Florencio “Mencho” Vásquez García

Florencio is a talented palenquero with much expertise and a truly impressive understanding of the wild agaves and plants that grow on his lands. Born in 1972, he’s four years younger than his brother, Hermógenes. Along with their eldest brother, Tomás, the three were raised by their mother, Isabela, whom they help care for today. All three grew up palenqueando under the tutelage of the legendary Don Nicolás García, but took drastically different paths in life. Tomás joined the military, Mencho left for the States, while Hermógenes got married and started a family in Logoche. Agricultural work brought Mencho from the citrus fields of California to the apple orchards of Washington before he returned to Logoche to start a family and settle down. Today, he lends a hand to his brother next door, helping out in many of the productions of Hermógenes and his wife Paula. His youngest son Juan can often be found lending a hand as well and has been learning the craft from his family over the past 5 years. Florencio cultivates a small amount of Madrecuixe and Espadín, but in recent times has begun to focus on propagating Tobalá, Coyote, and Bilia magueyes that previously grew wild in certain parts of the rugged hills and ravines of his land.* Mencho is a true master of working with Tepextate, a plant he distills once or twice a year. Rarely filling more than one tina at a time, Mencho generally makes less than 300 liters a year, which he and his brother sell most of on the local market.

Soil type: colorada, roja, cascajo, and negra

Oven: 7-ton capacity, conical, earthen oven

Mashing: Machete and shredder

Fermentation: 5 Montezuma cypress wood tanks. 1000 - 1200 liter capacity.

Distillation: Mencho works with Hermógenes and Paula’s one 250-liter capacity copper pot still, as well as a second 300-liter copper pot still. All of the family’s batches are double-distilled and are mixed down and composed using the heads (puntas), heart (cuerpo or corazón), and a select cut of común (also known as shishe or ordinario) from the first round of distillation.

*In Logoche, Bilia is a name given to a particular maguey that is most likely a local genotype of Agave seemanniana. It looks similar to a Coyote, a relative of Tobalá, but has distinctive spines and leaf shapes. For Mencho, the greatest difference is found in the cooked agave, which he claims Bilia is unparalleled in flavor. While Coyote has an earthy flavor, despite being quite sweet, cooked Tobalá is known to leave a slight burning sensation on the tongue after consumption. Bilia, however, does not have this effect. We have had the opportunity to observe Bilia collected from the wild as well as individuals selected from seed grows of Tobalá and Madrecuixe stock.