It takes seven or eight years for an espadín agave plant to mature to the point at which Rogelio Juan Hernández, maestro mezcalero and co-founder of Agua Mágica, can use it to make mezcal. For four generations, his family has made mezcal in the region of San Juan del Río in Oaxaca, Mexico. “It’s an ancestral experience,” Hernández says.
The process is laborious and time-intensive. Once the agave plants have matured, the heart of the plant, known as the piña, is harvested and then roasted over firewood; a covering of river rocks and banana tree husks helps trap in the heat. After 24 hours of cooking, the agave turns sweet and honey-like. Once it’s cooled, a mule rolling around a tahona, a large stone wheel, crushes the agave so that the fibers and the sugars can separate. These juices ferment and then the distillation process begins. It’s the second distillation that creates Agua Mágica’s mezcal.
Despite having made mezcal since he was a teenager, Hernández, who always wanted his own distillery, had to leave Mexico for the United States for 18 years because opportunities were scarce. Agua Mágica, which launched in 2021 with co-founder and CEO Rafael Shin, wants to change how mezcal is valued, paying mezcaleros like Hernández higher prices for the higher quality of their product, as opposed to the current system of pricing regardless of quality.
One of Hernández’s goals, he says, is to give young people in the community opportunities so they don’t feel the need to emigrate as much. His son, Julio Juan, now joins him in making mezcal.
Watch the latest episode of Vendors to learn more about how Agua Mágica is preserving tradition in mezcal-making.
