G4 Tequila: Felipe Camarena doesn't have the whitest legs
"This is my playground. And we are always looking for the best profile we can get. Different profiles, different changes." Those are the words of Master Tequilero Felipe Camarena, founder of G4 Tequila. We profile Felipe and G4 in this first episode of Agave Road Show!
Agave Road Show is an advertorial podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand specific brands of agave spirits. Sometimes other Mexican spirits. Really, whatever they pay us to profile. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Linda Sullivan of seynasecreto.
There is no traditional Mezcal in the marketplace
In the comments section of the Agave Road Trip Instagram page, Craig Reynolds — founder of the California Agave Council — wrote, “Unfortunately, there is virtually no significant amount of truly traditionally produced Mezcal left in the marketplace. It’s not environmentally or economically sustainable. An unfortunate fact that is difficult to accept.” I don’t accept that, but Craig did accept my invitation to debate the matter on this 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 Craig Reynolds of the California Agave Council.
The world’s most environmentally sustainable Mezcal brand
This Mezcal brand replants agave in the wild, uses solar power, and only cooks with certified wood. They convert their bagaso into biodegradable planters. They are a model of best practices in the industry. And they just left the market because no one supported them. We question what you really care about in this 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 Linda Sullivan of seynasecreto
Rowan Jacobsen went to Mexico and all I got was this podcast
I got obsessed with Rowan Jacobsen when American Terroir hit bookstores in 2010, and was recently re-obsessed when his podcast “Wild Chocolate” dropped into my feed. So I reached out and he noted he was writing a sustainability feature about Mezcal for Bloomberg’s Businessweek. That article dropped last week, but this episode was recorded prior to that. And he wouldn’t let me read an advance copy. So, instead, we just talk agaves and sustainability in general. If that’s your thing, this is your episode of Agave Road Trip!
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!
All Tequila used to be Mezcal, but now Mezcal is becoming Tequila
Over the last few months there have been a flurry of stories in the news that basically boil down to “celebrities are destroying Mexico by starting tequila brands” and “gringos are destroying Mexico by drinking too much mezcal.” So Chava and I dig into those stories, argue about their relative veracity, and point out all the inaccuracies! It’s an “On the Media” episode of Agave Road Trip!
It’s All About the Water
We argue a lot about which element in the production of agave spirits contributes most to the flavor of that spirit: the agave itself; where that agave was grown and what grew around it; the cooking process; the yeast that converts the sugar to alcohol, or the mezcaler@ who oversees the decisions throughout the process. But … when we’re drinking a 50% ABV mezcal it’s only half alcohol. The other half is water. Is that the answer? That water contributes the most to the flavor? We debate that and talk about water insecurity in this episode of Agave Road Trip!