The first time I saw a mezcal venencia, I was in a Oaxacan palenque doing what else? Tasting. Why the maestro was sticking a bamboo-lookin’ thing into a barrel of mezcal, I wasn’t sure.
But then he started sucking. 🧐
Next he released his suction, letting the mezcal fall into a veladora (glass.) Allrightythen. Was I going to flinch? Hell no. When in Oaxaca, right?
It doesn’t take any time at all to get over this. The mezcal is not entering their mouth.
As far as we know.
In reality, it seems that mezcaleros primarily use this tool—somewhat less as a way to get you a taste, and somewhat more to measure the grado (ABV) of a distillation. After getting a good suck, they then let it fall from a fair distance into a jicara, the dried gourd that’s considered the most traditional of mezcal drinking vessels. If the distillation is between 45% and 55% ABV, the size and number of perlas (pearls or bubbles,) and the rapidity of their popping gives some indication as to what percentage alcohol you have. This method is simply called venenciar.
Yes, it looks like what we’d call bamboo, but every maestro I’ve ever spoken to about it calls it carrizo, which is a tall, North American reed that grows like crazy throughout Mexico. Heck, we even have a patch of it growing in our yard here in San Miguel de Allende.
Fact is, after realizing I had the stuff growing a few steps from where we’re normally enjoying our mezcal, I thought, “How hard can it be?” So I snipped some and tried to make a venencia myself.
I’ve had better conceived projects… 😑
Note to Mezcal Maniac: a wire clothes hanger will not effectively hollow out a segment of carrizo. 🙁
I mentioned this lame attempt to Ángel Cruz Robles, the magnificent Maestro Mezcalero of 3000 Noches Mezcal in Sola de Vega on our trip there a few months ago. His father, also named Ángel—and also part of a 5 generation tradition of mezcal production in this family—decided to go to work! See the video below for the first video editing job I’ve ever done in order to show how it’s properly done…
At the end you’ll note Ángel used my new venencia to measure a certain distillation of his I was enjoying. He said, “Cincuenta,” as in fifty percent. I challenged, “Cincuenta punta uno!” Sometimes I find myself questioning this method. How can they be reasonably sure, I think?
Well a certain Fluid Physicist named Roberto Zenit became fascinated when he heard mezcaleros use this bubble method; so he threw himself into this subject. He actually used high-speed cameras, testing a number of liquids including mezcal. He noticed that, instead of dripping from the bubble to the mezcal’s surface, the liquid seemed to be moving up the bubbles’ membranes in defiance of gravity.
Something was up. Something called “the Marongoni flow.”
For more on this, I’ll link you to a somewhat more detailed article I came across for his findings.
I shared this recently, but here again is maestro Rigoberto Hernández of Dadivoso Mezcal in Santiago Matatlán, demonstrating the venencia method of ABV measurement…
Me? I’m just happy I have my venencia. I don’t really use it all that much. It’s not like I’m schooled in Bubble Science anyway. But it can be fun to bring out when I’m giving tastings—or when I just get in a new garrafon of mezcal from a maestro.
If you come to San Miguel de Allende and hit me up for a tasting, I’ll show it to you—and even retrieve a sample for you from it. (Lucky you!) Oh! And I solemnly promise no mezcal will enter my mouth! 🙏