ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Santiago Matatlán

Okay kiddo, let's talk about Santiago Matatlán. It's a place in Mexico where people make something called mezcal.

Now, mezcal is a type of alcohol made from a plant called the agave. This plant looks kind of like a big spiky pineapple that grows in hot places. People in Santiago Matatlán take the agave and cook it in big ovens. This helps turn the starches in the plant into sugars that can make alcohol.

After cooking the agave, they mash it up to get the juice out. Then they put the juice in big barrels to ferment. Fermenting means the juice is left sitting for a while so that little living things called yeast can eat the sugars and turn them into alcohol.

After fermenting, the mezcal is put into stills. Stills are like big pots with tubes coming out of them. When the mezcal is heated up in the still, it turns into a gas that travels through the tubes and becomes liquid again on the other side. This process helps make the mezcal stronger and more pure.

Finally, the mezcal is bottled up and sold! People all over the world enjoy it for its strong, smoky flavor. So that's Santiago Matatlán - a special place where they make mezcal using agave plants.