Each book is printed in Portland with soy ink on 100% recycled chipboard. The soy ink used on the cover contains a little bit of real mezcal.
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PORTLAND, OREGON, SEPTEMBER 7, 2018 — 33 Books Co. announced a new mezcal-tasting journal today, the latest in the line of popular tasting notebooks. 33 Jícaras de Mezcal is an English-language journal designed to help mezcal drinkers chronicle the examples they sample.
“Mezcal is a very special drink,” says Tess Rose Lampert, spirit instructor and co-creator of the mezcal journal. “In many ways, its various forms tell the story of Mexico and its people. At one end of the spectrum, you have wild-grown, hand-harvested agaves roasted, fermented and distilled by mezcaleros in rural villages, made for family and friends using techniques that haven’t changed in hundreds of years. At the other end, there are modern producers who cultivate agave on large-scale farms and produce mezcal in volume-driven batches with updated technology. There are tasty examples to be found at both extremes, and everywhere in between.”
Reflecting its rustic origins, the journal’s name comes from the name for the traditional vessel used to imbibe mezcal, a small dried gourd called a “jícara,” still used in many mezcalerías.
The inside front cover of the book contains a crash course on mezcal, defining some of the vocabulary unique to this spirit, including its relationship to the more widely-known, and related Mexican drink, tequila.
“Like tequila, mezcal is made from distilled agave. Technically, tequila is a type of mezcal,” says Lampert. “But mezcal can be made from up to 35 different varieties of agave, while tequila is confined to just one – the blue agave. Mezcal can be made in many different Mexican states, while tequila comes from just a small area. These are some of the qualities that give mezcal a broader flavor spectrum.”
“I didn’t know what mezcal was, to be honest,” says Dave Selden, Lampert’s co-creator and founder of 33 Books Co. “After a few minutes with Tess, I was intrigued. Once I tasted a few she suggested, I was hooked. Mezcal has flavors you really don’t find in other spirits – wildly tropical, citrusy, spicy. Each sample I tried seemed to expand the definition of what this drink could do.”
33 Jícaras de Mezcal is available now for $5 each at 33Books.com and finer liquor stores nationwide. Volume pricing for interested retailers can be obtained by e-mailing orders@33books.com.
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About 33 Books Co.
Dave Selden started 33 Books Co. as a side project to his side project. A weekend homebrewer and beer blogger, he developed a unique pocket beer-tasting notebook in 2009 to help take notes on the beers he was writing about. After just a few years, the books became his full-time job. Today, 33 Books Co. produces more than a dozen flavors of pocket tasting notebooks and other tasting tools in Portland, Oregon.
Media Contact
Name: Dave Selden
Email: dave@33books.com
Phone: 503-888-3532
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