flavours and presentations. At times, mezcal can be mezcal in everything but the official label, either due to regulations or through personal choice of the producers. 

Each batch of agave spirit produced follows its own unique journey, a fitting way to describe La Travesia Destilado de Agave. Translating to The Journey, this agave distillate tells the story of the espadin it’s made from and celebrates high-quality craftsmanship.

Brand Story 

La Travesia is produced in small batches in Santa Caterina Minas, an area of Mexico that the famed Ángeles mezcal making dynasty hails from. The espadin it’s made from is cooked in a limestone oven for thirty hours and the juice is extracted with a proprietary machine. The fermentation is done in pinewood fermenters and the final distillation happens in a copper pot still.

Presentation 

The design of the La Travesia bottle is clean and minimalist. Cool greens and turquoise catch in the glass. An agave adorns the top of the label with the bold words of Destilado De Agave featured prominently to make it clear that the product is agave distillate.

A declaration of being made from 100% agave espadin follows, along with the ethos and philosophy of the producers scrawled in Spanish.

Tasting Notes 

La Travesia is a complex spirit that has a lot going on from the first sip. The early notes paint the picture of a forest floor in spring. Bell peppers, grass, black pepper. 

The vegetal flavours open up into stone fruit, mango and lime that feels like it harmonises with the savoury qualities. An earthy undercurrent comes through in the finish, mellowing into banana and cream.

Another quality I appreciate about La Travesia is the subdued smoke that builds around the flavours. It never becomes overpowering and that helps to bring out all the notes. It’s proof that mezcal doesn’t have to be labelled mezcal for you to pick up a bottle and go on a journey that will take you to unexpected places.