In an attempt to create standards in Mexico for the growing mezcal industry has instead lead to confusion, with a growing number of producers giving up the certification process and just calling their spirit ‘agave’, reports SevenFiftyDaily.

According to SevenFiftyDaily, in Mexico, mezcal commonly refers to any spirit made from agave roasted underground. However, legally, the word has a very different meaning. The Mexican government created an Appellation of Origin for mezcal in 1994, publishing a Norma Oficial Mexicana to outline its official production standards, and later establishing the Consejo Regulador del Mezcal (CRM) to enforce those standards.

One of the CRM’s goals was to build mezcal’s reputation as a safe, high-quality, and traditional product. Makers were required to submit samples from every batch for chemical analysis. While this proved the safety of the product and worked within the framework of larger and more industrially produced spirits, the vast majority of mezcal producers are small, family operations with one or two stills, often making 100-liter batches at a time. The logistics of getting samples to the lab —and the economics of paying for them—made certification a non-starter

Political tensions and issues within the CRM came to a head in the spring of 2021 when an election for new leadership resulted in two factions claiming victory. As their standoff evolved, the CRM imploded and other certification organizations emerged. Today the CRM website is offline and there are at least four organizations certifying mezcal in Mexico.

The end result has been producers leaving the certification process, calling their product agave, and letting their spirit do the talking.

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