Mezcal Pop Ups coming this summer (2024)

After a little hiatus, I am excited to get back behind the bar to offer more mezcal tastings. The new name is RITUAL and you will see us doing pop-ups around town this summer.

We are planning small group events that deep dive into agave spirits and some bar take overs for a more relaxed get together.

I have rebranded the Instagram page to RITUAL so if you are following that look for updates there. I also have an events page on this site that will be updated with events each month.

Hope to see you soon.

Escondido Mezcal Bar at Centro Closed

Escondido Mezcal Bar

August 31st 2023 is the last day of service for Escondido Mezcal Bar located at Centro in Northeast Minneapolis.

It has been an amazing two year run for us.

I want to thank everyone that came in an support this project, the owners of Centro for giving us a space for education, discussion and consumption of a spirit and culture that is my passion.

Thanks to Nick and Ian for partnering with me on this space.

Look for Escondido to be born again in another form or space.

Escondido made a top 15 list!!

Well what do you know. We made a list of best places to go. Thank you Food & Wine and Kate Dingwall for the write up. Click here to read the article

If you haven’t been to see us in a while, please stop in and let’s share some stories over a pour of mezcal.

We are open Thursday-Saturday, 5pm-Close.

More info about Escondido here: www.escondidompls.com

Escondido Agave Lounge

COVID has brought on many changes to us all, but it has also opened some opportunities for me in my professional life. Since 2018, I have been managing the agave program at Popol Vuh / Centro in Minneapolis. When we had to shut down in March 2019, what was the next step? Popol Vuh eventually closed and we reimagined the space into what is now, Vivir. The private dining space was an empty room and with the help of the ownership I was able to work on a mezcal bar concept.

I am excited to announce that we created a tasting room called Escondido. It is located inside of Vivir and will be a reservation only tasting experience to start. You can make reservations here. Your experience will be about 90-120 minutes and in include some house flights (or build your own), snacks from the Vivir kitchen, cacao tasting options featuring a partnership we have with La Rifa in Mexico City.

La Rifa Chocolateria at Popol Vuh

La Rifa Chocolateria visited us at Popol Vuh for an educational series on Oaxacan Chocolate...

La Rifa Chocolate Tour 2019 is a series of educational tasting sessions about the world's most delicious and most misunderstood food: chocolate! Daniel and Monica, from La Rifa Chocolateria in Mexico City presented different cacao varietals and the processing of those varietals. We began with a presentation on how Oaxacan chocolate is grown and harvested. We got to sample three examples of naturally processed beans

- 3 cacao beans

- 3 chocolates

- 1 cacao drink

I paired Banhez Pechuga de Pavo, a special limited release, that is made with the addition of wild fruits and a turkey breast that is suspended in the still. This mezcal provided a nice stone fruit and cocoa flavor along side the chocolates.

I want to thank Daniel and Monica for coming to Minneapolis and sharing their passions with us. This was an fun evening of learning and meeting new friends.

Sotol Tasting Recap

Last month, we held our Sotol tasting and educational event at Popol Vuh in Minneapolis. We walked through the history, the agave species and the production methods of this 300 year old spirit.

We focused on three plant species; Wheeleri, Cedrosanum, Leuphyllum and featured the following brands; Por Siempre and Don Cuco from the Perez family from Chihuahua, Sotol Coyote from Alejandro Solis, Flor de Desierto from Jose Armando Fernandez Flores, Sotol Clande from Bienvenido Fernandez and finally Sotol Clande from Chito Fernandez.

Overall, the group liked the Clande Yellow (Bienvenido Fernandez version).

New Mezcals in Minnesota

Back in October, I wrote about the opportunity to work with Popol Vuh & Centro in Minneapolis, in an effort to introduce Minnesota to new brands and expressions of agave spirits. Well, we have added some new items to our menu that make it worth the trip to try.

We have added two expressions from El Jolgorio Mezcal, Madrecuixe and Tepeztate. I believe we are the only place in Minnesota to offer these. The tepeztate is worth the trip alone, vegetal, herbal and grass dominate this wonderful mezcal.

The other line of product I am really excited to offer is Lalocura from Santa Catarina Minas, Oax. This product is all made by ancestral methods using clay pot distillation. We offer the Espadin, Tobala, Cuixe (Mexicano) and Tobasiche. The Tobala stands out for me with bright green apple for a bittersweet taste.

Last, but not least, we are excited to have Vago in our line up as well. Elote, Ensemble en Barro from Tio Rey and Mexicano are available. If you haven’t had the Tio’s ensemble, you need to. He practices the ancestral methods of production, which I personally tend to drink more often due to the taste profiles that come from these painstaking processes of making mezcal.

December Agave Tasting Recap

Happy Holidaze everyone,

Last Monday, Dec. 10, we held our monthly tasting at Popol Vuh. It was a journey through 5 different agave spirits.

Tequila: ArteNom 1579 Blanco
Mezcal: Derrumbes Oaxaca
Raicilla: La Venenosa Siera del Tigre
Bacanora: Rancho Tepua
Sotol: Coyote Durango

This tasting was set up to showcase the different types of agave spirits available in our market and show the wide ranges of taste these spirits can produce.

Join in January for our next tasting, TBD.

Popol Vuh & Centro in NE Minneapolis

I am really excited to be working with this group. I have been allowed to build their agave spirits program and educate their staff.

Our goal with Popol Vuh & Centro is to create the best agave spirits program in Minneapolis along with the best educated staff to help you through your journey of the best and most diverse spirit on the planet.

To do this I am working to bring brands and expressions that have never been available in Minnesota before. We are going way beyond the Espadin and industrial made spirits to focus on small producers making products the old way.

One of our first introductions to the Minnesota market is Mezcal Tosba. Come down and try one of three expressions we have; a. Warash (100% wild), a. tobala (100% wild) and their pechuga (a. espadin with wild pineapple, bananas, wild apples, rice, and a wild turkey breast). Tosba is produced within category or artisanal mezcal.

SACRED Agave Tasting

Thanks to everyone that came out to our SACRED agave tasting at North Loop Wine and Spirits in Minneapolis. We raised money for a good cause, read about SACRED here, and enjoyed some uncertified mezcales. 

Our tasting included:

Heart of the Maguey
This flight highlights how different agave varietals create different flavors. It consists of three spirits made the same way by the same maestro mezcalero, using three different agaves. The maestro is Eduardo Angeles of Santa Catarina Minas. Eduardo roasts his agave in a stone-lined earthen oven before milling it by hand using wooden mallets; the milled agave is then fermented in open-air wooden barrels before being distilled in wood-fired clay pot stills. 

Hand of the Maestro
This flight highlights how the decisions of the maestros mezcalero create different flavors from the same agave. It consists of three spirits made the same way using the same tools in the same community by three different maestros mezcalero. Papalome (agave potatorum) takes between 8 and 15 years to mature. I have included here three papalome expressions by three different maestros, each using the same palenque in Santa Maria Ixcatlan, Oaxaca. In each case, the agave is roasted in a stone-lined earthen oven, milled by hand using wooden mallets, fermented open-air in bull skins, and distilled in clay pots over an open fire. Exact same process, exact same tools, different maestros. 

Harvest of the Moment
This flight highlights how agave spirits reflect a moment in time and of place. It consists of three spirits made the same way using the same agave by the same maestro mezcalero, but at three different points in time. Maestro Victor Ramos of Miahuatlan, Oaxaca, used tobala (agave potatorum) to make each of these three spirits In each case, the tobala is roasted in a stone-lined earthen oven, milled by a stone wheel pulled by oxen, fermented open-air in wooden barrels, and distilled in copper pots over an open fire. Exact same process, exact same tools, exact same maestro, at three different times: November 2015, March 2016, March 2017.

Thanks again to Lou Banks and all the folks that came out to help us create a mezcal culture in Minneapolis. 

Lunch Date with Marca Negra

January 27th, we had our Saturday Lunch Date at Mercado by Earl Giles. We invited mezcal Marca Negra to be our featured speaker and tasting. Ryan VanSplinter, the Marca Negra rep gave us a tasting and history or Marca Negra that included; espadin, dobadán, tobalá, tepeztate, ensamble and arrenqueño.

Marca Negra is new to our market and our crowd included all types of guests that were simply curious about what mezcal was to regular drinkers that have not had Marca Negra before. 

See you at our next event.

Don Fulano Tasting

Our first Lunch Date event at Mercado by Earl Giles featured Don Fulano Tequila. Emory Blackstone spent the afternoon with us giving us a tasting and history of the Don Fulano line. 

Blanco, Reposado, Añejo plus the 5 year aged Imperial (Extra Añejo). Our afternoon also featured food from Mercado. 

Thanks to all that came out in support as well partnered with us to make this event happen. We look forward to many more.

Evening of Hope Donation

We donated a tequila tasting for our friends at El Amor de Patricia. This event was an introduction to the process of making tequila and showcased some of our favorite brands and expressions.