Oaxaca is mezcal country—mescal in the U. S. It's a liquor distilled from the maguey variety of the agave. Here we have The Pines House of Mescal, a store that caters to tourists looking for premium or unusual varieties.

It's way typical, right down to the embroidered blouses for sale, hanging on the left.

Clothing in a liquor store? Well, that's how they do it here. Many mescal outlets also sell embroidered blouses. Pictured below is a display from an outdoor market.

My theory: Mescal store owners noticed that Dad comes into their store wagging his tail like a puppy and heads for the sample bar while Mom stands in the doorway tapping her foot, getting more hacked off with every shot he takes. Solution? Add clothes shopping to the mix. Mom sees that embroidery, she doesn't even notice what Dad's doing until it's too late.

Mezcal stores abound in these parts. Competition is fierce.

Hundreds of artesanal brands vie for your attention. Kind of like the Napa Valley wine country, without the sophistication.

Some makers are very small, which makes their products rare and therefore desireable. Here we have I Like It brand.

Non much cachet in that name, is there?

A great deal of ingenuity goes into product differentiation. You can find herbal mezcal, good for medicinal purposes. (Yeah. Right.)

Or you can buy flavored varieties: mocha, almond...

... orange, nanche (see previous post), with or without a worm in the bottle.

Some is packaged in the old traditional gourd-shaped bottles wrapped in netting so it can be tied to your belt or saddle.

Mezcal is offered in barrels with wooden spigots. One use of these is in wedding processions that include a mezcal burro. Guests visit the burro, glass in hand, whenever they feel the need for more refreshment. I've noticed at these events that the younger men especially need to be refreshed.

The host at the celebration hands out small glasses on strings that guests hang around guests' necks, facilitating conveyance of booze to bloodstream.

Merchandising reaches new extremes: This place offers little bags of salt flavored with ground-up agave worms. Yum.

You can put together the equivalent of a Sonoma Valley wine tour in the maguey-growing region of Oaxaca. You have to be very careful in your tasting, though. Mezcal is potent, and you could easily get blitzed at your first stop, ending your tour prematurely.