Tequila Cristalino: Threat or Menace?
You can’t log onto a Facebook Tequila group without seeing Cristalino Tequila derided, abused, and generally treated as some kind of punch line. But … do those user groups reflect the average consumer? Does the average consumer matter as much as the more highly engaged consumers that populate these online groups? And does consumption itself matter as much as cultural heritage? And why do I like the average Tequila Cristalino more than I like the average Tequila? That’s what I discuss with my past self on this time-travel 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 rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Lou Bank from the Past and filled with interview clips from Jaime Salas of Proximo and Jose Cuervo Tequila; Juan Eduardo Nuñez of Tequila El Viejito; Tequila-geek royalty Khrys Maxwell; dean of American whiskey journalism, Chuck Cowdery, and Barbara Engelskirchen from the National Museum of Mexican Art.
How Not to Bring Mezcal Back from Mexico
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!
The CRT loses their Tequila monopoly
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 the end of the CRT’s monopoly on certifying Tequila. What does that mean for Tequila producers? What does it mean for Tequila drinkers? And what does it mean for Khrys Maxwell, Director of Tequila and Agave Distillates at Museum of Distilled Spirits, who has agreed to put himself in the line of fire with me by recording this episode of Agave Road Trip with me? You’ll have to listen to find out!