Agave Road Trip provides gringo bartenders with firsthand knowledge about heritage agave spirits from Mexico, including mezcal, raicilla, bacanora, and destilado de agave.
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We talk with guests about Agave, Mezcal and Agave Spirits production, distribution, sustainability, culture, and more.
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Agavecultura. The Agave and sotol lessons and Mexican gastronomy. A+ work © Ana G. Valenzuela-Zapata
Ana G. Valenzuela Zapata
Explore the captivating world of Dr. Ana Guadalupe Valenzuela Zapata, a Mexican expert in agave plants. Her tequila research journey began in 1985, leaving a lasting impact on distilleries like Herradura and Sauza until 1992. As a professor at the University of Guadalajara (1992-2012), she earned recognition for her academic contributions. Dr. Valenzuela Zapata, a key figure in iconic brands like Del Maguey Mezcal, now focuses on digital content creation, fostering scientific communication i ...
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Four wheels good! Two wheels more good? For the last few years, Nick Barreiro has organized a moto-rally for small group of motorcycle-and-Mexico enthusiasts. And while motorcycles aren’t my speed, I know they work for plenty of gringx bartenders, and I love this whole different way to take in the stories of rural Mexico. Learn about Nick’s interna…
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What Can Cultivated Meat Teach Us About Mezcal?
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In his New York Times op-ed about the imploding dream of cultivated meat, Joe Fassler writes, “[It] was an embodiment of the wish that we can change everything without changing anything. We wouldn’t need to rethink our relationship to Big Macs and bacon. We could go on believing that the world would always be the way we’ve known it.” And while I ca…
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Are the Best Bottles of the Year the Best Bets for Your Bar?
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Vinepair, Wine Enthusiast, Esquire … seems like every publication these days has their suggestions for what you should have been drinking over the past year. Maybe what you should be purchasing as holiday gifts. But these lists can also serve as sales tools for gringx bartenders! It’s a DIY episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road Trip is a criticall…
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This Bottle Protects Jaguars
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We’ve done a lot of episodes about the importance of biodiversity, but usually we’re talking about plants. Sometimes insects. Bats, on occasion. So when we got an email from the gang at Alma de Jaguar Tequila about preserving this apex predator, I thought, yeah, let’s really sink our teeth into this subject! It’s a wild cat episode of Agave Road Tr…
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Are Agave Straws Really Better Than Plastic?
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A trend that’s emerged in the past decade are these drinking straws that are being promoted as made from agave fibers — the agave fibers being a byproduct of the process for making Tequila and Mezcal. The straws are marketed as biodegradable. But I think — emphasis on “think” — that these straws are at least in part made from plastics and are not a…
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How to Pair Mezcal With Food
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I’m seeing a lot more restaurants expanding their Mezcal selections, and a lot more events pairing Mezcal with food. So what do you eat when you drink Mezcal? I asked a bunch of industry folks that question over the last several months, then coerced food, science, and nature journalist Rowan Jacobsen to dig through those quotes with me to add his o…
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Why Brands Don’t Certify Their Mezcal
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Since I first met Sergio Garnier, before he launched Mezcal Ultramundo, we’ve debated about the relative merits of certifying your agave spirits as Mezcal. We decided it was time to record our disagreement. It’s a what-side-are-you-on episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bart…
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The Secret Origin of Bull-skin Fermentation in Mezcal
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The fist time I tasted an agave spirit fermented in the skin of a bull, it was all anyone was talking about in Oaxaca. I tasted it at three mezcalerias, and all three bottles were made by Amando Alvarado Alvarez in Santa Maria Ixcatlan, Oaxaca. I made my way out to visit him a few months later, to see the bull-skin fermenters myself. And when I sha…
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All Bino Mexcal Is Mezcal but Not All Mezcal Is Bino Mexcal
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Did the small family producers in Tequila, Jalisco, eat the metaphorical and literal lunch of the big producers in Guanajuato and San Luis Potosi at the 1893 World’s Fair? It’s a What If? episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, …
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Rowan Jacobsen Went to Mexico and All I Got Was This Podcast
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I got obsessed with Rowan Jacobsen when American Terroir hit bookstores in 2010, and was recently re-obsessed when his podcast “Wild Chocolate” dropped into my feed. So I reached out and he noted he was writing a sustainability feature about Mezcal for Bloomberg’s Businessweek. That article dropped last week, but this episode was recorded prior to …
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Food Journalism Is Still Journalism
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How do you find reliable sources for information about adult beverages? This is a multi-billion dollar industry, there should be reliable places to learn about trends. But I keep seeing significant errors in articles about agave spirits — which leads me to question what I’m reading about other spirits. And food. It’s an “On the Media” episode of Ag…
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The Problem With the InsideHook Article About 2023 Tequila Sales
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A couple weeks ago, I threw the Washington Post under the bus for failing to recognize that food journalism is — or should be — journalism. This week I throw myself under the bus for an article I wrote for InsideHook. Not because it fails as journalism — I’ll let someone else make that claim. But because I think it misses the most relevant point ab…
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Why Don’t More Mezcaleros Own Their Brands?
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Why are there so few Mezcal and Tequila brands owned by the people who produce them? When I try to rattle off the names of brands of Mezcal and Tequila that are owned by the people who actually make those spirits, it’s more of a clunk than a rattle. Why is that? And why is that important? It’s an own-or-be-owned episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Ro…
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The Problem With the Washington Post Article About Mezcal
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Do you want to preserve the biodiversity of agaves? Or do you want to preserve agaves in the wild? Because those are two different things, often at odds with one another. And you can’t have that conversation without talking about the reasons for the disappearing wild lands in Mexico. But that’s exactly what the Washington Post did last week, when t…
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How to Take Your Pet on a Road Trip to Mexico
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Heather Morse traveled to Mexico City with her husband, Aaron. And her dog. And her cat. By car. From Las Vegas. If you’ve ever wanted cross the border in a car, with your pets, and make it back home with everything intact, this might be the episode you’ve been waiting for. Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps…
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In a Wine Enthusiast op-ed titled “Is it time to leave Tequila alone?,” spirits and cocktail writer Kara Newman asks, “When it comes to pushing tequila’s boundaries, how far is too far?” Now, I tend to be a “head to the endzone” kind of guy, so I’ve brought in Ana Rita García Lascurain, founder and director of MUCHO, Mexico City’s museum of chocola…
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The Cultural Heritage of Agave Syrup
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There’s Mrs. Butterworth’s, and then there’s fine Vermont maple syrup. And the same extremes exist for agave syrup. But here’s the thing: the artisanal version of agave syrup has this whole cultural heritage aspect to it. And you’ve probably only been able to access Mrs. Agaveworth’s. Until now! It’s a sticky, chicken-feather-covered episode of Aga…
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Wild vs Farmed: Last Pulque Standing
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Gonzalo Alvarez is pursuing his master’s degree in pulque. Ivan Saldana has his doctorate in agave. Both tell me that farmed agave produces better pulque than wild agave. But on trips through Nuevo Leon, Cohuila, and Hidalgo, three pulque producers said the exact opposite. So … what’s the truth? They call me the Seeker, and I search low and high in…
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What’s Wrong With Your Stomach
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It started with a rumor I heard as a kid, that Maraschino cherries and bubblegum would stay in your stomach for seven years. Which led to a conversation about digestion. Which led to a conversation about fermentation. And Bloody Marys. And how your digestive system works. All of which is to say, Agave Road Trip’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Rya…
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There Is No Coffee in Mexico
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Well, of course, there is coffee in Mexico. I’ve bought some at Whole Foods in the past. But my friends at Dark Matter — who want nothing more than to source coffee from Mexico — have run into nothing but trouble. So what can we learn from that? It’s a caffeinated, globetrotting episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed,…
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The Cult of Hospitality
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A Liquor.com article I read earlier this year highlighted the number of hospitality workers who grew up in radical churches. That made me think about how hospitality itself is a sort of religion – depending on how you define religion. So this is maybe, to you, a sacrilegious episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, awa…
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A Game of Chicken With the Mexican Police
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Maybe you were speeding. Maybe you weren’t. Either way, the Mexican police have pulled you over. Question now is, what are you gonna do, punk? Do you feel lucky? It’s a dirty, hairy episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and ru…
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How Not to Bring Mezcal Back From Mexico
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I used to regularly come back from Mexico with a lot of alcohol — a lot. But in the last few years, it’s become significantly harder to get bottles back. And I think I know why. It’s a smuggler’s-blues episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcas…
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On this Day of Thanks, I ponder why Giving Tuesday isn’t Giving Thursday — why we aren’t giving thanks on Thanksgiving. It’s a thankless episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Agave Road Trip by becoming a member! Agave Ro…
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The Beautiful Inconsistencies of Coffee and Mezcal
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It's impossible with coffee beans to get consistency in flavors and aromas from one harvest to the next. Add in the processing of those beans into that morning drug that starts most of our days and … still more barriers to consistency. Which reminds me so much of the things that I love about agave spirits. It’s yet another inconsistent episode of A…
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How to Welcome the Mezcal Curious
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With all the press, all the talk, all the social-media posts, there are always people looking to find out what this Mezcal thing is all about. So what’s the best way to introduce them to these spirits? It’s a welcome-to-the-newbies episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com Heritage Radio Network is a liste…
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The Church of Our Lady of Tequila
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A preachment, dear friends, you are about to receive, on Mayahuel, nicotine, and the temptations of maguey. I’ve heard that all sorts of things in the world of agave spirits are sacred and should be treated with respect. But that begs the question, what does it mean to respect something? Or, more importantly, what constitutes disrespect? We bat tha…
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Mexican Hand Gestures in a Mezcaleria
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I’m accustomed to people making hand gestures at me, whether in the USA or Mexico. And I’m generally able to understand those gestures in my home country. But just as I don’t understand the spoken language in Mexico, I’m a bit lost on these gestures, too. Luckily, on this specific Agave Road Trip, I have a couple of interpreters to help. Hands are …
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Should You Worry About Plastic in Your Water-Bottle Mezcal?
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The best stuff is always in plastic water bottles — that’s a thing I hear from a lot of Mezcal geeks. But lately I’ve been reading a lot of stories in the news about how most of us have plastic in our blood stream. And that’s got me wondering … is the stuff brought back from Mexico in plastic water bottles really the best stuff, then? Or am I just …
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The Best Mezcals for Mixing, According to Agave Road Trip
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Price certainly has to be a factor when considering which Mezcals you stock in your well. And flavor, of course. But what about the environmental impact? Here are six lower-priced Mezcals (and a Bacanora and a Sotol) that you can use for high-volume cocktails that won’t break the bank and don’t threaten the bio-diversity of Oaxaca. It’s a Punch-and…
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The CRT Loses Their Tequila Monopoly
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Back in May 2021, Chava and I recorded an episode titled “The Birth and Death of the CRM.” Alberto Esteban Marina, former Director General of the NOMs for the Mexican government, had provided us with court papers that documented the end of the CRM’s monopoly on certifying Mezcal. Now Alberto’s come back to me with two court decisions documenting th…
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Espresso Martinis Are a Lie
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The espresso martini is quickly becoming the go-to cocktail at bars. But is it really an espresso martini? Or are they using cold brewed coffee? What’s the difference? And is cold brew really the ideal way to make coffee? It’s a caffeine-fueled episode of Agave Road Trip, featuring Aaron Campos of Dark Matter Coffee as guest cohost! Find extra phot…
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How the Hijuelos Killed Tequila
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There are three different natural methods agaves use to reproduce, but only one of those methods promotes genetic diversity: growing from seed. And that’s how much agave is grown around Mexico. But Blue Weber agave? The only kind of agave you can use to make Tequila? No one is growing it from seed. It’s all genetically homogenous. So what does that…
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The Contagious Patience of Mezcal
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The best agave spirits require a lot of patience. It takes an awful lot of time for the agave to mature, it can take a lot of time to get to the mezcaleros who make the best spirits, and you won’t taste the full complexity of those spirits without taking your sweet time sipping them. Ismael Gomez of Cruz de Fuego Mezcal thinks all of the patience r…
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Fast Mezcal and Slow Bars
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The amount of time that mezcaleros take to make their spirits is an essential ingredient in the process. But it’s also in stark contrast to the amount of time that gringx bartenders have to share those agave spirits with their guests. What does that mean for those guests? And the future of those spirits? We’re running hot in this episode of Agave R…
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The Bartender’s Guide to Skittles
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I’ve been reading lately that Skittles are being banned in parts of Europe. That made me think of all the bottles of vodka I’ve seen in bars in the USA that are being infused with the colorful candy. So is this a way to make alcohol even more dangerous? Agave Road Trip’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Ryan Aycock doesn’t candy-coat his response in…
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Chill Filtering: Threat or Menace
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Almost all alcohol goes through some kind of filtering, and chill filtering has been one of those methods for … well, forever. But recently, some folks have been flagging this as an unacceptable practice. And if it’s considered unacceptable, you know I want to give it a try. It’s an anything-but-chill episode of Agave Road Trip! Featuring Linda Sul…
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Mezcalarrhea: Some People Think it’s Funny, But it’s Really Hot and Runny
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There are often-repeated inaccuracies that cause the general public to greatly misunderstand Mezcal. I call them “mezcalarrhea.” You know, like Mezcal + diarrhea? Because it’s usually people talking out of their butt. And because it makes me laugh. It’s a hot-and-runny episode of Agave Road Trip featuring Dr. Steven Alvarez, professor at St. John’s…
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The Differences Between Tequila and Whiskey
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I’m asked all the time what the difference is between Tequila and Mezcal. But, for my money, the more interesting questions is … what’s the difference between Tequila and whiskey? It’s a grains-versus-succulents grudge match in this episode of Agave Road Trip featuring Jay West of Whiskey Raiders! You can find more from Jay at @t8ke.review, @aficio…
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Chocolate and Coffee Are Antioxidants, but What Does That Mean?
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For years I’ve heard that cacao and coffee are antioxidants, but I’m left wondering … what exactly does that mean? Are they healthy? Is there a limit to how much you should consume? Agave Road Trip’s Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Ryan Aycock, breaks it down in this free-radical episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at a…
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Tequila is Doing Fine but Mexican Beer is Killing it
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There’s been a lot of talk about the environmental damage being done to Jalisco and Oaxaca as a result of global demand for Tequila and Mezcal. Hell, we’ve been doing a lot of that talking. But … man, have you read about what beer is doing? You’re gonna want to set down that Modelo Especial for this episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and…
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In this conversation with Eric Zandona we try to address one of the elephants in the room: can mezcal flavor be powerful enough to convert a non-believer? Are these plants communicating a full culture through a glass or is this just a blatant exaggeration? Eric has been lucky enough to have tasted hundreds if not thousands of spirits from all aroun…
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This week’s episode marks the third anniversary of Agave Road Trip! Chava and I celebrate by sharing the many rules we’ve learned for making a great road trip — and we get schooled by road-trippers Ben Schroder (Pensador Mezcal), Craig Thompson, Dalton Kreiss (Maguey Melate), Ismael Gomez (Mezcal Cruz de Fuego), Jon Darby (Sin Gusano), and Sergio G…
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Every Agave Landscape Tells a Bigger Story
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Gringx bartenders like to tell the bigger story of mezcal, the story that goes beyond the delicious spirit to explain why it’s delicious — the thing that gives it that pulse. One of those things is the landscape from which the agave comes from. Eating to Extinction author Dan Saladino prods us to talk about the beautiful landscapes we’re taking him…
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Never Use Espadin Mezcal to Make Cocktails
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There’s this idea that’s been circulating around USA bars that you should only ever use espadin mezcal to make cocktails. But there’s this idea that’s been circulating around in my head that we should never use espadin mezcal to make cocktails. It’s yet another contrarian episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadt…
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Some Drinks Don't Travel -- Pulque with the Hadza
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Pulque is a drink of place — something you have to have near or where it is made. It doesn’t travel. But it’s not the only such drink in the world. Eating to Extinction author Dan Saladino compares pulque to a drink made by the Hadza hunter-gatherers. It’s a cross-cultural episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at agaveroad…
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Our friends at Bat Conservation International have teamed with a number of other organizations to launch “We Belong Together,” a campaign in support of their Agave Restoration Initiative. The goal is to redevelop the foodways that allow bats to migrate from the southern USA to southern Mexico. So they connected us with Valeria Cañedo from Colectivo…
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To Keep Community Viable, You Have to Save the Water
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Dan Saladino has traveled the world documenting the stories of our most endangered foods. He would argue that we need to protect them, for our future food security, for the good of the planet, and for the good of our own health. And Chava and I are all for that — but we’re also all for another person in the car to argue with. So we took Dan on an A…
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Can Plastic Save the World?
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Yeah yeah yeah. I know. Plastic is killing the world. But it’s hardly the only thing. And in the case of ecoSpirits, it’s maybe also saving the world. We talk about the complicated path of sustainability in what’s sure to be another contentious episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com Agave Road Trip is P…
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What Do You Do With the Tiny Sips of Mezcal Left in Your Bottles?
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There’s this concept of the infinity bottle in other spirits – where you take the last bits of favorite bottles, pour them together over time to make this ever-changing blend. But … can you do that in mezcal? Without getting kicked out of a Facebook group? We tamper with the forces of nature in this episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and…
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