Us

Mezcouting is a small Mexican and American team with backgrounds in traditional mezcal, graphic design, language arts, food systems, and sustainable community development. Mezcouting was created in 2016 to bring those curious about the culture, history, and gastronomy surrounding straight to the source of traditional mezcal in Oaxaca through intimate and personal experiences. We have spent the last 10 plus years scouting and creating unique experiences in the heart of mezcal country to ensure that your trip to Oaxaca is unforgettable!

We work with 24 families in 11 commuities the state of Oaxaca; our community partners are long time friends and often relatives of ours. Our experiences promote rural and sustainable tourism, generating economic opportunity for the people of the regions in which we work, many of whom have had to migrate to other regions to find work in the past. We believe in wage equality and compensate ourselves and community partners for our time at an equal rate of least 4 times the Mexican minimum wage per hour.

In addition we contribute 100 MXN of each tour fee plus 10% of our profits annually to community projects in the communities we visit. We give to Biblioteca El Rosario and Proyecto LAM in Santa Catarina Minas, the annual community service project of the Vida Nueva women´s cooperative in Teotitlán del Valle, as well as investing in a future homework center in the Miahuatlán region. Ask us how you can get involved or become a larger donor to these projects!

You

Our outings are not tours in the traditional sense but rather a day long experience in a rural Oaxacan community. Our experiences facilitate visiting with and learning from our community partners; and while our trips are hands on sometimes this also means just hanging out in people’s homes and hearing their stories, savoring local food and drink, resting in hammocks, and enjoying the landscape. Our participants come from all walks of life to learn about traditional mezcal, regional gastronomy, hand crafted goods, and the culture and people surrounding traditional mezcal production. If you are a traveler that prefers more structure in their experience we recommend our outings in Santa Catarina Minas and Teotitlán del Valle. We hope you'll join us for an unforgettable experience in Oaxaca's rural communities!

Our Partners

Communities we visit:

Ocotlán Valley

Santa Catarina Minas

A small mezcal producing village about 45 minutes to the south of Oaxaca city in the Ocotlán valley, Minas is highly regarded for maintaining the tradition of distilling their mezcal in clay pots. This production method is only used in a handful of town in Mexico; we visit with some of the producers who are committed to keeping this type of mezcal production alive. Minas produces the ultimate small batch mezcal, typical productions are about 90 liters! Working with 3 families, we tour mezcal production sites known as palenques, learning about the distillation process, the history of the distillery, and the beverage directly from mezcal producing families, eat where the locals do, and of course sample mezcal right at its source. You can purchase this extremely rare mezcal directly from the producers, we gladly help you pack it for travel.

San Antonino Velasco de Castillo

San Antonino is a small farming community known for growing flowers for the Day of the Dead celebrations in Novebmer as well as the giant radishes used in the Noche de rábanos festival in December. Here we visit a cooperative of women who embroider textiles like blouses and guayaberas in the regional tradition of small wildflowers. We do our Red Clay Workshop at the home and workshop of Don José and Doña Teresitsa and their family who are know for their fantastical red clay sculptures. Seasonally we visit farmers and artisans workinng with radishes and dried flowers. You can´t miss trying the community´s famous empanadas de amarillo or the increible Palm Sunday procession!

Ocotlán de Morelos

Frida & Machetes

Tlacolula Valley

San Marcos Tlapazola

Red clay and cooking

Teotitlán del Valle

This Zapotec community is nestled in the Tlacolula valley, 40 minutes east of Oaxaca city. While surrounded by magueys and mezcal production, Teotitlán is known for its incredible handmade rugs. Since pre-Hispanic times, the people of this village have been using natural materials to hand dye local cottons and later wool for textile production. While the village prides itself on its rich textile history, it is also considered a culinary treasure within Oaxaca's eight regions. Famous dishes from to this community include següeza a pre-Hispanic mole, mole amarillo de pan or mole de castilla, as well as other Oaxacan favorites like tamales, mole negro, and sopa de guías. Partnering with the first all women's cooperative in the village with 15 active members, we learn about their history as well as the symbolism of Zapotec design, natural dye, traditional cooking, and traditional medicine.

Mitla

Known in Zapotec culture as the place where souls pass from this life to the next (lyobaa), Mitla is home to world renown ruins boasting beautiful desgins. It might be equally as famous for its chocolate de agua blanca (white water hot chocolate); drinking it is truly an otherworldly experience! An hour to the east of Oaxaca, we explore Mitla´s regional gastronomy as well as visit with an antiques dealer who has a vast knowledge of the region's history as well as a large collection of mezcal storing vessels-black clay cántaros and glass damajuanas and garrafones. Mitla is also home to a rich weaving tradition in which artisans practice diverse techniques to create cotton blouses and shawls as well as wool sashes. On our Handcrafted Goods Outings, we explore weaving on both back strap and pedal looms.

Miahuatlán

The economic and cultural hub of the Sierra Sur, the Miahutalán area is a biodiversity hotspot. It boasts an immense variety of mezcal producing agaves endemic to the area, resulting in some of the most complex and rare mezcals in all of Mexico. The region's cuisine creates a perfect compliment to its traditional drink resulting in regional specialties like shobatá, a bean soup with masa dumplings, and a party favorite, barbacoa de chivo, or goat roasted in an earth oven.  The Monday market is not to be missed as people from the surrounding communities come to the market to sell their goods: organic and heirloom vegetables from their fields, wild honey, freshly baked bread, traditional mezcal, and unique local delicacies like palo de chile. Literally translated it means chili stick: a twig that when you nibble on it, it makes your mouth go temporarily numb! A great substitute for salsa when you're on the go. Working with five families in the area we offer several mezcal and gastronomic experiences in this region to dive deep into the cultural heritage of traditional mezcal.

Sierra Norte

Ixtapeji

Hongos, hiking, & cooking

Benito Juárez

Overnight stays, cooking classes, hiking, zip line

Nieveria

Bread & jam