Agave Road Trip

A recent episode of the VinePair podcast, titled "Mezcal’s Continued Search for Mainstream Success,” feels to me like it was riddled with inaccuracies. And for some reason, it also feels to me like it stands in stark contrast to the recently released 2025 numbers from Comercam, the largest of the bodies certifying Mezcal. So I asked one of my favorite numbers gabbers, Marissa Paragano, to gab about that in this gabfest episode of Agave Road Trip!

There are places that have massive collections of beautiful, small-batch agave spirits, but having the bottles isn’t the same as understanding them. And having those bottles, which are often expensive, requires additional expense in training staff. Or, anyway, are most likely going to realize their financial potential with training. But … who does that? Where do agave geeks go to have the geekiest conversations? 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 evolutionary biologist Daniel Moen.

How often have you heard or read that a brand of Tequila or Mezcal is only using quality agaves? That makes me wonder about those poor, down-market agaves. They deserve love, too, don’t they? And what makes them different from the good agaves? Brix? Years?

Okay, so, first … yes, of course, water matters. Without water, there can’t be Mezcal or Tequila, both because you need it to make the spirits but more importantly, people make these spirits and without water, there are no people. With that out of the way … evolutionary biologist and frequent Roadtripper Daniel Moen checked in to ask, Why does water matter in Tequila and Mezcal? I immediately went to my old trope: About half the bottle or more is water. But then he followed up with, The water you're consuming when you drink Mezcal, that fifty percent is actually distilled water. And distilled water, by definition, is neutral. So … why does it matter? Or does it not? We wade into the issue in this episode of Agave Road Trip!

When you’re a vegan but you find yourself in a situation where someone has cooked a whole goat in your honor, do you eat the goat? When Marissa and I start talking rural Mexico, you can never be sure where the conversation will go. This time, it went to the conflict between our dietary restrictions and the diets of Mexico.

Slippery language can lead to misunderstandings. When a brand owner talks about their distillery, their agaves, their producers … maybe they’re just being sloppy. Maybe their claiming ownership. But what’s the impact of those claims?