Mezcal is cooked in pits, typically line with either lava rocks and filled with wood and charcoal; It is then mashed, strained and fermented. Afterwhich, it is distilled up to 3 times, than either bottled or aged in barrels for upto a year.
Rey Campero
Hacienda Oponguio
Origen Raiz
El Jolgorio
Derrumbes
Nuestra Soledad
Siete Misterios
Real Minero Largo
Del Maguey
Fidencio
The Lost Explorer
Agave was considered sacred in the old days in Mexico. They looked at it as a religious thing and worshipped it. The one day, there is this agave plant by itself in a field, that gets struck by lightning. The locals believed that it was struck by lightning by God.
The plant is cooked internally from the lightning strike causing the agave to release its nectar. This nectar was then treated as sacred. They would then start to cook agave frequently.
Sometime later, when the Spaniards came over and did what they did.... They would drink a lot of alcohol however, they started to run out of what they brought with them. Since they had knowledge of distillation, they took the cooked agave and nectar, fermented it and then distilled it.
This is all a legend with no real way to back it up, but an awesome legend.