In any mezcal, adding an ingredient other than agave marks a batch as something special—even spiritual. And that is especially true with the special edition Mezcal Vago Elote.
In Oaxaca, where Mezcal Vago is made, mezcaleros distill cultivated and harvested agave hearts with chicken, rabbit, spices, and fruit for special occasions like day of the death, birthdays, weddings, retirements, and babies born. These ceremonial batches often never leave the palenque, and are instead shared among family, friends, and neighbors, and splashed on the ground to honor the ancestors who came before.
Mezcal Vago Elote invites drinkers to share in this tradition, and introduces inviting notes of toasted corn to the beloved and expected smoky aroma of mezcal. And so our packaging for Elote is designed to celebrate this special and ceremonial ingredient: the corn.
Beneath the trademark Vago logotype, ‘Elote’ is proudly placed. And again, on the bottle neck, a black band printed with ‘Elote’ hints at the smoky intrigue of this special edition ingredient.
Throughout the label, we use a familiar and fresh mix of typefaces to capture the process, provenance, and people that make this mezcal so unique, and pay homage to the combination of tradition, intuition, and love that sets it apart from any other spirit.
Beneath the type, an outline illustration of an ear of corn set in a rich maize yellow makes the Elote bottle stand out from our other Mezcal Vago mezcals. Bold and supergraphic, the illustration tells the drinker, “There’s something special about this bottle.”
The Elote label is printed on paper made from recycled agave fiber—what’s left over when a batch of mezcal is finished distilling. This sweet and fragrant pulp, known as bagaso, is sent to a local artisan’s workshop to be cleaned, milled, dyed, and pressed into the paper for our labels. You can see images of this process, here.
This design choice opens up another use for the precious agave plant, and ensures that our packaging stays true to the local authenticity that makes mezcal, especially Mezcal Vago Elote, so powerful. Drinkers can see the texture as they turn the bottle and explore the story.
As they turn to the back, wood-engraving vignettes add romance and a hint of nostalgia to the storytelling. The style nods to Oaxacan wood carving, replicates the ancestral and artisanal process of making mezcal and its distinctively analog technique, and—most importantly— illustrates the fields where the Elote corn grows alongside Espadín agave.
1.- Illustration featuring agave Espadín growing next to corn fields
2.- Elote lockup exploration
Our packaging design for Mezcal Vago Elote celebrates its perfect marriage of toasted corn and agave, and shares this special, local tradition with drinkers around the world.
