This bottle protects jaguars or How Tequila can protect biodiversity
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 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 Sergio Garnier of Mezcal Ultramundo.
Why brands don’t certify their Mezcal
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 bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Sergio Garnier of Mezcal Ultramundo.
The Best Mezcals for Mixing, According to Agave Road Trip
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-Judy episode of Agave Road Trip!
How the Hijuelos Killed Tequila
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 mean for the future of Tequila? It’s another doomsday episode of Agave Road Trip!
Every agave landscape tells a bigger story
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 to on this Agave Road Trip!
Never use Espadin Mezcal to make cocktails
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!
Some drinks don’t travel — Pulque with the Hadza
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!
One percent for the bats
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 Sonora Silvestre and Centro de Colaboración para la Ciencia y Cultura S.C. to wing another episode of Agave Road Trip about bats and agave!
This car runs on mezcal – agave as biofuel
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 thing, and what our cars might smell like when they’re fueled by mezcal!
Do consumers really care if mezcal is sustainable? (Sustainability miniseries, part 3 of 3)
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!
Is anything sustainable? (Sustainability miniseries, part 2 of 3)
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!
Is mezcal sustainable? (Sustainability miniseries, part 1 of 3)
There’s a lot of industry talk about only supporting sustainable mezcals. But … none of them is sustainable. Or, at least, none of the brands 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!
Babies or booze? Agaves can’t make both … or can they?
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!
Another Drink Towards Oblivion
Okay, we really liked our conversation with renowned food journalist Dan Saladino, author of Eating to Extinction. In last week’s episode, we talked about the importance of consuming a diversity of options. This week, we talk with him about the importance of that diversity coming from a specific place. And maybe that place should be where you live. We think about staying parked in place in this episode of Agave Road Trip!
Are We Drinking Ourselves into Extinction?
We’ve talked a lot on this podcast about the importance of biodiversity in agave. But Dan Saladino takes that conversation to the next level, explaining how what we eat – and drink – will determine whether or not we can survive as a species. We have that conversation with the renowned food journalist and author of Eating to Extinction in this episode of Agave Road Trip!