Cooking & Milling

Unlike in Oaxaca or Jalisco, there's no standard in the Karoo prescribing how an agave must be cooked. Every distillery cooks to its own recipe, drawing on techniques that originally come from Mexico. The result is a range of methods as varied as brick ovens, earthen pits, and open fire pits, often just a few kilometers apart from one another.

Rocco Torro in Graaff-Reinet cooks its piñas in a brick oven over open fire, for more than 48 hours. This softens the flesh and gives it a smoky sweetness. La Tierra Agave in the Little Karoo, by contrast, relies on brick-lined earthen pits. There the hearts roast for up to three days and are then steamed, so the heat breaks down the sugar chains evenly.

Leonista cooks over smoke and open fire and openly embraces the smoky flavor that many otherwise associate only with Mezcal. Sango combines ovens and open fire pits, depending on which batch is being made.

Only after cooking are the softened hearts crushed, to release the sugary juice. A fixed method like Mexico's stone tahona has not yet taken hold in the Karoo; the distilleries work with smaller, often self-built equipment.

Because no category like Mezcal Artesanal or Ancestral dictates which methods are permitted, every Karoo distiller is free to choose. The result is a small, varied landscape of brick ovens, earthen pits, and fire pits, each producing noticeably different flavors and smoke levels.