According to the ancestral Oaxacan tradition, the first step for elaborating a Mezcal is to choose mature agaves called "sazones" or "capones", meaning plants with sufficient sugar and are ready to harvest. 

 

The Mezcal masters and their apprentices cut the plant leaves, leaving the center or “piña”  to transfer them to the Palenque, the workshop. The piñas are fire-cooked in underground, earthen pits lined with volcanic rock. This underground 'oven' now smokes, cooks, and caramelizes the pina over a multi-day cooking process, which creates mezcal's characteristic smoky flavor. After cooking that can last up to eight days, the agave is macerated in wheel mills stone commonly thrown by horses.

 

Later, the grinding is placed for up to eight days in huge wooden tubs for fermentation. Once the fermentation is complete and the "tepache" is at its point, it empties into copper stills for distillation, where  the sugars are converted into alcohol.

 

 Finally, the master mezcalero composes the mezcal according to the alcoholic concentration desired. The best mezcals usually have an alcoholic concentration approaching 35 to 52 degrees of volume since it thus preserves better organoleptic properties, i.e., bolder aromas and flavors.