fandomhigh | History of Poisons, Thursday Per 2

Instead of the Danger Shop, class met at the Causeway today, with a portal ready and waiting to go.

"If I'd managed this better, today's class would have taken place last week because we're going back to Mexico today," Karla said with a grin. "Specifically, we're going to the Wahaka Distillery in Oaxaca. The Wahaka Distillery is known for its production of mezcal, an alcoholic beverage made from maguey plants. The more well-known alcohol, tequila, is a form of mezcal, made specifically from the blue agave plant. Mezcal, however, can be made from a variety of agave and maguey plants, and traditional distilleries use fermenting traditions that go back hundreds of of years."

Stepping through the portal led them out into warm sunshine, leaving them standing in a field filled with spiky-looking plants. "Alcohol is a poison, though not generally a toxic one. The human body is capable of processing ethyl alcohol and harmlessly passing it through the system, though that 'harmless' is gravely dependent on how much you drink and how often. Excessive drinking can lead to all kinds of unpleasant side effects, from vomiting and a hangover, to liver failure and death, because, again, poison." Karla explained how alcohol affected the body, including a breakdown of the blood alcohol content levels and what could generally be expected from each.

"As for how alcohol is made, it relies on fermentation, where yeast and certain kinds of bacteria break down sugars into carbon dioxide and alcohol. Today, we're touring the distillery to see how this most popular and ubiquitous of poisons is lovingly crafted into a popular drink."

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One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor

And then enjoy the tour

Once the basic tour is over, the students get to help out with the early stages of the process.

As a jimador, your job is to harvest the plant. The leaves have been cleared from the pina, or heart of the plant, but it's your job to harvest it. Put your coa (the log-handled bladed stick) against the bottom of the heart, swing your sledge hammer, and pound away until the maguey plant falls over.

The pinas are brought over to a conical pit in the ground, about ten feet deep, and lined with rocks. A fire is started at the bottom and covered with more stones, then, once the stones are glowing red, the halved and quarted pinas are tossed in and covered with leaves, fibers, earth, and straw mats, and then left to roast for about four days.

Once the students have helped fill one of the roasting pits, they're led to another that is ready to be opened up. Inside is a pile of roasted pinas, one of which is cut into chunks and given to everyone to eat. They're sweet, the sugars caramelized. The proper way to eat the chunks is to chew them up and then spit out the fibers.

The rest of the roasted pinas are brought to the tahona, a large stone circle with a heavy millstone resting inside. A donkey is harnessed to the millstone and walks in a circle, crushing and mashing the pinas. The fibers are collected and used for fertilizer and cover for the pits, the juice is collected and poured into huge wooden barrels with water to ferment.

Students can watch, pet the donkey, try some agave juice, and even strap themselves into a harness and pull the millstone around if they want.

After the mash (now called must) has fermented in the barrels, they go through two separate distillation processes to ensure a more potent form of alcohol.

Once the second distillation has occurred, the mezcal is blended for consistency and then either bottled or sent to age in oak casks. Mezcal blanco is mezcal that has been aged for two months or less.

As a thank you for their hard work on the tour, students are offered a single dram of Mezcal blanco to try if they wish.

After everyone's had a chance to finish trying their mezcal, they can relax in the shade with glasses of water and agave juice.

"So, because of alcohol's effect on the body, many cultures have rules about drinking, whether its a law about how old people must be to drink or rules against what may be drunk or in what quantities. Sometimes alcohol is used in specific religious and cultural practices, while other cultures may prohibit alcohol consumption at all. How does your culture handle alcohol? Why do you think that is?"

If she's around

Who is being an excellent role-model and not stocking up on bottles of mezcal while she's there.

I need to go back to Mexico and get more of my peanut butter sipping tequila.

Karina Lyle

Cassandra Pentaghast

Anders

Kayin was here and finding this all rather interesting if more than she ever needed to know about alcohol.

She wondered what Teela and Tain would think of mezcal.

Kaylin Neya

History of Poisons, Thursday Per 2

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Listen to the Lecture

Help Out

Harvest the pina

Roast the Hearts

To the Tahona

Distilling

Discussion

Talk to the TA

Talk to Karla

OOC

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