As mezcal continues its swift ascent into U.S. popularity, sweeping spendy finance bros, influencer entrepreneurs, Hollywood actors, and other damned yankees up in a craze for what they erroneously label it "smoky Tequila," another long-feared prophecy of agave gatekeepers is sadly coming true, with implications for Mexico, mezcaleros, and the very Earth itself.
A "mezcal Cristalino" has finally reared its ugly head, produced by Mexico's own Casa Lumbre Spirits and fronted by the face of Colombian pop-star Maluma.
Cristalinos is an increasingly popular and relatively new style in the world of tequila. Bottles of cristalino usually contain aged tequila, or a blend of aged tequilas, that are typically charcoal-filtered back to a clear appearance, endowing them with a unique marketing position for a spirits industry desperate to find the next thing or distinguish its products from the next tequila-come-lately. The removal of coloring is promoted as an excision of impurities, providing a "smoother" taste while appealing to the kind of person intent on drinking "the next big thing."
Some say the art of tequila was lost long ago to mass industrial production, despite a handful of producers who stick to traditional methods. Aged tequilas, though enjoyed widely throughout Mexico and the rest of the world, themselves are thought of as a sort of concession created to convert whiskey drinkers of yore to Mexican spirits. Critics may occasionally whine about such gimmicks as cristalino tequila, but sadly, such manipulations are already par for the course for tequila.