Agave Road Trip
Episodes
This Bottle Protects Jaguars
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve done a lot of episodes about the importance of biodiversity, but usually we’re talking about plants. Sometimes insects. Bats, on occasion. S...
Are Agave Straws Really Better Than Plastic?
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A trend that’s emerged in the past decade are these drinking straws that are being promoted as made from agave fibers — the agave fibers being a b...
How to Pair Mezcal With Food
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
I’m seeing a lot more restaurants expanding their Mezcal selections, and a lot more events pairing Mezcal with food. So what do you eat when you dri...
Why Brands Don’t Certify Their Mezcal
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since I first met Sergio Garnier, before he launched Mezcal Ultramundo, we’ve debated about the relative merits of certifying your agave spirits as ...
The Secret Origin of Bull-skin Fermentation in Mezcal
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The fist time I tasted an agave spirit fermented in the skin of a bull, it was all anyone was talking about in Oaxaca. I tasted it at three mezcaleria...
All Bino Mexcal Is Mezcal but Not All Mezcal Is Bino Mexcal
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Did the small family producers in Tequila, Jalisco, eat the metaphorical and literal lunch of the big producers in Guanajuato and San Luis Potosi at t...
Rowan Jacobsen Went to Mexico and All I Got Was This Podcast
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
I got obsessed with Rowan Jacobsen when American Terroir hit bookstores in 2010, and was recently re-obsessed when his podcast “Wild Chocolate” dr...
Food Journalism Is Still Journalism
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do you find reliable sources for information about adult beverages? This is a multi-billion dollar industry, there should be reliable places to le...
The Problem With the InsideHook Article About 2023 Tequila Sales
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 w...
Why Don’t More Mezcaleros Own Their Brands?
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why are there so few Mezcal and Tequila brands owned by the people who produce them? When I try to rattle off the names of brands of Mezcal and Tequil...
The Problem With the Washington Post Article About Mezcal
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 od...
How to Take Your Pet on a Road Trip to Mexico
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Heather Morse traveled to Mexico City with her husband, Aaron. And her dog. And her cat. By car. From Las Vegas. If you’ve ever wanted cross the bor...
Leave Tequila Alone!
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In a Wine Enthusiast op-ed titled “Is it time to leave Tequila alone?,” spirits and cocktail writer Kara Newman asks, “When it comes to pushing ...
The Cultural Heritage of Agave Syrup
11 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s Mrs. Butterworth’s, and then there’s fine Vermont maple syrup. And the same extremes exist for agave syrup. But here’s the thing: the ...
Wild vs Farmed: Last Pulque Standing
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gonzalo Alvarez is pursuing his master’s degree in pulque. Ivan Saldana has his doctorate in agave. Both tell me that farmed agave produces better p...
What’s Wrong With Your Stomach
28 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It started with a rumor I heard as a kid, that Maraschino cherries and bubblegum would stay in your stomach for seven years. Which led to a conversati...
There Is No Coffee in Mexico
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Well, of course, there is coffee in Mexico. I’ve bought some at Whole Foods in the past. But my friends at Dark Matter — who want nothing more tha...
The Cult of Hospitality
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A Liquor.com article I read earlier this year highlighted the number of hospitality workers who grew up in radical churches. That made me think about ...
A Game of Chicken With the Mexican Police
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Maybe you were speeding. Maybe you weren’t. Either way, the Mexican police have pulled you over. Question now is, what are you gonna do, punk? Do yo...
How Not to Bring Mezcal Back From Mexico
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 bottle...
Giving Tuesday
23 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On this Day of Thanks, I ponder why Giving Tuesday isn’t Giving Thursday — why we aren’t giving thanks on Thanksgiving. It’s a thankless episo...
The Beautiful Inconsistencies of Coffee and Mezcal
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's impossible with coffee beans to get consistency in flavors and aromas from one harvest to the next. Add in the processing of those beans into tha...
How to Welcome the Mezcal Curious
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
With all the press, all the talk, all the social-media posts, there are always people looking to find out what this Mezcal thing is all about. So what...
The Church of Our Lady of Tequila
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A preachment, dear friends, you are about to receive, on Mayahuel, nicotine, and the temptations of maguey. I’ve heard that all sorts of things in t...
Mexican Hand Gestures in a Mezcaleria
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I’m accustomed to people making hand gestures at me, whether in the USA or Mexico. And I’m generally able to understand those gestures in my home ...
Should You Worry About Plastic in Your Water-Bottle Mezcal?
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The best stuff is always in plastic water bottles — that’s a thing I hear from a lot of Mezcal geeks. But lately I’ve been reading a lot of stor...
The Best Mezcals for Mixing, According to Agave Road Trip
12 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 impa...
The CRT Loses Their Tequila Monopoly
05 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Espresso Martinis Are a Lie
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The espresso martini is quickly becoming the go-to cocktail at bars. But is it really an espresso martini? Or are they using cold brewed coffee? What’...
How the Hijuelos Killed Tequila
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are three different natural methods agaves use to reproduce, but only one of those methods promotes genetic diversity: growing from seed. And th...
The Contagious Patience of Mezcal
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The best agave spirits require a lot of patience. It takes an awful lot of time for the agave to mature, it can take a lot of time to get to the mezca...
Fast Mezcal and Slow Bars
07 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The amount of time that mezcaleros take to make their spirits is an essential ingredient in the process. But it’s also in stark contrast to the amou...
The Bartender’s Guide to Skittles
31 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve been reading lately that Skittles are being banned in parts of Europe. That made me think of all the bottles of vodka I’ve seen in bars in th...
Chill Filtering: Threat or Menace
24 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Almost all alcohol goes through some kind of filtering, and chill filtering has been one of those methods for … well, forever. But recently, some fo...
Mezcalarrhea: Some People Think it’s Funny, But it’s Really Hot and Runny
17 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are often-repeated inaccuracies that cause the general public to greatly misunderstand Mezcal. I call them “mezcalarrhea.” You know, like Me...
The Differences Between Tequila and Whiskey
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I’m asked all the time what the difference is between Tequila and Mezcal. But, for my money, the more interesting questions is … what’s the diff...
Chocolate and Coffee Are Antioxidants, but What Does That Mean?
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For years I’ve heard that cacao and coffee are antioxidants, but I’m left wondering … what exactly does that mean? Are they healthy? Is there a ...
Tequila is Doing Fine but Mexican Beer is Killing it
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There’s been a lot of talk about the environmental damage being done to Jalisco and Oaxaca as a result of global demand for Tequila and Mezcal. Hell...
Spirits as Landscapes
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation with Eric Zandona we try to address one of the elephants in the room: can mezcal flavor be powerful enough to convert a non-belie...
Rules of the Road Trip
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s episode marks the third anniversary of Agave Road Trip! Chava and I celebrate by sharing the many rules we’ve learned for making a gre...
Every Agave Landscape Tells a Bigger Story
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 thi...
Never Use Espadin Mezcal to Make Cocktails
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Some Drinks Don't Travel -- Pulque with the Hadza
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 wor...
1% for the Bats
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our friends at Bat Conservation International have teamed with a number of other organizations to launch “We Belong Together,” a campaign in suppo...
To Keep Community Viable, You Have to Save the Water
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Saladino has traveled the world documenting the stories of our most endangered foods. He would argue that we need to protect them, for our future ...
Can Plastic Save the World?
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Yeah yeah yeah. I know. Plastic is killing the world. But it’s hardly the only thing. And in the case of ecoSpirits, it’s maybe also saving the wo...
What Do You Do With the Tiny Sips of Mezcal Left in Your Bottles?
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There’s this concept of the infinity bottle in other spirits – where you take the last bits of favorite bottles, pour them together over time to m...
The Ever-Popular Tortured-Agave Effect
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There’s an idea that mezcal made with wild agave is more delicious, because the agave lived in a hostile environment. But in the world of pulque, th...
Let's Talk About Maguey Salmiana
04 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chava says this is the first of a series of episodes where we take a close-up look at specific agaves. I'm not as confident that this works. But, hey,...
Regenerative Agriculture? Biodynamic Agriculture? Climate-Smart Agriculture!
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are so many different approaches to farming these days, and so many different terms that, from the outside, feel like they mean the same thing. ...
What Oaxaca’s New Mezcal Tax Means for You
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The average consumer doesn’t understand how the established taxes on mezcal in Mexico affect the producers, who pay a VAT of 16% plus a separate tax...
The Cow/Mezcal Connection
13 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Cows, goats, sheep — it’s not at all unusual to see livestock roaming around fields of agave in rural Mexico, especially up north. And it’s such...
Mezcal Sales in 2022 Were… Terrific? Daunting? What, Exactly?
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Distilled Spirits Council of the US released their 2022 report detailing who sold what, how that changed from the previous year, and suggesting wh...
A Fistful of Pesos
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve had any number of conversations about what it means to pay a mezcaler@ fairly. But a better question is, once you know the fair price, how do ...
Do You Prefer to Drink Your Calories?
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How many calories do you consume daily? How many do you consume through alcohol? Agave Road Trip’s Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Ryan Aycock, tel...
Can Alcohol Warm the Body? Or Cool it Down?
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Alcohol is nature’s great temperature regulator — it warms you up when you’re cold, and cools you down when you’re hot! Or … does it? Agave ...
Can Drinking Snake-Venom Mezcal Kill You?
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If drinking mezcal that has snake venom in it killed you right away, there’d be a lot of dead people on the floor of the mercados around Mexico. But...
Chocolate and Coffee Road Trip!
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lou and Chava got to go on a week-long trip through Tabasco and Chiapas …. visiting cacao and coffee farms … with Dark Matter Coffee and Rick Bayl...
Can Mezcal Help You Sleep?
23 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Having trouble sleeping, pal? Think twice before you reach for that bottle of mezcal. Or tequila. Or whiskey. Or whatever. It’s a nightcap episode o...
What Does it Mean to Support Mezcal Communities?
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not uncommon when a new tequila or mezcal launches that buyers will ask the brand what they are doing to support the community from which they’...
This Car Runs on Mezcal – Agave as Biofuel
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 extensi...
Do Consumers Really Care if Mezcal is Sustainable? (Sustainability Miniseries, Part 3 of 3)
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This series on sustainability was sparked by all the industry talk about consumers only supporting sustainable mezcals. And the IWSR released a report...
Is Anything Sustainable? (Sustainability Miniseries, Part 2 of 3)
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we bickered about whether or not mezcal is sustainable. But maybe the bigger and more important question is, is anything sustainable? We g...
Is Mezcal Sustainable? (Sustainability Miniseries, Part 1 of 3)
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a lot of industry talk about only supporting sustainable mezcals. But … none of the brands are sustainable. Or, at least, not one of them ...
Mezcal is a Nine Million-Liter Monster!
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
VP Pro shared out a story about the “impressive” growth that mezcal has been experiencing for many years. Yet, for all that growth, it’s still j...
The Rainbow of Problems with Food Coloring
05 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For thousands of years, we’ve been adding color to our world to make it more beautiful — and cocktails are no exception. But before you add that d...
What’s the Craft in Craft Spirits?
29 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There are a lot of distilleries referring to themselves as “craft” distilleries. But … are they? Who defines craft? And is craft a reference to ...
What’s the Big Deal about Bats and Agave?
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
So we say it's about bats, but it's really about pollination. And we talk about all these other creatures that can do the job, but then … how would ...
Can Coffee Supercharge Mezcal?
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Irish coffees, espresso martinis, carajillos, vodka and Red Bull … there are so many examples of drinks that combine caffeine with alcohol, with the...
Agave Syrup: Threat or Menace?
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“Agave? I don’t know what that is, agave.” That’s what Oprah Winfrey said in a 2004 episode in which Dr. Oz warned of the threats of refined s...
What Makes Mezcal Taste like Mezcal?
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Rosemary Smith of Black Snake Distillery in Australia asked us the question, “Does the unique taste of each agave spirit mainly come from its sugar ...
Mezcal: The Aphrodisiac that Makes you Strong as a Rhino
24 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s pretty common, when we visit mezcaleros, that they’ll pull out a bottle and tell us it’s a special blend that serves as an aphrodisiac. Or ...
The Long, Long History of Aging Mezcal in a Barrel
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a school of thought that suggests that aging mezcal in wood isn’t traditional, and that the changes imparted by the barrel distract from t...
Why Lou Says “Agave Spirits” Instead of “Mezcal”
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Back in the 1990s, the Mexican government took legal control of the word “mezcal” away from the people who have shepherded mezcal traditions for h...
Activated Charcoal Makes your Cocktails Black, Your Teeth White, and Your Poop Firm
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Is it just me or is activated charcoal suddenly in everything? We’re joined by our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Ryan Aycock (the Emergency Room D...
What You Don’t Know About Pulque, Part Two
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Pulque is fleeting — it’s here, it’s gone. But does that mean it’s harder to make than mezcal? Chava and I duke it out over a subject neither ...
What You Don't Know About Pulque, Part One
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A year or so back, Alvin Starkman introduced us to Reina Cortés Cortés at A & V La Casa del Pulque. We had a Bordeaux barrel gifted to us by the...
Hernán Cortés Declares Pulque was Always for the People
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chava found a letter from Hernán Cortés to Carlos V from 1520, and now we're pretty sure that everyone who claims pulque was only for royalty is wro...
The Secret Origin of Rick Bayless
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Normally, Chava and I interview someone for an hour, pull a 90-second quote from that interview, then build an episode by bickering around that quote....
Your Perfect Thanksgiving in Mexico City!
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In November 2021, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Mexico City! It was great fun, but we learned a lot of lessons on the way. If you want to celebrate ...
Babies or Booze? Agaves Can’t Make Both… or Can They?
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 be...
Tequila and the Myth of the Low-Glycemic Index
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There’s this idea that, somehow, tequila and mezcal are healthier to drink because sugar from agave has a lower glycemic index than other sugars. Ou...
Is the Mezcal Worm Cultural Heritage or Crass Marketing?
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If you believe the mezcal geeks, no self-respecting mezcalero would ever adulterate their multi-generational spirits with gusanos or scorpions or any ...
Mezcal Cristalino: Threat or Menace?
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When Maluma announced he was releasing a cristalino mezcal, a corner of the world went nuts: tens of thousands of his fans, excited to try it, and hun...
Does Bottling Mezcal and Tequila in Mexico Save Jobs?
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Back in 2004, the USA imported over $400 million worth of tequila. Approximately 73 percent of that was tequila in bulk form. So when the Mexican gove...
Is Mezcal Pechuga Cultural Heritage or Crass Marketing?
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One of the things you hear over and over is that pechuga – the mezcal made (often) by adding raw chicken (or turkey or venison or name-your-protein)...
Why Does Mezcal in the USA Have a Higher Minimum ABV than Mexico?
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mexican regulations require an agave spirit to fall between 35% and 55% alcohol by volume (ABV) to qualify for certification as mezcal. But in the USA...
Does Mezcal Help You Hydrate?
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Since mezcal is often around 50% ABV, that means it’s also around 50% water. Does that water help hydrate you? What about the water in beer, which i...
Historically, Mezcal is Made with Steam
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Read almost any of those “differences between tequila and mezcal” articles, and they’ll tell you that tequila steams their agave, mezcal roasts ...
Mezcal Can Be Made From (A Lot) More Than 40 Kinds of Agave
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How many different kinds of agave can be used to make mezcal? Well, heck, that’s easy: the regulations allow you to use any of them. So why have the...
How Much Alcohol is in Mezcal?
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If you hang around a certain crowd, they’ll tell you that mezcal needs to be at least 50% alcohol by volume to be true to the cultural heritage of t...
How Dangerous is Mexico?
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When I tell people about my trips to Mexico, it's not uncommon for them to ask how dangerous it is. Chava and I debate the relative threats of Mexico ...
Who Put the "Vino" in the "Vino de Mezcal"?
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
All over Mexico, there are communities where they distill spirits from fermented agave. And in a lot of these communities, they call that spirit "vino...
Healthy Living Through Mezcal
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The cigarettes you smoke and the food you eat will kill you sooner than the alcohol you drink. But make no mistake: in the USA, alcohol consumption is...
The Value of Spirits Awards Competitions
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, Chava and I recorded an episode titled “The Best Mezcal is the Most Highly Awarded Mezcal.” We kind of panned the idea of spirits com...
Attack of the 50-foot Chava
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It all began with Dr. Ryan Aycock telling us about “The Effects of Alcohol and Your Shrinking Brain.” Then we had an on-air therapy session for Ch...
Chava's Incredible Shrinking Brain
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks ago, Cocktail MD Dr. Ryan Aycock joined us for “The Effects of Alcohol and Your Shrinking Brain,” an episode so titled because … wel...
Another Drink Towards Oblivion
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Okay, we really liked our conversation with renowned food journalist Dan Saladino, author of Eating to Extinction. In last week’s episode, we talked...
Are We Drinking Ourselves Into Extinction?
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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, explai...
The Effects of Alcohol and Your Shrinking Brain
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mezcal is good for the soul. But what about the brain? And especially the developing brain? Dr. Ryan Aycock, the Cocktail MD, joins us for the scaries...