Gota Gorda

The Name

Gota Gorda translates to “Fat Drop.” It comes from the Mexican saying sudando la gota gorda — to sweat the fat drop — meaning to work hard at something, to pour yourself into it completely.

It is a phrase that anyone who has spent time around a palenque understands instinctively. Mezcal is not made easily. It is not made quickly. From the years an agave spends growing in the earth to the days of roasting, crushing, fermenting, and distilling, every stage demands labour, patience, and care. Gota Gorda is the name for all of that effort — the collective sweat of everyone involved in bringing a bottle of mezcal into existence.

The Founder

Dani Tatarin’s path to mezcal started behind a bar. Over more than twenty-five years in the spirits and cocktail industry, she built a career defined by curiosity, rigour, and a refusal to settle for the obvious.

At Vancouver’s Keefer Bar, she pioneered cocktails inspired by traditional Chinese medicine — an approach that earned global recognition, including the Giffard Global Competition in 2010 and Bartender of the Year in 2012. As founding president of the Canadian Professional Bartenders Association, she worked to elevate bartending as a craft and connect professionals across the country.

But it was mezcal that changed the direction of her life.

Since 2011, Dani has been building relationships with mezcal-producing families across Mexico — travelling to their palenques, sitting with them, tasting with them, learning from them. What started as a passion within her spirits education programmes became something deeper: a commitment to sharing these families’ work with the world, on their terms.

Today, Dani lives in Mexico. She operates Gota Gorda Mezcalería in Zipolite, Oaxaca. She developed the cocktail and agave programme for Acre Hotel in San José del Cabo. And she works with PUJOL — Mexico City’s legendary Michelin-starred restaurant — sourcing limited-edition batches of agave distillates exclusively for their dining rooms.

Dani is not an arm’s-length importer. She is someone who has embedded herself in the world of mezcal — who lives alongside the families she works with, who understands production not from a textbook but from years spent in and around palenques. That proximity, and the trust it has built, is what makes Gota Gorda different.

The Maestros

Gota Gorda works with families who have been producing mezcal for three to five generations, using traditional methods passed down and refined over time. Currently, the brand works with producers across Oaxaca, Durango, Puebla, and Guerrero — with the goal of eventually representing families from all nine mezcal-producing states of Mexico.

The Process

Every Gota Gorda expression follows the same ancient sequence: harvest, roast, crush, ferment, distil. What varies is the specific method at each stage — and it is these variations, combined with the agave itself, that give each expression its character.

Every batch is different. Production volumes range from 30 litres for rare wild agave expressions to over 750 litres for cultivated espadín. Each bottle is numbered. Each label is handwritten. No two bottles are exactly alike. That is the point.

The Packaging

Every bottle is 500ml — a format that reflects the small-batch nature of the production. The labels are printed on textured paper, with the details of each batch written by hand. Each bottle is sealed with wax. The phrase that adorns every bottle reads: Gotas de Tiempo, Gotas de Amor — Drops of Time, Drops of Love.

And every bottle comes with a gift: a handmade clay copita, crafted by Oaxacan artisan Javier Ruiz. The copita is the traditional vessel for drinking mezcal — including one with every bottle means that whoever receives a Gota Gorda expression has everything they need to experience it as it was meant to be enjoyed.