Agave Road Trip

I've been having a lot of conversations recently with people who own brands of agave spirits. And my friends who own Tequila brands,  they're a little uncomfortable with the state of the market. And then my friends with Mezcal brands, they really don't like the state of the market. Not so long ago, Mezcal was hot. Is it still cool? or is it cooling down? Agave Road Trip is a critically acclai...

The rules around Mezcal are so complex that I’m not surprised when someone gets the details wrong — even brand owners. But I still used that as a jumping-off point to get into it with Marissa Paragano about recent clips from The TequiLadies Show . And then we landed on a clip in which she talks about what agave tastes like. And what does it taste like? Well, which agave…? Agave Road Trip is a crit...

Agaves have three ways to reproduce: they can generate seeds, bulbils (semi-clones that grow on their quiotes), and hijuelos (clones from the roots). But sometimes, you’ll hear that a particular variety of agave doesn’t produce hijuelos, or its seeds aren’t viable. Why not? Which ones? And how did that come about? It’s our most sexual episode yet! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-w...

My frequent-but-not-frequent-enough cohost Linda Sullivan ‍ has a beverage education business, seynasecreto . And while she’s doing the education part at events, sharing funky, interesting, and cool agave spirits, the guests are engaged and loving it. But when the education stops and the bar becomes open call, those same guests go back to their common-order comfort zones. Which makes Linda uncomfo...

The Mexican government is considering a revised version of the NOM that defines what is and what is not Mezcal. My big takeaway is that it feels like the changes are either moving more toward protecting heritage mezcaleres or codifying things that were already allowed but weren’t anywhere in the existing NOM. Sergio Garnier’s view isn’t so different. But we argue anyway. Because that’s our love la...

That’s what I thought we were talking about: the Margarita collapsing under the weight of its popularity, so to speak. But food writer Alisha Miranda thought we were exploring the question, Can we get past the Margarita? And that question itself suggests that, at least for Alisha, the Margarita has become a victim of its own success. And David Suro ’s La Jefa Milpa Bar in Philadelphia doesn’t serv...

As we approach September 16, we prepare to celebrate Cinco de Mayo: Mexican Independence Day! And we do so in Agave Road Trip style with lawyer and professor Dr. Juan Pablo Salazar Andreou, author of Con o Sin Derecho , about the history of Cinco de Mayo in the legal context. Take off your shoes, grab a machete, and join us for the fun! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podc...

When most people think about Mexican drinks, they think about Tequila. But Tequila's success is really built on the vibrancy of the broader landscape of drinks and drinking in Mexico. It’s not a standalone spirit. It comes from a history and geography and culture that made possible something as compelling as Tequila. And author and researcher NC Stevens argues that is one of the leading reasons th...

I was watching an episode of John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” about gas-station drugs and it felt to me like, while never mentioned explicitly, the reason to ask every guest who orders an alcoholic beverage to show their ID. And I had Linda cornered so made her talk it through with me. Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand...

“This brings us to the question of glass versus food-grade plastic, because both are used at José Alberto's palenque, and food-grade plastic is certainly used to store mezcal at every other palenque I’ve visited, and both are legitimate vessels for storing agave spirits.” That’s what Marcus Piña of Creador Spirits wrote in his online journal — and then he answered the question. We’ve talked a lot...

Mezcal can get very confusing for the average consumer. You’ve got regular Mezcal, Mezcal Artesenal, and Mezcal Ancestral. And then there are variations among those, including Joven, Reposado, Anejo, abocado con, destilado con, and on and on. But this, it seems, is part of the heritage of Mezcal — at least according to a 1904 book titled Diccionario de Aztequismos o Sea Catalogo de las Palabras de...

There was a time (about a week ago) when posting to social-media that you would only drink “additive-free” was a way to say, I know Tequila . Now it feels like “milled by tahona” is the new “additive-free.” And in the same way that the additive-free-signaling actually signaled the opposite to me, the tahona-signaling does, too. And we talk about why in this episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road T...

“You just do it by the old way. It's not difficult. It's not fast, but it's not difficult. If we make it fast, you have to correct a lot of things. When you give the real time for a distillation, you get all the flavors. Give it the time, the real time that it needs to make it.” That’s Alvaro Fernandez , founder of El Acabo Raicilla and Asil Raicilla de la Sierra . We profile those brands — and ta...

Before science was invented, things were confusing. And, to be fair, for several decades into the birth of science, it was still confusing. Don’t believe us? Check out Scientific American magazines from the late 1800s — especially this one article about scientists tasting Mezcal and Tequila for the first time. Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx barte...

Okay, for real, this episode is only vaguely about Raicilla. It’s a bit more about profound justifications — that’s a reference to a quote from my guest co-host, Shawn Miller of PKGD Group . He brings that quote up as we’re talking about the white paper PKGD released a few weeks ago. That white paper is what this episode is really about. But who would listen to an episode titled, “The one about Sh...

I recorded a few weeks ago an episode with Marissa Paragano in which we talked about the 2025 numbers from Comercam . But we got so distracted by overall sales that I forgot to highlight this one very important fact: plain, old Mezcal (in other words, the stuff that can be made industrially) has doubled in one year. Marissa was too busy with her weekly YouTube show, “The TequiLadies,” so Linda Sul...

“Before, only white people or gringos used to sell Mezcal, and the consumer was used to only buying it from those people. But now the consumer is changing their mind and saying that I want to buy from the producer. I want to know how it’s made. I want to know if they are planting more agaves, or if they are not cutting trees, or what are they doing for the environment. So we have the information h...

I don’t know, maybe I’m just behind the curve on this one. But I had a conversation with Marcado 28 Tequilero Bruno Barba and, during that conversation, he brought up a subject that surprised me: the cleaning of the bottles. And it made me realize, there’s an “abocado con” Tequila I never imagined! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better...

There are scientific names and common names for agaves … or magueys, to use the common name. But the common names lack commonality: A papalometl in one part of the Mixteca is a potatorum. Less than 40 kilometers away, papalometl will refer to a Cupreata. And even the scientific names get screwy. So what’s a nerd to do? Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gri...

A recent episode of the VinePair podcast, titled " Mezcal’s Continued Search for Mainstream Success ,” feels to me like it was riddled with inaccuracies. And for some reason, it also feels to me like it stands in stark contrast to the recently released 2025 numbers from Comercam , the largest of the bodies certifying Mezcal. So I asked one of my favorite numbers gabbers, Marissa Paragano , to gab...

We’ve talked about agave straws in previous episodes , but I’ve been spending more time digging into them. And more than that, I’ve been spending time reading about – and now speaking with – Dr. Sandra Pascoe Ortiz , who has developed a plastic that is compostable and leaves behind no microplastics. So is this a solution for our plastics problem? Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-wi...

There are places that have massive collections of beautiful, small-batch agave spirits, but having the bottles isn’t the same as understanding them. And having those bottles, which are often expensive, requires additional expense in training staff. Or, anyway, are most likely going to realize their financial potential with training. But … who does that? Where do agave geeks go to have the geekiest...

“This is my playground. And we are always looking for the best profile we can get. Different profiles, different changes.” Those are the words of Master Tequilero Felipe Camarena , founder of G4 Tequila . We profile Felipe and G4 in this first episode of Agave Road Show! Agave Road Show is an advertorial podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand specific brands of agave spirits. Somet...

I find myself saying “multi-generational wisdom” pretty frequently, in reference to these communities I get to visit in rural Mexico. But when they start talking about how the moon affects their production of agave spirits, or the presence of a pregnant woman, I kind of laugh it off. So what am I missing, where is the truth, and how do I reconcile my own hypocrisy? Agave Road Trip is a critically...

How often have you heard or read that a brand of Tequila or Mezcal is only using quality agaves? That makes me wonder about those poor, down-market agaves. They deserve love, too, don’t they? And what makes them different from the good agaves? Brix? Years? Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural...