Mezcales Cuish: Here

Cuish Mezcaleria was founded in June of 2009 by Felix Hernandez Monterrosa. Felix’s family has been involved in mezcal production and sale for many generations and he spent much of his time as a child in various family member’s palenques and expendios. His parents ran a mezcal expendio in the same location as the existing Cuish mezcaleria from '88-'94 under a different name.

Felix’s uncle Cornelio Monterrosa started the Union de Palenqueros around 1989 and subsequently formalized the group along with 47 other traditional mezcal producers as the “Asociación de Productores del Mezcal Tradicional Oaxaqueño A.C.” as a response to government over-regulation and strong-arming of small mezcal producers, who they were trying to coerce into joining the CRM.

Felix was invited to a meeting of the Union de Palenqueros in 2008 where producers from all over Oaxaca brought small samples of their traditional mezcal. A man named Francisco Garcia Leon had just come back from working in the US for 8 years - forced by necessity to work abroad due to the dismal price for mezcal at that time. Francisco had with him a few different batches of mezcal made from the then-unappreciated agave, Cuishe, that he had stored in glass for those 8 long years away. Felix fell in love with the flavors of this wild agave, and his eyes were opened to the awesome diversity of mezcal he tried from the different corners of Oaxaca in that meeting, and the idea for the Cuish Mezcaleria was born.

Cuish opened in 2009 at 712 Diaz Ordaz 2009 in a neighborhood known more for it’s prostitution and cantinas than any tourist activities. Cuish is constituted as a S.P.R de R.I. or a “Rural Production Society” with the four original producers being, Tio Rufino of Santa Catarina Minas, Berta Vasquez of San Baltazar Chichicapam, Jose Santiago of Matatlan and Francisco Garcia Leon of Miahuatlan.

Cuish was the first mezcaleria in Oaxaca, and has played a crucial role in educating the general public and the youth about the diversity of agave and mezcal in Oaxaca. The mezcaleria has always been a haunt for local artists, thinkers and mezcal advocates and was an inspiration for projects that followed soon after such as In Situ and Mezcaloteca.

Felix realizes the importance of social organization and the positive impacts that projects like his uncle’s have on traditional mezcal producers. He has continued this work with his involvement in and commitment to the nation-wide Civil Association, Maestros del Mezcal A.C. which the Cuish Mezcaleria has been a home base to since its foundation. Cuish is dedicated to promoting and protecting traditional mezcal in all ways possible.

We are excited to finally be bringing the traditional mezcals of the producers we have worked with for many years to the US. As this mezcal is produced respecting the methods and quantities used traditionally, every lot will be unique and will reflect the terroir and communities where it was made.