The 20 Best Mezcals for 2026

To say mezcal is a complex spirit is a bit of an understatement. While to understand tequila is to know strictly about Blue Weber agave, mezcal uses dozens of different types of agave varieties, most that aren’t yet household names like Tobalá, Cupreata, and Tepeztate. This, in turn, means that, unlike tequila, there is no one distinct flavor profile for mezcal.

Mezcal can be citrusy, vegetal, peppery, herbal, earthy, savory, sweet, and, yes, smoky, the flavor profile most people assume it all tastes like but which is not the case. In that regard, this was an extremely challenging tasting where personal preferences for what “tastes good” came into play a lot more than in any other category of spirit.

It was also difficult to judge because it’s a lot harder to have preconceived notions about mezcal as, again unlike tequila, there aren’t as many famous, widespread brands that you kinda already know are going to be good when you see the label and pop the cork. (Remember, we don’t do these tastings blind.) And that’s for a variety of reasons but, namely, because it’s inherently impossible to produce mezcal in large enough quantities to ship to every corner of the globe. That’s mostly a good thing when it comes to quality and, indeed, we were wowed by plenty of mezcals we had never heard of previously. (It’s somewhat of a bad thing, however, in the sense that producing in such minuscule batches forces bottle prices to soar.)

Don’t be surprised if you, too, haven’t heard of many of the mezcals on this year’s list. Trust that we’ve done the hard work for you, tasting through more than 70 expressions to curate this list of the 20 best mezcals to drink in 2026.

Why You Should Trust VinePair

Every year, VinePair conducts dozens of tastings for our “Buy This Booze” product roundups, highlighting the best bottles across the world’s most popular wine and spirits categories.

Within this scope, VinePair’s tasting and editorial staff samples thousands of bottles every year. This ensures we have a close eye on what’s new and exciting. Crucially, it also provides us with the context needed to distinguish the simply good from the truly great, whether from a quality or value-for-money perspective, or both.

Ultimately, our mission is to offer a clear, reliable source of information for drinkers, providing an overview applicable to day-to-day buying and drinking.

How We Taste

We believe in tasting all products as our readers typically would: with full knowledge of the producer and — importantly — price. Our tastings are therefore not conducted blind.

For this mezcal roundup, all expressions were sampled in Glencairn glasses and allowed to rest for five minutes prior to tasting. We then evaluated the aromas, flavors, texture, and finish of each spirit.

How We Compiled This List

In order to provide our readers with the most comprehensive and thoroughly tested list of the best mezcals to buy, VinePair invited producers, distributors, and PR firms working on their behalf to send samples for consideration. These bottles were submitted free of charge — producers didn’t pay to submit nor did VinePair pay for the products. All were requested with the clear understanding that submission does not guarantee inclusion in the final list.

Not only would such an agreement contradict our editorial ethics and samples policy, it simply wouldn’t be possible to include everything we received. For this roundup, we tasted nearly 70 new submissions and also retasted around a dozen bottles that were sent to VinePair throughout the course of the prior 12 months and that we were able to confirm are still (at least somewhat) available in retail channels.

During tasting, we assigned a score to each product on a 100-point scale based on the quality and intensity of its aromas, flavors, texture, and finish. Then we reviewed all scores and compiled an editorially driven list that meets our criteria of the 20 best mezcals to buy right now. It’s important to note that these are not the 20 highest-scoring mezcals we tasted this year. Instead, this list showcases the best bottles across every price and for every scenario, including the best bottle for beginners, the best widely available mezcals, and the best aged expression.

The Best Mezcals Under $50

Penumbra Mezcal Joven

This Espadín (the most common agave variety in mezcal production) is cooked over Encino wood. It is a well-rounded, balanced, and fairly tasty mezcal, with notes of citrus and melon, some peppery hints and saltiness, and just a touch of sweet smoke. Would work well in a Mezcal Margarita or Oaxaca Old Fashioned.

Average price: $45
Rating: 90

Lágrimas de Dolores Cenizo Colonial Temoaya

This Cenzino mezcal is light on the palate with the overwhelming taste of cotton candy. It’s also a bit earthy with some spice and smoke. A very solid mezcal for the low price and proof (43 percent ABV).

Average price: $48
Rating: 90

Tosba Espadin Mezcal

Also produced from Espadín, this mezcal has a pleasant sweet fruitiness (mangoes, peaches) on the palate backed by some woody, smoky notes. More than drinkable neat, but would soar in cocktails, especially at such a friendly price.

Average price: $49
Rating: 91

Derrumbes San Luis Potosi

Produced from wild agave unique to the high-altitude Central Mexican Plateau, the resulting flavor profile of this mezcal is one of a kind. It’s green and extremely vegetal, almost cactus-like. It’s herbal and pickled, a bit chalky, but also sweet. Very interesting and surely not for everybody, but at this price it’s well worth an exploration.

Average price: $50
Rating: 91

The Best Mezcals Under $100

Mezcal Vago Espadín Emigdio Jarquin

This Espadín, produced in Miahuatlan, Oaxaca, by maestro mezcalero Emigdio Jarquin Ramirez, is a beautiful, traditionally made mezcal: tahona crushed and distilled on a copper refrescadera still. There’s an interesting bready/malty note on the nose you don’t usually find in mezcal, while the palate is more of the expected flavors of Espadín — citrusy, a bit earthy, a touch of smoke. An entry-level sipper or a stellar cocktail ingredient, you choose.

Average price: $51
Rating: 92

Palomo Destilado con Mole

If mole pechugas are trending, this is an accessible, affordable place to start your journey. An Espadín from Matatlán, Oaxaca, cooked then crushed by horse-drawn tahona, after the second distillation it is macerated for four weeks with all 30 ingredients of mezcalero Carlos Mendez Blas’s grandmother’s mole recipe. And you taste the mole! There are plenty of herbal notes, notably anise and a Fireball-like cinnamon sugar note, with hints of chiles, peanuts, and perhaps even some dark chocolate. This infusion might be a bit of a cheater’s “pechuga,” but at this price and taste, who cares?

Average price: $60
Rating: 90

Granja Nómada Ensamble Mezcal

This ensemble (two or more agave varieties cooked, fermented, and distilled together) includes 70 percent Espadín and 30 percent Tepeztate. There is such an intense pineapple note in both aroma and on the palate that we had to double check to make sure flavoring wasn’t added as was the case in a few other infused mezcals we had recently tried. (It wasn’t.) This is simply a super-tropical and bright mezcal that is a pure pleasure to drink.

Average price: $65
Rating: 92

Del Maguey Chichicapa

Despite being one of the U.S.’s longest-imported mezcal brands, most people only know Del Maguey’s flagship Vida release. It’s good, sure, but the brand has so much more to explore, like this slightly higher-priced Espadín. It’s still a lighter, more accessible mezcal than some of the others on our list, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t complex; citrusy, tropical, a bit herbal with some mintiness, with even a light Mexican chocolate on the finish. Sippable neat but would upgrade any agave cocktails.

Average price: $70
Rating: 92

Koch El Mezcal Tobasiche

Produced from 12-year mature Tobasiche (a wild agave best known for slender, tree-like stalks), this mezcal is very bright in its initial aroma. There’s some minty notes, some fruitiness and nuttiness, a touch of sour apple Jolly Ranchers, Tobasiche’s signature woody/cedar-like hints, all leading toward a smooth finish. A well-balanced mezcal all around.

Average price: $70
Rating: 91

Erstwhile Five-Spice Duck Pechuga Mezcal

This Brooklyn-based curator and importer of small, independent mezcal producers offers plenty of delicious, classic mezcals like an outstanding Espadín we tried in this very tasting, but their Five-Spice Duck Pechuga is surely one of the strangest and most sui generis mezcals you will ever taste. Made in collaboration with Epifania Gómez Mejía and Silverio García Luis from Rancho Blanco Güilá in Oaxaca, whole ducks are marinated in Chinese five-spice powder overnight, before being added to the still, pechuga-style, along with fruits of the season as well as herbs and spices more common in Oaxacan culture. The mezcal is heavy on the anise/black licorice notes, with hints of tropical fruits, cilantro, and an almost-numbing Szechuan peppercorn zip on the finish. Wholly original while still distinctly mezcal.

Average price: $80 (375 mL)
Rating: 93

Gracias A Dios Tepeztate Wild Agave

Tepeztates are mezcal connoisseur favorites, but they can often be pricey, owing to the fact that the agave can take many decades to grow. An under-$100 option is a bit of a steal and this release, made from 25-year-old Tepeztate, is worth jumping on. It’s green and vegetal as to be expected of the plant, though not quite as peppery as is typical. More subtle than true Tepeztateheads may desire, but a great option for those new to this particular agave.

Average price: $85
Rating: 91

Mezcal Don Mateo Alto

From sixth-generation master distiller Don Emilio Vieyra (Don Mateo’s grandson) comes this Michoacán mezcal produced with estate-grown agave. Bright, piney, and dank on the nose like a West Coast IPA of yore, the palate leans more herbal and medicinal. There’s mint, a touch of anise, some green peppers, with just a wisp of smoke.

Average price: $90
Rating: 92

The Best Mezcals Over $100

Palomas Mensajeras Destilado de Agave Alto Capon

Another Michoacán mezcal made with the unusual (and often challenging) Alto variety, this is distilled in a Filipino-style pot still made of copper and oak, then rested for an astounding four years and two months in glass. At 48.5 percent ABV, the producer describes it as “mezcal for breakfast” thanks to the strong notes of cereal milk, dried fruit, melon, and banana.

Average price: $110
Rating: 92

Macurichos Joven Cirial Mezcal Artesanal

This mezcal is made with the rare Cirial variety of agave, which maestro mezcalero Gonzalo Martínez Sernas is a specialist at distilling. It is cooked in a conical earthen oven using pine and mesquite, then milled by horse-drawn tahona before being fermented in oak vats, then distilled on copper pot stills. Additionally, it is rested for 30 months in glass demijohns before bottling at a high proof of 52.86 percent ABV. The result is a mezcal heavy on the citrus notes, almost like a lemon-lime soda. There are rock-like, earthy notes along with a slight vanilla ice cream sweetness and some herbalness, finishing with a sharp bite. Easily the best mezcal of our entire tasting and one to seek out.

Average price: $129
Rating: 95

Cinco Sentidos Tobalá Cultivado (Alberto Martinez)

For agave fans, seeing the rustic, amate bark paper labels of this small maestro mezcaleros collective immediately triggers excitement. Indeed, this mezcal distilled from cultivated Tobalá (very unusual) by Alberto Martinez at his palenque in the Sierra Norte mountains of Oaxaca is quite special. The agave was roasted alongside encino oak and banana and willow leaves in an underground oven for a week before being crushed by wooden mallet. It’s then fermented with encino de aguá tree bark before double distillation and then being rested in glass demijohns. There’s a really pickled sensation on the palate, like pickled red onions, with a slight burning/smoky/mesquite sensation, backed by some corn notes, like street elote off the grill. This is outstanding mezcal, the kind you keep going back to for further examination.

Average price: $132
Rating: 94

Sanzekan Destilado de Agave, Papalote ‘Eufemio Sanchez’

There’s some immediate drinker’s dissonance between the rail liquor-quality packaging (complete with an Everclear-typical flow restrictor!) and the luxury price tag. Then you try this destilado de agave from a Guerrero-based cooperative and produced from their local Papalote — and wow. Earthen pit, wooden mallet, pine tanks, copper pots, yada yada yada. It’s earthy and a bit funky on the nose like fresh sourdough, while the palate offers pico del gallo, hay, potpourri, and some cinnamon sugar. A unique beast, and completely delicious. One of the best of this tasting and a good reminder that there is still great mezcal out there not yet corrupted by American-style packaging and marketing.

Average price: $135
Rating: 94

Creador Mexicano Capón

The mezcal is unusually high in sugar content thanks to the process known as capón — cutting the quiote (the flowering stalk of the agave) when it is growing skyward. After the cut, the agave stays in the ground an additional nine to 12 months as the sugar inside transforms further. Cooked in rock-lined conical ovens, milled by hand in a canoa, fermented in clay pots, then distilled in wood-fired clay pots by maestro palenquero José Alberto Pablo, the mezcal is extremely earthy on the nose, with notes of wet clay. On the palate, it is much sweeter and fruitier, with hints of chocolate-covered strawberries, bananas, just-cut grass, and just a little green pepper. Stellar.

Average price: $139
Rating: 93

Mezcal Ultramundo Lamparillo

This Lamparillo (a wild agave native to Durango) is distilled locally on wood-fired copper pots by Gilberto Roldán Quezada. The mezcal is extremely green peppery on both the nose and palate. It’s earthy and vegetal with hints of berries and red fruits, a touch of banana bread, and some brown sugar and spice. A complex and rich mezcal.

Average price: $150
Rating: 91

NETA Madrecuixe Capón (Hermógenes Vásquez García)

This was distilled from the highly sought-after Madrecuixe, the so-called “mother” of maguey, after being pollinated by hummingbirds and bats like in some sort of boozy fairy tale. Cooked in an earthen oven, mashed by machete, fermented in cypress tanks, and distilled on copper pots, only a scant 264 bottles were produced. This is outstanding, which is no surprise as all NETA is, but perhaps it’s a hair muted and one-note — very floral with some tropical fruits — for the price. Still, this is beautiful stuff you’ll be happy to own and drink.

Average price: $184
Rating: 93

The Best Aged Mezcal

Los Perdidos De La Noche Mezcal Artesanal

We are not the biggest fans of aged mezcal, which tends to cover-up the subtlety and nuance of specific agave aromas and flavors, but this is a shining example that this non-traditional practice can still work. This 100 percent Tepeztate mezcal, made from 18- to 23-year mature agave, was aged for four months in casks that formerly held Cognac. A single barrel release, bottled at barrel strength (52.32 percent ABV), it is peppery and vegetal, like you would expect from a Tepeztate, though it is backed by slight hints from the barrel — vanilla, light oak, and a touch of smoke. Worth the splurge.

Average price: $200
Rating: 92

The Best Widely Available Mezcals

While all the bottles featured on this list are currently available in the United States, most are small production and a majority are not available nationally. With that in mind, here are a few brands and expressions you can find in most liquor stores that we’ve previously enjoyed — especially in cocktails — and reviewed:

Del Maguey Vida
Ilegal Mezcal Joven
Montelobos

FAQs

What’s the difference between tequila and mezcal?

Both tequila and mezcal are spirits distilled from the agave plant. While mezcal can be made from a range of agave varieties in various states across Mexico, by law tequila must be made with Tequilana Weber or Blue Weber agave in the Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, and Guanajuato. (Check out this guide for more on the differences between tequila and mezcal.)

Is mezcal stronger than tequila?

It depends on the bottle. Most mezcals and tequilas will be within the 36 to 55 percent alcohol-by- volume (ABV) range. And while you can find bottles of each spirit at both ends of the range, you’ll more often find tequilas at 40 percent ABV and mezcals a little higher.

Can you drink mezcal straight?

Many drinks professionals recommend drinking mezcal straight, sipped neat with water on the side. But there are plenty of cocktails that the spirit lends itself to. (Check out this guide on how to drink mezcal.)

Which is smoother: mezcal or tequila?

Smoothness is a very subjective quality in spirits. While a certain expression of mezcal might be smooth to you, it might not be to another drinker. Similarly, you might not find a certain tequila smooth while someone else might. Which is to say that it depends: on the quality of the spirit, the distillation process, and your own personal perception. But as far as categories go, between mezcal and tequila, we wouldn’t say one is smoother than the other.

Does mezcal give you a hangover?

“Mezcal doesn’t give you a hangover.” You’ve probably heard this before. And while there is no science to support this claim, lots of folks say they feel less crummy after a night of drinking mezcal or mezcal-based cocktails. While any mezcal made without additives — like sugar, colorings, or other chemicals — will probably make you feel less bad in the morning, as with any alcohol, drinking enough mezcal (read: too much) will indeed lead to a hangover.

The article The 20 Best Mezcals for 2026 appeared first on VinePair.