The Most Important Tequila of the Century
Once a century, Agave Road Trip goes out looking for the most important Tequila of that era. Now, there are still a solid 75 years let in this century, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say, this early in the game, I’ve identified that Tequila. And the winner is…
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
The problem with the InsideHook article about 2023 Tequila sales
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 about the story of Tequila sales in the USA in 2023. And I attempt to rectify that here, in this mea culpa 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 Arturo Lamas of Lost Lore Tequila.
The problem with the Washington Post article about Mezcal
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 they concluded that the biodiversity of agave is disappearing because “[f]oreign mezcal drinkers have adopted a taste for the wildest, scarcest agaves.” I wish foreign drinkers had adopted a taste for the wildest, scarcest agaves. And Mexican drinkers, too. But instead we’re all drinking spirits made from monoculture blue weber agave in Jalisco and soon-to-be-monoculture espadin in Oaxaca. And that’s the problem the Washington Post should have covered. So we do it here, instead, in this set-the-record-straight 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, with supporting insights from Dr. Hector Ortiz, conservation scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
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!