Ask and ye shall receive—sometimes. When I started this blog last year, very early on I gently raved about Mezcal Enmascarado 45, a really nice and easy mezcal that I found on a trip to Mexico City. My reason for buying it was pretty simple: I was at El Palenquito on Alvaro Obregon one night, and, because I couldn’t legally bring back a bottled-on-site mezcal that they were pouring from the carboys behind the stick, I took whatever they had that was sealed and CRM/tax-stamped for export—assuming that it would be of equal quality to what I was drinking at the bar. Fortunately, it was—the bottled product of the owner of said bar, and of La Clandestina, Karla Moles.

Fast-forward a couple years, and I recently found myself in possession of Enmascarado’s much-higher-proof 54% expression, via the Mezco Group—the LA-based importer that’s taken on the noble task of bringing Enmascarado and Mezcal Union to the US. While they’re not everywhere yet, they are starting to pop up, particularly within California. My friend Max over at Mezcalistas happened to taste this same mezcal at La Cuevita in LA last week.

I got the chance to sit down with Mezco Group head honcho Nickolas Potocic a couple weeks back for an intercity Skype tasting of the 54, and I’ll say without reservation that it’s a really great, complex, high-octane mezcal. It’s one of those undulating spirits that runs through waves of different flavors and sensations. On the nose, it’s got some salinity, cooked agave, and light roastiness, with just a hint of mint. I almost get an earthy barnyard-floor sort of note as well. At first sip, it’s spicy but not overwhelmingly so, especially at 108 proof. And that’s when it gets crazy (in a good way), shifting from sweet and agave-forward to a more drying astringency that’s vegetal and leathery. Throughout all sorts of spicy, herbal notes—anise, a touch of cilantro—enter the profile, all propelled forward by its high alcohol content. It’s solidly alive all the way through; every drip explodes in a bright and memorable way.

It’s been a while since I finished off my bottle of Enmascarado 45, but if memory serves correctly, I prefer the 54. It obviously punches through a bit more, but it’s also got a complexity that wasn’t quite there in the 45 (which the company itself likens to a “party mezcal to share in the night”—a more approachable intro to the spirit). Like its lower-proof partner, Enmascarado 54 is also made from ripe espadín agave, double-distilled in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca, under the careful eye of maestro mezcalero Guillermo Abad Hernández. High marks for this one. Currently available at select bars and restaurants throughout California, and to buy at John & Pete’s and Bar Keeper in LA.