Zacatecas will attempt to win the Guinness World Record for the largest mezcal tasting on Thursday.

The event will be held in the city of Zacatecas’ Plaza de Armas, where more than 2,000 people are expected to show up to sample the state’s mezcals.

Rural Affairs Secretary Adolfo Bonilla Gómez confirmed that Guinness representatives will attend the event to witness the achievement of the record.

Bonilla explained that the tasting is part of the Zacatecas 2019 Food Show, which hopes to introduce 21 Zacatecan food products to national and international markets.

He hopes the event will “open a new window to the world” for locally produced mezcal.

Mezcal produced in Zacatecas shares denomination of origin status with the states of Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Michoacán and Puebla.

It is also protected by the Regulatory Council of Mezcal, an entity that reviews standards related to production, bottling, labeling and commercialization of the beverage.

The Zacatecan mezcal industry is comprised of approximately 1,000 agave producers and 22 mezcal distilleries, which together produce 60 distinct brands.

Zacatecas is home to five species of agave used to distill mezcal: Cenizo, Salmiana, Tequilana Weber, Maparrillo, and Guadalajara.

The state was the country’s eighth largest producer of agave in 2018, with 100,221 hectares of farmland dedicated to cultivating the succulent. Those fields yielded 21,731 tons of agave that year.

There are two main agave producing regions — Cañones de Tlaltenango y Juchipila, located in the south of the state, and the Pinos region, a semi-desert area in the southeast.

Bonilla emphasized the food show’s focus on creating direct commercial deals between producer and buyer in hopes of cutting out the middleman.

In order to make the state’s agricultural sector more organized and competitive, the event will host Italy as its guest country. Sinaloa was invited to be the event’s guest state.

Source: El Universal (sp)