As tequilas grow in popularity, another Mexican liquor is appearing in Milwaukee bars

In the last decade, mezcals were introduced to Milwaukee as a smoky Mexican-distilled liquor, placed on bar shelves next to tequilas.

Tequila, technically a popular subcategory of mezcal, has seen an 180% increase in sales since 2002. Tequila and mezcals are the fastest-growing distilled spirits in the U.S. and have surpassed whiskey in popularity, coming in second only to vodka in 2022, according to the U.S. Distilled Spirits Council.

With the increasing popularity of tequila and mezcal, U.S. distributors are taking chances on other Mexican-distilled spirits, including ones like sotol. With a smokiness similar to mezcal but with a sweeter finish like tequila, the spirit is popping up on more shelves around Milwaukee.

Sugar Maple, 441 E. Lincoln Ave., first got it in December and held a sotol pop-up event in January pushing the Los Magos brand.

"It's so new here," owner Adrienne Pierluissi said. "My goal is that we can outsell the coasts. That would be awesome."

Los Magos owner Juan Pablo Carvajal is from Chihuahua, Mexico. He started his venture in bottling and distributing sotol in 2016, with the company's first release coming in 2017. It wasn't until 2021 that the company began selling it in the U.S. and 2022 when it came to the Midwest.

"We always think of California, Texas, Florida, New York. I never thought that the Midwest would be a great market for us," he said. "It was interesting for me to come up into Milwaukee, and I saw some very cool spots that I really enjoyed; the people who were behind it, they were very knowledgeable about their craft."

What is sotol?

Sotol is made from the plant dasylirion, a desert plant mainly found in the Chihuahuan Desert, which stretches through Texas, Arizona, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila. The distilling techniques used to make it are mostly associated with the state of Chihuahua.

“It’s in every Chihuahuan mind that we are in the sotol land," Carvajal said. "The state’s national anthem mentions sotol. It has been used by the native people for thousands of years. Its leaves are fibrous, used for weaving, and people would cook it to get sugar out of it."

While dasylirion looks similar to agave, which is more commonly used to make Mexican distilled spirits, the plant used to make sotol is actually in the same family as asparagus. The method for harvesting dasylirion to make sotol is also considered more eco-friendly. Sotoleros (people who make sotol) extract the heart of the plant to make sotol, while leaving the root to grow again. To harvest an agave plant for tequila or other liquors, the plant is fully dug up. Sotol also is more drought-resistant.

Also, many sotols in distribution use wild dasylirion, while agave farms are becoming increasingly necessary to keep up with demand for that plant. Los Magos sustainably harvests only 30% of the plant in an area, which is the maximum allowed by Mexican law. Carvajal and his team move around Chihuahua to different locations for each batch.

According to Carvajal's research, sotol was first made about 300 years ago when copper distilling pots were introduced to the area.

Today, Los Magos works with Chihuahuan ranchers and sotoleros to harvest the plants and distill the liquor.

"Our focus is to get the right plant with the right profile with the flavor of the land where it comes form," Carvajal said. "The plant takes a long time to grow — 15, 20, 25 years — and we try to distill it as close as possible to where we harvest."

He rotates between different ranches and regions around Mexico, which gives batches slightly different flavor profiles, similar to how wine flavors can change when the grapes are grown in different soil conditions.

"When we are focusing on the plant and land, we are taking the flavors of the land where it comes from," Carvajal said. "The desert, it has a profile with mineral and floral notes. From the mountains, there are some of the pine freshness and wet earth, and from the grassland, we get herbal notes. The (distilling) process gives us a little bit of spice, peppery spice, and roasted honey sweetness."

It's his goal to share the liquor with the world.

Sotol in Milwaukee

"Its popularity has picked up," said Paul Nash, operations manager at Discount Liquor, 5031 W. Oklahoma Ave. "We've had it a couple years, but recently I've noticed more people coming in looking for it. Tequila has been picking up a lot in the last two years, and other Mexican liquors are growing.

"When bars and restaurants have it, they put it in craft cocktails and give insight into what you can make it into, and it drives people out to seek those spirits," he said.

Nate Norfolk, director of wine and spirits at Ray's Wine & Spirits, 8930 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa, said sotol is not selling much now, but mezcals have never been more popular.

"Nobody really asks for (sotol), which really shocks me, but I'm thinking that with the trend of interest in tequila, that then obviously people are going to be trying mezcal. And as people explore mezcal, sotol would make sense as something to also have a try since it has the same smoky character," he said.

More bars are getting it on the shelf, but it isn't available everywhere yet.

The Mothership, 2301 S. Logan Ave., has had sotol since the bar opened in 2020, but it hasn't been a big seller, and owner Ricky Ramirez isn't sure it will take off. He said that the logistics could be an issue.

"I don’t think there's enough producers out there that it would reach mezcal status, and brands are sticking to larger markets than Milwaukee," he said.

He has a bartender who came from Chicago who had been working with sotol there in 2016. Ramirez also said it can take a lot for customers to be adventurous.

"We hit on something for a minute and then it goes away. A lot of the stuff that is coming out of the market here is not always entirely cocktail-price friendly," he said. "It's interesting, too ... Los Magos is starting to barrel age some of its stuff to make it more accessible to American consumers."

Ramirez sells a few brands of sotol at his bar including Los Magos and Flor Del Desierto, which was the first brand he carried.

National chain liquor store Total Wine carries both brands, which each retail for around $60 for the blanco varieties.

Ramirez will continue to carry it, and he also wants to see other Mexican-distilled spirits become available, like charanda, a Mexican rum.

"A tier of people are trying to get the stuff all the way from the desert into Milwaukee, of all places," he said. "It's not a cheap process, and I don’t know that sotol will ever take off here, but it'd be cool if it did."

How to drink sotol

Sugar Maple managing bartenders Xay Matabele and Harrison Browning built a menu for their sotol pop-up event in January and had some suggestions on how to enjoy the liquor.

"I think the smokiness of sotol, it either needs to have something to bring it out or mellow it out," Matabele said.

One cocktail they created was the Bruja Roja with blanco sotol, Ancho Reyes chile liqueur, Campari, Luxardo maraschino cherries and lime.

"It's like a spicy marg. The spice is going to pair well with smoke," she said. "We added Campari, which not only makes it cute and red, but gives you a little bitterness that pairs well with the smokiness of sotol."

Another drink was El Huevo Margo, with blanco sotol, agave nectar, orange, lime, Angostura bitters, grapefruit bitters and egg white foam.

"I'm not a huge smoky spirit person," Matabele said. "This cocktail mellows it with bright citrus, and I absolutely love any drink with egg white, or its substitute."

Sotol can also be enjoyed straight, especially the barrel-aged varieties.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sotol, a Mexican liquor, is more available in Milwaukee