Mezcal-ibration: Tequila?s Smokin-Hot Sister

Forget everything you've ever heard about mezcal (and most especially the worm). Right now, this agave-based aged spirit hits some of the highest notes of sophistication and pleasure in a glass, and there are several discerning Boston bars serving it up in high style. What you need to know: The finest bottles banging around are the unblended single-village mezcals under the Del Maguey label, each produced in old-school form (16th-century, to be exact) by individual family producers in Oaxaca, Mexico. This is a smoky, palpable, belly-warming elixir that rubs shoulders just as easily with cognac as with an exquisite tequila, and we've got five bars that serve it up right. It'd certainly be a dastardly crime to shoot this pleasure down; so take your time with each sultry, south-of-the-border sip.