What do we call them when they’re not all agave spirits?
I was in Oaxaca drinking an agave spirit that wasn’t an agave spirit. It was distilled from penca larga, which is a furcraea. I did the least amount of digging I could do on that — on furcraea — and stumbled on a book from 1899 that discusses the reordering of several other species: Bravoa, Polianthes, and Prochnyanthes. And that made me wonder … can those be used to make spirits? If so, are they, somewhere, being used for that purpose? And when those spirits enter the market, doesn’t that further confuse the conversation, which is already convoluted enough with people lumping Sotol into Agave Spirits. All of which makes me wonder … should we be using a different name for the category? Monocot spirits? Asparagales spirits?
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Linda Sullivan of seynasecreto with wisdom from Dr. Hector Ortiz Cano of the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Episode Notes
UPDATE (02/13/25): Thanks to road-tripper Steve Sanchez of HonestGreens for setting me straight — Dasylirion (i.e. sotol) was excommunicated from the Agavaceae family, along with Beaucarnea, Calibanus, and Nolina. All are now part of the Nolinaceae family. We understand it was a mutual thing, there are no hard feelings, and everyone still gets together for lunch, but the spend Thanksgivings apart. Thanks, Steve, for the insights!
Shout out this episode to Quiote Mezcaleria!
And when in Chicago go visit the desert house at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It’s as close to Mexico as anything 1,800 miles north of Mexico!