Ilegal Mezcal

It was in 2004 that Ilegal Mezcal’s founder John Rexer began bringing unbranded mezcal from a variety of villages in Oaxaca to Antigua to supply his bar, Café No Sé. It turns out they were pretty popular, so in 2006 Rexer created Ilegal Mezcal purely just to supply his bar with, nobody else. The name came about partly because Rexer had to smuggle the mezcal (illegally) across the Mexican border, but also because many people who work in Oaxaca have relatives living illegally in the US because there was no work in Oaxaca, and many people who Rexer works with have previously been ‘illegals’ in the US.