Word: mescal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Peyote is the fruit of the mescal cactus (Lophophora williamsii), which grows abundantly in Mexico and in parts of Texas. Dried, the fruits look like buttons of half-dollar size, brown with a pale center. For 15 years the peyote habit has spread. Alarmed as early as 1940, the Navajo Tribal Council outlawed peyote, but the ban could not be enforced. The peyote button had been adopted as a Communion host by the Native American Church, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, wary of a "religious freedom" issue, refused to interfere...
...Century Plants (Agave), which burst forth in one glorious bloom and then die. A good source of hard fibers, they also produce alcohol (including the entire supply of Mexico's national alcoholic drinks -tequila, mescal, pulque...
...soon as it shows, hollowing out a basin in the central core. The plant pours its banked energy into the place where the flower-stalk ought to be, produces a basin of sweet sap from which Mexicans make their national drink, syrupy pulque. By distilling fermented pulque they make mescal, a potent liquor. By letting the flower stalk grow, drying and slicing the firm pith, they get natural razor strops, insulating material...