Heritage Mezcal

Coahuila is the third-largest state in all of Mexico. But in many ways, it is a discrete, unknown territory. I personally know very few people who have traveled to Saltillo or who have roamed around the state. Happily, a few months ago, I had the chance to visit Casa Sotol, a project led by Fernanda Arrillaga, which is crafting some of the most exciting juice I've tried in a long time. I won't explain much more, but needless to say, start planning a trip to Coahuila to enjoy some very pretty sotol. 

La totalidad de México me emociona y me entusiasma, pero siempre tengo algún favorito de temporada, y ahorita Guadalajara trae a mi corazón latiendo fuerte: sus calles, sus museos, la gran oferta de destilados, los infinitos remedios para la cruda. Entre todos los lugares que me encantan en esta capital, uno que creo representan la gran imaginación tapatía es "Mecenas", con sus licores caseros, destilados experimentales y botanas callejeras.

 Hace ya unos meses tuve la oportunidad de sentarme con Santos (recién reconocido como El Bartender Promesa por MXBEST y uno de los fun...

In this conversation with my dear friend Fabio Raya, we explore many of the ideas we were exposed to at the "VI Simposio Internacional de Agave". This episode includes everything from using agave as livestock silage to developing a comprehensive strategy for using 2 million hectares of Mexican arid land—a full labyrinth.

Big shout-out to Fernanda Arrillaga, from Casa Sotol, for hosting us and letting us record at her beautiful house in Saltillo.

And huge thanks to Alan and the whole team at Pechotierra for taking us to Jorge Luis Torres Casas vinata to get a...

Wine has a long history in Mexico, with its introduction arguably dating back to the 16th century. However, it was never massively consumed in the same manner as pulque, beer, or vino de mezcal. There are even annecdotes about communion wine was spiked with coconut spirits (vino de coco) to give it some proper potency.

But our relationship with grapes has been changing in recent years. The wines from Baja California have gained a consistent following, and new regions all around Mexico have been exploring the grape varietals and the wine styles that can better suit them...

Este es el primer episodio que se graba en español y estoy tremendamente orgulloso de eso. 

Para esta nueva realidad paralela bilingüe del podcast, quise empezar con un episodio que resolvió muchas de las dudas que llevaba cargando desde hace tiempo. El sotol, o los sotoles, o los dasylirion, para ser más específico, son algo que me emociona y me intimida. No solamente los sabores me son difíciles de descifrar, sino todo lo que los  rodea. Desde su identidad genética  hasta las muchas maneras de procesarlo. 

Por suerte  tuve la oportunid...

There are so many things that you could do with your life. You could dedicate decades to science, get into politics, and figure out how to reach world peace, and then there are flavors and pleasures.  Which seems less important, a luxury amongst needs. 

Yet, there are companies paying millions of dollars to develop and protect specific formulations. People go crazy about securing a reservation at the most celebrated restaurants in the world, and many of our memories are forever linked to particular foods and drinks. 

But who are these people choosing and finding the fla...

Aging agave spirits (with the exception of tequila) is still a taboo, something you talk about using your softest voice not to gain some pretty vocal enemies. Yet, the influence of barrels (and clay vessels) has been critical to the evolution of spirits, wine, and beer for at least a few thousand years.

While there are very sophisticated studies dedicated to better understanding this piece of technology, its basis has remained mostly unchanged. In this conversation with Cal Larson we explore the potential of soluble oak and how this approach may get us closer to more sustainable...

Mezcal is equally fascinating and terrifying for those who may not be familiar with it. Some are curious but too shy to venture beyond a cocktail, while others can take significant chances, to the point that one day, they may even become fellow agave nerds.

To promote the right environment where curiosity can bloom, the person handing these spirits has to be gentle and firm. Capable of sharing mezcal directly from the heart.

Please welcome Miryam Sierra, and her intense passion for expanding mezcal's reach. 

The agave spirits multiverse is as exciting as ever. The conversation has been expanding year after year, bringing to light new regions, agaves and production techniques. But, at least personally, certain places have been more prolific than others. As I've stated in previous episodes, I have an ongoing romance with Salmiana, and I've been exploring the Bajío region with passion for the last few years. 

The Casa Agave project checks all of these boxes and more. They plant and harvest their agaves using regenerative techniques to supercharge the Cañada de la Virgen bioreserve; bottle a one...

Lately, I’ve been in a little bit of a conundrum. I’ve been asking myself what the most important aspect of mezcal is that I should be talking about. Should I focus on the history, the culture, the market, the flavors, or the technicalities? After much thinking, I realized that I should attempt to cover all of this and more. Because that is the only way to approach such a complex spirit.

So, I am always hunting for minds that understand agave and dasylirion spirits in atypical, enriching ways. The minds that offer me conversations that I ha...

Chihuahua is not only Mexico's largest state but also full of neverending stories. The first episode I ever recorded about this state was more of an ode: two people who had recently found Chihuahua and had become hardcore fans overnight. But, after that, I wanted to record with someone that had deep roots and a fine-tuned expertise in the territory. This conversation with Alessandra Camino has become my new excuse to delve further into sotol and the many Chihuahuan delights I have yet to experience. I hope you enjoy it! 

More and more I've been thinking that we could summarize agave as the lovely culmination of three main variables: agave, yeast and water.

In this podcast I believe we've explored in great depth agave and yeast, but we had only superficially touched on water. There are plenty of themes to explore within this realm, but given the times we live in, I thought that exploring reasonable ways of using this vital resource was a good place to start. Mezcal, some would say, is not a basic necessity. So, is it ethical to dedicate precious water to mezcal...

There are so many things that we just do. We don't know where did they start or why do we do them . Pure social inertia. 

Sharing drinks at a bar, at least for me, is one of those things.  Many people in other places socialize or party differently. But in the West, cheering over cocktails,  beers, or mezcalitos, if you are lucky, is the norm.

In this conversation with Kraig Rovensky we explore the many ways in which the spirits industry, and the places where we party and socialize, are changing. And we speculate on how...

In this episode with Fabiola Santiago, President and Executive Director at Mi Oaxaca (an NGO which aims to “preserve Oaxaca’s indigenous food and beverage cultures through narrative change, education and collaboration with compatible organizations across borders”) we talk about so many things that I believe are critical for the future of mezcal. Things like how terrenos comunales work, the impact of mezcal in Santiago Matatlán, how, in a perfect world, should mezcal be presented to consumers and the many ways in which this spirit is more than a commodity.

If you want to learn more about F...

It  is undeniable that mezcal has become a poster child in the alcohol world. A spirit that in a way brings us hope, because it is a reflection of many biocultural legacies. , Those  beautiful relationships that are slowly formed between humans and their environments if both sides decide to respect and enhance each other. Yet, as pretty as all of this sounds, sharing mezcal is an incredible challenge. Even more so if you want to convince people to drink it slowly and patiently. Please welcome Sofía Barrera from Salón de Agave, and her very  wise mantra: A besit...

Methanol is one of the scariest things I can possibly imagine. We’ve all read stories about people getting intoxicated. Losing their sight and sometimes even their lives. And with all of that as a backdrop I’ve always wondered: why is it that after sampling hundreds of agave and dasylirion spirits that have never been tested, have I never had any problems with this? 

That answer belongs to a longer, more convoluted discussion, but for now, let’s start exploring methanol from a medical standpoint, which involves the vast wisdom of Mr. Ryan Aycock.

Let’s d...

Spirits are quite a weird thing. They are everywhere; you engage with them constantly at bars, concerts and restaurants and yet, it is rather difficult to share your thoughts and ideas about them. People get shy and weird when you try to dissect the origin, flavors or implications of a spirit.

- Why can’t you just shut up and have fun! - 

I’ve been shouted at many, many times. 

That is why I find tremendous joy in the little but great community of mezcal and sotol enthusiasts that I’ve encountered in Mexic...

In this episode on Heritage Mezcal, I had the opportunity to have a delightful conversation with Eric Zandona. He is an incredibly booze-informed gentleman, and the organizer of the ADI’S International Spirits Competition, which, if you were to ask me, offers a great chance for brands of all sizes to break into the US market. Especially if you have something that may shock the nerds. They are not sponsoring this episode, but after being invited a few times as a judge, I can say that I’ve never met a group of people that cared about and loved spir...

Agaves and humans have always had an intimate relationship  but, believe it or not,  a significant part of if has nothing to do with booze. As we've discussed before in this podcast agaves provided to our ancestors with many charms; from clothing to nourishment. But given the fact that many of these relationships have disappeared, this wider understanding of agave is quite hard to imagine. That is why Marcela Sandoval has been researching how and why and with which consequences did humans domesticated agave. While most of us keep on speculating how agave fields looked a few decades ago,  she...

Pox, the quintessential Chiapas spirit, is probably the most mysterious Mexican drink that I've encountered in my life. It was a big part of my early 20's, but I never truly understood its technicalities or cultural relevance. Happily, thanks to Javier Oroz, who I just interviewed a few weeks ago (go check the Bacanora episode), I got to meet Zury Guindi.

Zury started bottling bottling Pox back in 2011 under the umbrella of "Siglo Cero". When even mezcal was just starting to happen, he decided to dedicate his life to corn, panela and wheat instead of worshipping agave...

This is the beginning of a series where both Roy and Chava go around the many venues that hold agave collections that they think are pretty and tasty. Some may be the usual suspects but others may be hiding in plain view, just like Tahona Mezcal Room. Join Chava and Julie Mann Wharton in a conversation that includes tips on how to party when in Brazil, the different types of cachacas you should look for and how this tasting room came to be. Saludcita!

Vinasse, which are maybe the most offensive byproducts when making mezcal or tequila, can be neutralized in a number of ways. Scientists are always trying to offer more efficient and cost effective options to neutralize this nasty stuff, and one of  those experiments was brought to our attention by our brilliant medical correspondent, Ryan Aycock (aka Cocktail MD).  

The technical specifics of how Titanium Dioxide nanoparticles can neutralize vinasse is not really the main focus of this episode, but we decided to delve into what would happen if this approach were to be adopted by the industry at...

As most things that have been created in Northern Mexico, Bacanora tends to create more questions than answers. It may have an active Denomination of Origin and there are some really awesome brands out there bringing delicious juice, but many of the stories linked to its origins are still obscure. 

In this conversation with Javier Oroz (mastermind behind @bastardosdelbacanora and @santocuviso) we tried to briefly explore Bacanora's convoluted history. We hope you enjoy it!

How big is it too big? When does a mezcalero stops being "small batch" and migrates to something that could be labeled as not truly artisanal?

In this conversation with jóven Jon Darby (patrón at @sin_gusano) we dabble around some some of these questions, while sipping some rarities, that according my invitee prove that he may not be the worst purist in this industry.

I hope you enjoy this one. 

A popurrí is the ultimate mix, an intense collage of songs merged together to accelerate enjoyment.  

I am sure that the term has been confined to music because if someone were to create the "taco popurrí" it would be too much for humanity to withstand.  

But jokes aside, this episode is exactly that, a "Popurrí" . 

Fabio Raya, one of my favorite scientists on earth,  was in town and we decided to talk all things  agave in one shot while we were sipping gorgeous pulque.  

I hope you enjoy this one. 

So many of the most valuable Mexican products  are tremendously fragile. 

A perfectly ripe zapote, a prime "lechón", a fresh habanero salsa and my always beloved pulque. 

In this episode with Cesar Ojeda, aka @intergalacticyeastieboy,  we talk about some of his most recent experiments  regarding pulque fermentation, we touch a bit on social justice and we do laugh quite a bit. 

Welcome to Heritage Mezcal, I hope you enjoy this one.

There are many ways to access the very vast diversity within Mexican food and drinks. Some love spirits, others honey or tea. But Martina ( from @colectivoamasijo) has been working with many different producers from around the country trying to showcase milpa-based agricultural products. We hope you enjoy this episode that delves into the many faces of Mexican agriculture.

If there has been an agave that I've been aggressively celebrating for the last few years, it definitely has been Lamparillo.

I still remember the first time I tried and I was so confused.I just didn't know that an agave could create that specific set of flavors and aromasBut most importantly I couldn't imagine the kind of landscape that could foster such an unique agave.

To better understand this convoluted story please welcome Sergio Garnier, patrón at Ultramundo Mezacal, and his tremendous love for the dessert.

If you want to buy t...

Arguably the first person to coin the term pulque aristocracy was Jose Vasconcelos, one of Mexico's most famous intellectuals.

Using this term he was referring to the many families that recognized in pulque a profitable industry that fueled both exceptional festivities and everyday work.

But now pulque is almost a rarity in Mexico City, and the once buoyant business is  an almost extinct tradition. I had the chance to talk with Martina Manterola, whose family was part of such aristocracy, exploring her memories, interests and frustrations around this wonderful agave ferment.  

Hope you enj...

Different places ask for different drinks, even certain music styles, in my opinion, need specific booze pairings. 

And even though I am always the first to complain when I can't find delicious complex spirits in the middle of the night. I am starting to understand that calibrating which booze is served on a dancefloor is a important as the stage and lights design.

Without further adieu, please welcome Roberto Ávila, and his many insights on  how to create accurate booze experiences.

There are so many reasons why people may start a mezcal brand.  Some do it for the  money, some for love and some others because the craft has been in their families for generations. 

But regardless of how you started, nobody, to my understanding, has found a perfect formula to maintain exceptional quality while still paying the bills.

Without further adieu please welcome Sergio Garnier, from Ultramundo Mezcal,  and his rather atypical approach to owning a mezcal brand.

Like many agricultural products, agaves have developed a complex relationship  with humans over millennia. 

Some agaves were chosen to make rope, others to extract pulque and maybe the luckiest of them all to create mezcal. 

But there've been many other more subtle ways in which people have chosen their favorite agaves to deal with. In this conversation with Fabio Raya we talk about the agaves that were favored in Brazil versus those that we decided to love in Mexico.

For a while I was not sure if I  wanted to publish this episode. But I think there are quite a few  things hiding in the middle of this conversation that somehow relate to the clash of cultures within mezcal. 

Without further adieu please welcome Dalton Kreiss and his impressive affection for dogs.

This episode is not about a new religion, so don't you worry. 

This episode is about trying to better understand some of the people in the tequila, mezcal  and agave spirits multiverse that I would say have a very clear and unmovable set of ideas of how these categories should behave. 

So I decided to do an episode, with my  good friend Jon Darby. I've referred to him before as one of the worst purists in the business, but he knows I say with affection.

Without further adieu please welcome Jon and his inte...

I've been thinking so much about the things that are so close to us, so ubiquitous,  that we decide to erase them completely. 

Octavio Paz, our literature nobel prize,  explores this intensively in his famous book "The Labyrinth of Solitude". 

He talks about "Ningunear", which is the act of making someone, no one. 

We've done this to so many Mexican products. but a group that I believe has been  ninguneado like no other, are the thousands of traditional herbs that are still used today   for making delicious infusions. 

Without further adieu please w...

Having a conversation with Vinik is never a straight line. 

We always allocates the unexpected crevices, he finds ways of expanding what may seem bland and inoffensive.

He may even be a spy, considering his very  avid interest on maps, borders and the rivers that run through them. 

But the most important thing, is that he is a rather entertaining human to share conversations and mezcalitos. 

Without further adieu, please welcome Vinik Jure, and his aggressively eclectic mind. 

Welcome to the longest episode I've ever recorded. And usually I would say this as a warning,  but while listening to it I realized that this conversation touched on so many things that I believe are critical not only to cacao  but to all Mexican craft, including agave spirits.

Without further adieu please welcome Jose Lopez Ganem and his poignant perspective on how we can  create a slightly better world through cacao.

There are a multitude of different names that people use to call agave spirits around Mexico. 

The most prominent ones are obviously Tequila and Mezcal. But if you travel a bit more you'll find names like Tepe, Ixcateco, Minero, Bacanora, Raicilla and so on and so on.

Tuxca is one of those names. But I find that currently there is a good  amount of misinformation about the origin  and history of such a name. So I decided to  invite Edwin, who is currently  making his doctoral thesis about historical tabernas, to give us a little bit m...

I've always been fascinated about how things travel and get to be transformed. One of my favorite stories on the matter is how Jose Luis Borges decided to learn Icelandic just to have access to language that has been frozen in time within a very cold and isolated island (excuse the pun). Mexico is the complete opposite, both our language and our culture has traveled and has been transformed in a multitude of ways. In today's world, in which a big part of having a restaurant or a bar is being able to "play" and engage with the ingredients...

The controversies around who gets to use the words tequila or mezcal are never ending. 

All of which are linked to how the PDOS, or Protected Designations of Origin, for each one of these products were written.

That is why I decided to invite the man I call the “Cheese Superman” to this podcast. I find cheese to be very relevant to understand this matter because one of the first PDOs, back in 1925, was created to protect Roquefort and fight its counterfeits. According to the Roquefort official website this has allowed for  Roquefort to be serene...

If you want to pick up a quick fight with a mezcal nerd you just need to start throwing compliments to añejos and reposados.

It'll get even worse if you claim that the best Tepextate you've ever had spent 12 years in bourbon barrels  and that the most complex sotol you've ever encountered was pink and shiny  from resting in barrels  previously used to mature red wine. 

Even at the risk of creating some violent confrontations  I wanted to explore the world of aging,  but instead of using the very controversial agave as a study case, I...

For the last months I've realized that just like mezcal, so many other Mexican culinary products have been neglected over the years. By now we've touched on traditional fermented products like tolonche, we've explored coffee fermentation, herbal infusions and now, naturally, it is the turn of honey. To understand honey's extremely ample world I was lucky enough to have Arlette Gómez as an invitee. She has one of the most gifted palates I've ever encountered and her encyclopedic memory was able to juggle every one of my silly questions. I hope you enjoy it!

Agave spirits have been around for at least a few hundred years and within that time they've traveled, they've evolved,  they've been prosecuted by the authorities, they've been neglected by modernity and finally, just around 25 years ago, they started to win the hearts of the spirits and cocktail nerds. 

Now mezcal is a global phenomena, but to be absolutely honest, that is rather surprising. So I've been tracking some of the people that arrived at this scene right when things were starting to change. 

In this episode I was lucky enough to have John McEvoy as...

This may be the most  heartbreaking episode that I've ever done. In this conversation with Dalton Kreiss we'll go over mezcal logistics. 

Because it is not enough to find a very delicious mezcal. Which is a lot of work already, but you also have to deal with regulations, transportation and all sorts of mysterious things before someone can actually acquire what you've chosen with a lot of love. 

So if you are planning to start an agave spirits brand this may be the episode that could convince you to do otherwise.  You may prefer to just...

There is not a unique approach to making mezcal or coffee, so it shouldn't be surprising to realize that there are many different ways to dissect their flavors.  

A few episodes ago I had a long and illuminating conversation with Eric Kozlik about flavor and I wanted to compare and contrast our discussion from a coffee perspective.

Coffee is an interesting study-case because it is one of the most consumed commodities in the world. So I had always thought that their tasting protocols were rather strict and homogenous.  

Regardless of the medium, be it...

I listened to this episode with Roberto Ávila (school manager of the Bartending European School in Mexico) a few times trying to come up with a proper introduction. But like I mention at the end of it, it is a bit like a Simpsons episode. The narrative arc is over the place and we jump  from working in Dubai to drinking like a Mexican teenager; from how to pair your tacos to how to run a bar. Hope you enjoy this rather eclectic approach. 

If there is something that is practiced by every culture I’ve ever encountered is boiling leaves, herbs and/or flowers to make comforting or delicious drinks. In my household my mother preferred teas over conventional medicine : anis estrella for the stomach, manzanilla for insomnia and bugambilia to scare the flu away were amongst the many other “creations'  that she came up with over the years to alleviate even the most stubborn of pains. 

But it was not until I tried tea in Taiwan that I found an amazing array of flavors connected to the different leaves, proces...

Everything that I read and hear around agave spirits these days suggests that the people and places that sustain this heritage are at risk.

It is clear to me that we are at a time that if we don't do something there may be a day when homogeneity will take over. The days of thinking about the possibilities brought by the ample agave diversity will be gone and we'll end up with something as boring as the cavendish banana. 

At the same time there are many ways to resist, to promote change and to make p...

Every country is a brand. If you want to buy cameras you are probably looking at Japan or Germany;  if you have an interest in silk or denim, you may look for French or Italian goods.  

But when we talk about Mexico, what does our national brand stand for?  What is our global reputation? Is our vast biocultural heritage being promoted or are we just being reduced to tequila, tourism and avocados?  

Beyond some ontological drama, is our brand strengthening the overall economy and promoting social equality or is it just making money for a few...

The main reason why I started this podcast was to have conversations that  could expand how we understand  agave spirits.  You may have noticed this by now, most of the episodes are not directly about mezcal, but about the places, the people and the cultures that make mezcal possible and fascinating. In this episode I wanted to delve into flavor. To truly dissect  what bitter, sweet or funky mean when we talk about spirits. After listening to the brilliant way in which my friend Eric Kozlik explored the concept of smooth in  his podcast Modern Bar Cart.   I knew that h...

Many of the most appreciated spirits in the world are the consequence of clashing a base spirit with some sort of modifier. Think about every brown spirit, made with fairly uninteresting grains, but then, after spending enough time interacting with wood,  they get the chance to become complex and glorious. 

Mallort, big shout out to CH distilleries, Chartrouse  and every Amari under the sun, are some of other examples of beloved spirits that have been modified with external elements in some way or another. 

Yet when we talk about mezcal, the idea of using modifiers, with...

Unlike most people that would typically enjoy alcohol on their free time, it is  not uncommon that given my line of work, that on a normal Tuesday I'll be busy sampling ten or more mezcales.  

That is the reason why I've been trying to educate myself, finding the best ways not to destroy my body. But it turns out that there are a multitude of versions of what a non dangerous intake of alcohol means. Canada claims that if you have  3 drinks a week  you are asking for trouble, while Japan is happy to suggest that   half a lit...

Now that a significant number of people know that most of Mexico distills either agaves, dasylirions, sugarcanes or fruits, I believe it is a great time to delve into the different regions that articulate this country. "La Laguna" is a region, that I rarely get to talk about, it that covers municipalities of both Durango and Coahuila, two massive states with a vast agave and dasylirion spirits tradition. Sergio Garnier, founder of Mezcal Ultramundo, helps us have a better understanding of this mysterious area.  

And for the adventurous here is the Google Maps for "La Jarochita": https://m...

If you can distill agave and/or sugarcane then every other "sugar-source" is open for grabs. Be it mango, zapote or even mesquite; mezcaleros have long experimented with other sources either to find new flavors or to limit their expenses. In this conversation with Dalton Kreiss, founder of Maguey Melate, we discuss the prominence of mango as a cult produce that almost rivals the avocado craze, the many ways in which Mexican brandies may take the US market by storm and the technicalities behind these unorthodox spirits. 

In this podcast we've been discussing fermentation as a verb, almost comparing it to an erupting volcano. We've explored the many was in which agave and even coffee are transformed by this process but we haven't really explored yeast in detail. What exactly is it? How does it survive? Are there better yeasts than others? Can different yeasts create distinct flavors?

I can't claim that we came up with clear-cut answers to all of these questions. But we definitely tried our best. Please welcome again Cesar Ojeda and his infinite curiosity for all things fermentation. 

This is the longest ever recorded episode of this podcast. But I just couldn't stop talking and picking Shak Zapata's brain. He is not only a grand barista capable of pulling espressos that will make you weep out of excitement but he has also traveled extensively to secure  some of the best Mexican coffees. On this episode we explore the hows and whys of fermenting this powerful bean.

Make sure to grab an espresso from Shak at Casa Cardinal:

https://www.instagram.com/casacardinal/

A big shout out to the "...

Markets are places to find mundane objects, make friends and enjoy the most voluptuous fruits. They are as useful as they are mysterious, a bastion for diversity and pleasure. I decided to invite Vinik Juré to talk specifically about the many markets that happen during the week in the central valleys of Oaxaca. I hope you enjoy it. 

A big shout to the "Animate" employee resource group at Crunchyroll for sponsoring this episode 😘

Let's forget about mezcal for a moment and think about sugarcane spirits, better known as aguardiente by some and rum by others. In this episode I had the pleasure to chat with Keegan Menezes, a rum lover, which had long and detailed answers to all of my silly questions. Here is a small bio of him as written by the man himself:

Keegan Menezes started out as a cocktail bartender when he was in Oxford at university, although he left his professional cocktail-making career behind he has remained part of the London Cocktail bar scene. He is...

Is there such a thing as traditional mezcal? And if so. Who is entitled to establish what that is and how should it be maintained? In this episode with author and historian Eric Zandona we explore the paradoxes and complexities linked to preserving such a vast biocultural heritage. 

In the agave multiverse there are a number of artifacts that you'll find all around Mexico; with all sorts of different geometries and fabricated with a diverse set of materials: hats. In this chat with Laura Ramos, from "House of Belrio", we discuss with her what does it mean to be a hat designer, the influences of the "Golden Age of Mexican Cinema" and how to use nature as guide when choosing what to fabricate. 

Salmiana is maybe one of the most well distributed better kept secret amongst agave spirits. In "El Bajío", which comprises a good part of Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas; Salmiana is the the preferred agave to create a vast array of spirits with a long history that sustained some of the mining extravaganzas in the region. This first episode with Darian is meant a soft introduction to an agave that has slowly but surely won my heart.  

After a long career as a Business Jerk of All Sorts (TM), Darian Martyniuk realized there were a few...

When I first read Fabio's profile I was rather suspicious. A genetist in the agave realm? Isn't the point to just leave agave alone to be glorious and genetically diverse? Well, turns out that Fabio does a significant number of great ideas to continue the centuries-old-interaction between agave and humans. 

Here is Fabio's profile on his own words. You can find him in LinkedIn as Fabio Raya:

I’m BA in Biotechnology (UFSCar at Araras) and MSc. in Genetics and Molecular Biology (Unicamp). I’ve worked with Next-Generation Sequencing at the Integrated Genomics Cores (HTSF - UNC...

We would all love to think that agaves are the most untainted agricultural product given its propensity to prosper in the "wild". But now, given the size of the tequila and mezcal industry, it is clear that pesticides are being used in unprecedent quantities to keep this machinery going. In this episode we try to get the basics of how pesticides work and their consequences from a medical perspective. 

Dr. Ryan Aycock is a practicing emergency physician in the Panhandle of Florida and holds faculty appointments with both Florida State University's and the University of Central Florida's C...

We have the pleasure to keep the conversation going with Cesar Ojeda (aka @intergalactic_yeastie_boy). This time we talk about  how a palenque/taberna/vinata is nothing like a "distillery" and why the landscapes surrounding a palenque/taberna/vinata are critical to the yeast populations that will ultimately create either pretty or dull flavors.

Dr. César Iván Ojeda Linares completed his undergraduate studies at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, later he studied at the Institute of Ecology of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, with a stay at Kyoto Sangyo University. He did hi...

How did mezcal become part of our lives? Who were those brave first souls that made it possible to make this rural drink a poster child of craft spirits? Welcome to the secret secret origin of mezcal. 

Zaloren Gonzalez Fontes is a Citizen of the World a Nomad that has danced her way into the Adventure She calls Life.

Since the year 2003, she embarked on the Agave journey playing the role of educator, brand consultant, project manager, category ambassador, sacrileges spirit sommelier (pairing food with distilled spirits), and Story Teller.

She currently lives in...

Today we will be talking baseball with Darian Martyniuk, extraordinaire tour operator and owner of the " De Matachines" agave spirits brand.  We know that sports may sound outside of the mezcal realm, but believe us, somehow it makes sense. 

After a long career as a Business Jerk of All Sorts (TM), Darian Martyniuk realized there were a few things in life that he loved, and two of them were agave spirits and baseball. So one day, he decided to combine the two and another passion, travel, and create a business centered around those things - traveling the wo...

In this second episode of Heritage Mezcal we spend time with Fabio Raya, a Brazilian researcher exploring the potentials that agave has to be used as a source of bioethanol.

 But really, the most important thing about this episode is that we get a clear, objective explanation behind the complexity offered by agave and how that is perfectly in tune with the artisanal processes used to transform this plant into exceptional spirits. 

In this first ever episode of the Heritage Mezcal Podcast we had the pleasure to have a conversation with Cesar Iván Linares (aka @intergalactic_yeastie_boy) about yeast, fermentation as a creative act and, of course, the many ways in which prickly pears and pink pepper can be transformed into colonche or tolonche. 

Dr. César Iván Ojeda Linares completed his undergraduate studies at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, later he studied at the Institute of Ecology of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, with a stay at Kyoto Sangyo University. He did his Ph...