Coyote

Coyote is one name attached to at least two genuinely different agaves, and which plant it means depends on where the bottle was made. In the Tlacolula and Ocotlán valleys it usually refers to Agave lyobaa, a plant that is sometimes treated as a distinct species and sometimes folded into Agave americana. In Sola de Vega, in the Sierra Sur, "coyote" instead points to a local form of A. americana proper. The plant Agave lyobaa does not yet have a dedicated page on this site; the closest authored species page for the name as a whole is A. americana.

This is the clearest example in Oaxacan mezcal of a local name overriding botanical clarity, the reason this site keeps the producer's declared species, the printed binomial, and only then the village name in that order of reliability. A reader who sees "coyote" on a label has learned the region and the producer's tradition, but not, on its own, the species in the bottle. Treat the name as a starting question, not an answer, and check what the producer actually declares. The broader unresolved web of large-rosette names, coyote alongside arroqueño, sierra negra, and sierrudo, is discussed in the botany chapter.

In the glass, coyote mezcal is prized for depth rather than top-note aromatics: complex, earthy, and vegetal, often with a funky, wild edge and a strong cooked-agave backbone lifted by green, herbal notes. When it comes from Sola de Vega in particular, drinkers and producers tend to read it as an expression of that zone's terroir, a savory, mineral character that distinguishes it from the lighter Espadín mezcals of the central valleys.