Agave Road Trip

If drinking mezcal that has snake venom in it killed you right away, there’d be a lot of dead people on the floor of the mercados around Mexico. But … could it be doing damage you don’t see right away? Our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr, Ryan Aycock, the Cocktail MD, checks in for a check up in this episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtrip.com Agave Road T...

Lou and Chava got to go on a week-long trip through Tabasco and Chiapas …. visiting cacao and coffee farms … with Dark Matter Coffee and Rick Bayless’ Topolobampo crew … and all you get is this stupid travelogue.  Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtrip.com Agave Road Trip is Powered by  Simplecast. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at http...

Having trouble sleeping, pal? Think twice before you reach for that bottle of mezcal. Or tequila. Or whiskey. Or whatever. It’s a nightcap episode of Agave Road Trip, featuring our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr, Ryan Aycock, the Cocktail MD! And it’s way better at inducing sleep than alcohol is! Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtrip.com Agave Road Trip is Powered by  Simplecast....

It’s not uncommon when a new tequila or mezcal launches that buyers will ask the brand what they are doing to support the community from which they’re sourcing their spirits. In this episode of Agave Road Trip, we talk through what that means – and what it can mean – through the lens of Chris Pastena, former co-owner of Calavera, a restaurant in Oakland that he and his business partner and wife ha...

There’s a project down in Brazil that’s investigating agave as a source of biofuel. It’s funded and organized by Shell, and is a sort of extension of the biofuel project they started years ago that uses biomass from sugar cane in a similar manner. In this episode of Agave Road Trip, we speak with Fabio Raya – a PhD candidate involved in the program – about how it works, when it might be a real thi...

This series on sustainability was sparked by all the industry talk about consumers only supporting sustainable mezcals. And the IWSR released a report that supports that notion, claiming that nearly half of alcohol consumers say sustainability practices influence whether they buy from a company or not. But … do they? We get real in this episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related lin...

Last week we bickered about whether or not mezcal is sustainable. But maybe the bigger  and more important question is, is anything sustainable? We get bleak in this episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtrip.com Agave Road Trip is Powered by  Simplecast. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privac...

There’s a lot of industry talk about only supporting sustainable mezcals. But … none of the brands are sustainable. Or, at least, not one of them that is being exported is sustainable. How can that be? What does that mean? And how does that inform what you should drink or not drink? Chava and I bicker it out in this episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtrip....

VP Pro shared out a story about the “impressive” growth that mezcal has been experiencing for many years. Yet, for all that growth, it’s still just 9 million liters annually. Compared to the 527 million liters of tequila that are produced in Mexico, let alone the 13.5 billion (with a “B”) liters of beer…? It’s a literal drop in the bucket. But could it be on its way to something bigger? How will i...

For thousands of years, we’ve been adding color to our world to make it more beautiful — and cocktails are no exception. But before you add that dye, consider the advice of our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Ryan Aycock — the Cocktail MD! He’s here to drain the color from your your face and your recipes in this episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtrip.com...

There are a lot of distilleries referring to themselves as “craft” distilleries. But … are they? Who defines craft? And is craft a reference to flavor or to process? It’s a(nother) judgmental episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtrip.com Agave Road Trip is Powered by  Simplecast. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice a...

So we say it's about bats, but it's really about pollination. And we talk about all these other creatures that can do the job, but then … how would it damage the ecosystem if bats became extinct? Are they the only thing standing between us and mosquitoes? Dr. Kristen Lear , Agave Restoration Program Manager for  Bat Conservation International , tells us what all the hubbub is about in this episode...

Irish coffees, espresso martinis, carajillos, vodka and Red Bull … there are so many examples of drinks that combine caffeine with alcohol, with the theory that this will be the pick-me-up that helps you extend your best-night-ever. But do they work? We ask our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Ryan Aycock, otherwise known as the Cocktail MD … otherwise known as the guy who punctures holes in all o...

“Agave? I don’t know what that is, agave.” That’s what Oprah Winfrey said in a 2004 episode in which Dr. Oz warned of the threats of refined sugar and listed his suggestions for substitute sweeteners. Agave nectar was top of his list. It was the endorsement heard round the world, and sales have been climbing since. So why would some bartenders suggest banning the ingredient? It’s a sticky subject...

Rosemary Smith of Black Snake Distillery in Australia asked us the question, “Does the unique taste of each agave spirit mainly come from its sugar source or the crushed fibers and juice?” So, of course, we fought over the answer! It’s a chicken-or-the-egg episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtrip.com Agave Road Trip is Powered by  Simplecast. See Privacy Po...

It’s pretty common, when we visit mezcaleros, that they’ll pull out a bottle and tell us it’s a special blend that serves as an aphrodisiac. Or Mexican Viagra. But … is that even possible? We ask Cocktail MD Ryan Aycock for the straight scoop, and somehow detour off into avocados and balut. It’s an eat-your-heart-out episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtrip...

There’s a school of thought that suggests that aging mezcal in wood isn’t traditional, and that the changes imparted by the barrel distract from the flavors and aromas of the agave. And, sure, there are some communities where the mezcaleros would never age in anything other than glass for those exact reasons. But you don’t have to travel very far from those palenques to find villages where — for h...

Back in the 1990s, the Mexican government took legal control of the word “mezcal” away from the people who have shepherded mezcal traditions for hundreds of years. But legal control isn’t the same as moral control. But what does it mean to refer to an uncertified agave spirit as mezcal in the USA? This episode of Agave Road Trip is entirely about why I say “agave spirits” to refer in the USA to wh...

Is it just me or is activated charcoal suddenly in everything? We’re joined by our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Ryan Aycock (the Emergency Room Doctor Currently Known as Cocktail MD) to talk about what activated charcoal is, what it does, and how it can deactivate birth control when it’s included in cocktails. But also how it can turn your teeth black, which is sort of another kind of birth con...

Pulque is fleeting — it’s here, it’s gone. But does that mean it’s harder to make than mezcal? Chava and I duke it out over a subject neither of us can speak to — and bring in academic Gonzalo Álvarez-Ríos, who we call Dr. Pulque, to settle the matter. And we somehow land on the rare red pulque. It’s a full liter of an episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtr...

A year or so back, Alvin Starkman introduced us to Reina Cortés Cortés at A & V La Casa del Pulque . We had a Bordeaux barrel gifted to us by the kind folks at Mezcal Sombra — one of the barrels they had subsequently used to age their Mezcal Repose. We thought Reina would ferment her aguamiel in the wooden barrel to make a unique pulque. And she did make a unique pulque. But not in the way we expe...

Chava found a letter from Hernán Cortés to Carlos V from 1520, and now we're pretty sure that everyone who claims pulque was only for royalty is wrong, the word "maguey" is cultural appropriation, and corn syrup is part of Mexico's cultural heritage. It's a what-happens-when-Chava-goes-academic episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtrip.com Agave Road Trip is...

Normally, Chava and I interview someone for an hour, pull a 90-second quote from that interview, then build an episode by bickering around that quote. But when Chef Rick Bayless agrees to an interview, you just run the whole thing! Although Chema Skandal’s outstanding episode cover suggests that Chef was bitten by a radioactive taco, we get into the real origins of how he went from a childhood in...

In November 2021, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Mexico City! It was great fun, but we learned a lot of lessons on the way. If you  want to celebrate this traditional USA holiday south of the border, give this episode a listen and start making plans! It’s a fully stuffed episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at  agaveroadtrip.com Agave Road Trip is Powered by  Simplecast ....

All alcohol starts life as sugar, and the sugars used to make agave spirits like mezcal and tequila come from … agave! But the energy source that becomes sugar is also  what powers the agave’s ability to reproduce. So if you allow the agave to reproduce, you’re also burning up the sugars you need to make alcohol. It’s a pick-your-poison episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related lin...