Category: Press Release

Distilled by fourth-generation mezcaleros in the state of Oaxaca, Ilegal Mezcal is all about sustainability and producing 100% natural mezcal. Ilegal Mezcal produces in small batches, hand-corking and hand-labeling each bottle. 

Their Joven product is un-aged and full bodied with light smoke and is flexible enough for cocktails, but has enough personality to be sipped on its own. You’ll find hints of green apple, fresh citrus, eucalyptus, and red chiltepe peppers.

“A beautiful introduction mezcal, Ilegal Mezcal Joven is wonderful in cocktails,” said Freddie Sarkis, chief cocktail officer at Liquor Lab in New York City. “It’s lighter on smoke than others, but not absent from it. The company practices a lot of advocacy with a long list of nonprofits and NGOs in the realm of LGBTQ, environmental conservation, immigration, and others.

In 2020, it’s surprisingly easy to drink sustainably. Bartenders across the country are redirecting their bar programs to embrace conscious cocktailing, and booze brands are following the trend. There are vodkas made from cheesemaker’s leftovers, and distilleries fueled by pedaling bikes. There are rums helping to rebuild the rainforest, and mezcals funding human rights campaigns.

Most big brands tend to sidestep politics, but Ilegal mezcal is vocal about its support for human rights causes. The brand was famously behind a guerrilla street art campaign advocating for immigration reform (“The Only Thing That Should Ilegal is Mezcal”). 

Over the years, Ilegal has also raised money for education, undocumented youth, wildlife animal protection, and LGTBTQ+ advocacy. Keep an eye out for the raucous brand-hosted concerts, most that sponsor emerging Latin American musicians or raising money for Planned Parenthood. Did we mention they also make some seriously smooth Mezcal? $49.99

Ilegal has announced that they have hired and promoted women as the COO, CMO, VP of trade marketing and trade marketing manager, all working hard to maintain the brand’s position as one of the leading small-batch artisanal mezcals on the market. Members Michelle Ivey, Kaylan Rexer, Trish Mannion and Kelsey Grandi, respectively, now make up over half of the executive leadership board.

Ilegal is one of the leading, small batch artisanal mezcals on the US market. It is made from 100 percent espadin agave and comes in three representations: Joven, Reposado Anejo. Ilegal was created in 2004 out of founder John Rexer’s bar, Café No Sé in Antigua. While its roots are in Guatemala, Ilegal is produced in Oaxaca, Mexico with headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.

As the brand director behind the politically active and socially conscious Mezcal brand, Ilegal Mezcal, Kaylan Rexer is responsible for starting movements. From creating the “Donald Eres Un Pendejo” campaign in protest of U.S. president Donald Trump to throwing benefit concerts for Planned Parenthood, Rexer has proven that she’s a force to be reckoned with not only in the alcohol business, but also in her community.

So, it makes sense that her favorite food would also have a reputation for supplying a kick. The one food Rexer could never live without? Chilis (and Mezcal, of course).

Responsible drinking has always meant the same for me as it does for everyone else: not over-consuming and never driving (and, of course, any other socially unacceptable behavior). But it was only after a trip to Oaxaca with a mezcal brand (don’t call it the new tequila, but its cooler, smoky cousin best served straight up), Ilegal Mezcal, that I realized responsible drinking was more than just about consumption—the source matters, too.

Our favorite spirit for the money has a clean, vegetal nose and bright, fruity palate. The finish is smoky and long, “but in an enjoyable way,” a taster said. Smooth and elegant, this is an excellent sipper, and it plays well in cocktails as well. We would happily serve it with a splash of citrus on ice at a party, mix it into a Paloma, or sip it neat on the sofa with a good book (or, say, Twitter on a slow news day).

Among the emerging masses of trailblazing power women defying odds in their respective male-dominated industries is Kaylan Rexer, bad ass brand director of Ilegal Mezcal. Ilegal is a liquor company that vends not only the secret, smoky spirit that is mezcal, but also a refreshing new mindset on consumer industries. They are fostering a new conversation between alcohol and politics, one that is finally clear of objectifying ad campaigns and controversial lawsuits. Rexer, as mastermind behind Ilegal’s voice is ironically soft spoken in her words, but loud and clear in her actions.

Ilegal’s history is rich in authenticity and transparent in intentions, cut from the same cloth as Rexer’s. Sitting in the den of a cozy Deer Mountain Inn by the Catskills, where Ilegal hosted an installment of their summer music series, Rexer disclosed to me their humble journey which accidentally started when her uncle began smuggling the mezcal from Oaxaca to his bar in Guatemala. Accommodating the flooding inquiries by his international patrons about taking the underground hooch home, John Rexer had unknowingly founded what would eventually become Ilegal Mezcal–proving that its name is an honest confession to its past, while Kaylan shows also that it is a provocation to our future.

This delectable dram is dry and robust, with wafts of smoke on the finish that coat your throat. Another unaged offering, this bottling is best enjoyed neat. While it works in cocktails—and was technically designed to be used in them—we find that its peppery, wet stone complexities are best represented when there’s nothing else to distract from them.