Rey Campero Ponche de Frutas Artesanal Mezcal

This festive mezcal shines brightest when sipped neat or over a large ice cube during the holiday season, allowing those luscious guava, apple, and cinnamon notes to unfold on your palate—though it also makes a spectacular addition to winter-warming punches or stirred cocktails that benefit from its spiced fruit complexity. Pair it with roasted pork, dark chocolate desserts, or spiced nuts to complement its rich, celebratory character.

Nose: Bright guava and baked apple lead, followed by plump golden raisins and a warm sprinkle of cinnamon. There's a gentle smokiness underneath—earthy and mineral-driven from the pit oven—but the fruit takes center stage. You'll also catch hints of agave sweetness, like cooked pineapple, and a subtle note of fresh wood from the fermentation vats. It smells like the holidays distilled into liquid form.

Palate: The fruits hit immediately—juicy guava, stewed apple with brown sugar, and concentrated raisin sweetness. Cinnamon bark adds warmth and spice without dominating. Behind the fruit, there's classic Espadín character: roasted agave, light smoke, and a peppery bite that keeps things balanced. The texture is lush and slightly oily, coating the mouth. At 51% ABV, it has weight and presence but remains surprisingly approachable given the proof. The sweetness from the fruit is natural and restrained, never syrupy.

Finish: Long and warming, with cinnamon and baking spices lingering alongside dried fruit. The smoke reappears gently, along with earthy agave and a touch of black pepper. There's a pleasant heat that fades slowly, leaving you with memories of raisins, wood smoke, and sweet spice. It's the kind of finish that invites another sip.

This unique mezcal starts with traditional Espadín cooked in an earthen pit and milled with a stone tahona, but the magic happens during the second distillation when Maestro Mezcalero Vicente Sánchez Parada adds fresh guava, apple, raisins, and cinnamon bark directly into the copper pot still—a centuries-old technique that infuses the spirit with natural fruit sweetness and holiday spice without any added sugars or artificial flavoring.

• Unlike liqueurs where fruits are soaked after distillation, Ponche de Frutas gets its flavor by adding whole guava, apple, raisin, and cinnamon directly into the copper still during the second distillation—meaning those fruit flavors are literally carried over in the vapor, creating an entirely different flavor profile that's dry, complex, and spirit-forward rather than sweet and syrupy.
• This batch was intentionally distilled in June 2024—right in the middle of summer—and then rested in glass for over a year before release, allowing the fruit and agave vapors to marry and mellow in a way that mimics the Mexican tradition of making ponche well before December celebrations, when families would prepare their holiday punches months in advance to let the flavors develop.
• With only 389 bottles produced and an 8-year gap since the last release (originally under a different label), this represents one of the rarest expressions from the acclaimed Sánchez Parada family—and if you miss it, you're waiting until fall 2026 for the next batch, making it more elusive than most limited-edition whiskeys or allocated bourbons.