Is it cultural appropriation to make mezcal in California? Or whiskey in Mexico? It’s a throw-down episode of Agave Road Trip this week!

This episode of Agave Road Trip is brought to you by Monstruo de Agua Mexican Beer. Monstruo de Agua is a craft brewer in Mexico City that expresses the bio-cultural diversity of Mexican terroir in their beers by using ingredients typical of the country’s culinary and herbalist culture. For instance, 30% of the fermentable sugars used to make Monstruo de Agua Blanca de Maguey beer come from aguamiel, the unfermented sap of the agave — in this case, specifically from the salmiana agave. Monstruo de Agua Blanca de Maguey beer is the perfect beer to drink alongside mezcal and other agave spirits, and is available now throughout the USA. To find out how to bring Monstruo de Agua Blanca de Maguey in your bar, restaurant, or store, click here.

This episode of Agave Road Trip is also brought to you by SACRED, a USA-based, 501c3 not-for-profit that improves quality of life in the rural Mexican communities where heritage agave spirits are made. To learn more about our programs, including our latest initiative to build greenhouses in Jalisco to grow from seed four species of agave that are at-risk of becoming extinct, visit sacred.mx.

Agave Road Trip is a podcast that helps gringo bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. It’s hosted by Lou Bank and Chava Periban. 

Episode notes

To learn more about Craig Reynolds’ Mezcalifornia program, read this story in Sactown Magazine.

Politico must have caught wind of this episode, because they ran their own story afterwards.

To learn more about Rob Diaz’s spirits project, Diaz Bros. Agave, click here.