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Mexico’s El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) follows Halloween, on November 1st and 2nd. It’s a special occasion for remembering and celebrating those loved ones who have passed on from this world.
The spirits of family members return home on these days.
The holiday actually begins the night before November 1st, which happens to be Halloween, October 31st. But there’s no relation.
El Día de los Muertos is a New World holiday that honors the spirits of the deceased.
Halloween is filled with otherworldly spirits that scare the living.
Celebrants create brightly-colored home altars honoring them with offerings: candles, flowers, sugar skulls (calaveritas), food and drink.
Even if it’s not your cultural tradition, you can still raise a glass and share the celebration.
It’s also another reason to enjoy a glass of smoky mezcal, neat or in one of these two cocktail recipes. They also work for Halloween.
When enjoying the spirit neat, mezcal is often served with an orange slice and worm salt, the traditional way of sipping it.
Thanks to Unión Mezcalera for the recipes and the reminder that if you’re a tequila person who likes smoke flavor, than mezcal is a must-try.
> The history of El Día de los Muertos.
> The history of Halloween.
> Check out more El Día de los Muertos recipes below.
> Fun Halloween recipes.
> The history of mezcal.
> The differences between tequila and mezcal.
COCKTAIL RECIPE #1: LA CALAVERITA
Calavera is Spanish for skull; the diminutive is calaverita. For El Día de los Muertos, brightly-decorated small sugar skulls (calaveritas) are a traditional offering. Our preferred to offer is a white chocolate version (photo #6).
Ingredients Per Drink
1.5 ounces Mezcal Unión Uno
1 ounces Fresh Tangerine or Mandarin Juice
.75 ounce pumpkin spice syrup*
.25 ounce fresh lime juice
Ice
Rim: Smoked salt
Garnish: marigold†
Preparation
1. DIP the rim of the glass in water and twist it on a dish of smoked salt to create the rim.
2. COMBINE all ingredients in a shaker, add ice, shake and garnish.
COCKTAIL RECIPE #2: MARGARITA DE LOS MUERTOS
Ingredients Per Drink
1.5 ounces Mezcal Unión Uno
.75 ounce fresh blood orange juice
.25 ounce fresh lime juice
.5 ounce agave syrup
Ice
Rim: Sal De Gusano (photo #4)
Garnish: marigold†
Preparation
1. DIP the rim of the glass in water and twist it on a dish of smoked salt to create the rim.
2. COMBINE all ingredients in a shaker, add ice, shake and garnish.
MORE RECIPES FOR EL DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS
Pan de Muerto Recipe
Pork Pozole
Cinco de Mayo Recipes for Día de los Muertos or any day of the year.
ABOUT MEZCAL UNIÓN
Mezcal Unión is produced by a group of families in Oaxaca, Mexico that have been planting and growing agave and distilling it into mezcal for generations.
Mezcal Unión Uno, used in the recipes above, is an un-aged mezcal handcrafted with espadín agave (Agave angustifolia) and cirial (Agave karwinskii) agaves.
The plants are matured for 8 to 14 years, cooked, fermented, double distilled and blended. The process delivers balanced fruity and herbal notes.
The nose and palate show white pepper, spring florals, and top notes of citrus. And of course, hints of smoke and earth.
“Beautiful texture and very refreshing.” says one spirits merchant (source).
We like to gift a bottle of Mezcal instead of Tequila to friends who always drink the latter.
About The Worm In Some Mezcal Bottles
Mezcal Unión is a top-quality product, and the bottle has no worm (gusano)—which tends to be a gimmick for lesser brands.
To clarify:
It’s Mezcal, not Tequila, that can have a worm in the bottle (they are made from different species of the agave plant—Mezcal from Agave americana and Tequila from Agave tequilana, a.k.a. blue agave).
While the Spanish conquistadors taught the art of distilling to the Aztecs in the early 1500s, the worm (Danaus plexippus, which actually is not a worm but a moth larva that feeda off the plant)is a relatively new addition.
In 1950, Jacobo Lozano Paez, an art student turned mezcal entrepreneur, was the first to add gusano to bottles of distilled mezcal. Why?
The gusano de maguey is a protein-rich ingredient, eaten as part of Mexican cuisine. In addition to mezcal, gusano de maguey is used in chalupitas, tacos, as a side with local chiles, in traditional sauces, ground and mixed with salt (sal de gusano), even served with guacamole (photo #8).
You don’t have to deal with live insects; they are also sold dried.
The gusano rojo (red) is tastier, since it feeds on the heart of the maguey—the part that’s roasted and distilled into mezcal. There is a white sibling called gusano de oro (oro means gold) that just eats the leaves.
If the gusano de maguey were left alive to mature, the larva would morph into a beautiful Mariposa monarca (Monarch) butterfly. Mariposa means “butterfly” in Spanish (photo #7).
Danaus plexippus is the scientific name for the species/genus.
For those who are wondering: The Viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus) mimics the Monarch and is often mistaken for it by the untrained eye [source].
Why mimic? The Monarch and Viceroy butterflies are both toxic to predators and have evolved to look similar to each other. This warns potential predators and benefits both species.
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*You can purchase it or make your own by infusing pumpkin spice into plain simple syrup with this recipe.
†Why marigolds? The fragrance of the bright orange and yellow flowers is said to lead souls from their burial place to their family homes. The cheerful hues also add to the celebratory nature of the holiday: not somber but festive.
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[1] While the holidays aren’t related, and El Día de los Muertos starts the night of Halloween. El Día drinks like these can also be used for Halloween festivities (photos #1, #2, #3, and #5 © Mezcal Unión.
[2] La Calaverita has a bit of pumpkin spice syrup and a garnish of smoked salt.
[3] Margarita de los Muertos has a rim of sal de gusano—worm salt.
[4] Sal de gusano, salt with ground worms, is a traditional accompaniment to mezcal. Here’s more about it. Consider it as a special gift for someone who’d be delighted (photo © Rancho Gordo).
[5] Mezcal is traditionally drunk neat with an orange wedge and worm salt. With tequila, it’s a lime wedge and plain coarse salt. The drill is: lick, shoot, suck: Lick the salt off the back of your hand first, chug the shot, and suck on the citrus.
[6] The sugar frame of classic calaverita, a decorated skull, here replaced with white chocolate (photo © Woodhouse Chocolate).
[7] The “worms” evolve into Mariposa (Monarch) butterflies (photo © Suzanne D. Williams | Unsplash).
[8] Gusano de maguey with avocano, ready to eat (photo © La Luna Mezcal).
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