Sotol

Sotol is a distilled spirit of Mexican origin sourced from Dasylirion texanum, Asparagaceae, and Dasylirion wheeleri (commonly known as Desert Spoon or, in Spanish, sotol), a plant that grows in northern Mexico, New Mexico, west Texas, and the Texas Hill Country.

Sotol liquor is a Mexican drink that is known as the state drink of Chihuahua, Durango and Coahuila, and is also popular in Terlingua! There are few commercial examples available.

It is produced in a manner similar to the more common artisanal mezcals of central Mexico. The flowering stem of sotol is one of the best materials for making a friction fire. As it is straight, light in weight, and strong, it makes a good walking stick. As it is straight, the stem requiring little to no straightening prior to use, it was commonly used as a lance and spear, the latter with an attached stone or metal point.

At the Fate Bell Shelter, a 150-yard-long opening in a large rock face on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, sotol is depicted in paintings on the rock walls. Sandals, baskets, ropes, mats and many other items of sotol fiber show that the resource was highly important to Ancestral Puebloans of the Basketmaker culture. These artifacts date to around 7000 BCE.

A humanoid figure with a spray of spiky leaves for a head and a black stripe down the middle of its body may represent the magical spirit of sotol. Sometimes it appears in connection with hunting scenes, at others it appears surrounded by orange ochre flames and black smoke. The murals depicting sotol-related images may, in part, be a tribute to the remarkable usefulness of the plant, especially at sites like the Fate Bell Shelter.

The Chihuahuan indigenous, Rarámuri, fermented sotol juice into a beer-like alcoholic beverage as early as 800 years ago. In the 16th century, Spanish colonists introduced European distillation techniques to produce a spirit. Sotol is now beginning to achieve international recognition like its cousins, mezcal and tequila. [1

The Desert Spoon takes approximately 15 years to mature and yields only one bottle of sotol per plant. It typically grows on rocky slopes in the Chihuahuan desert grassland between 3,000 and 6,500 feet above sea level. Unlike agave, which flowers only once in its lifetime, sotols produce a flower stalk every few years. Once the plant matures, it is harvested like agave plants when mezcal or tequila are to be made. The outer leaves are removed to reveal the center core, which is taken back to the distillery. The core can then be cooked and/or steamed, shredded, fermented, and distilled.

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