Agave Road Trip
by Ten Angry Pitbulls, Inc
Latest episode
The only agave that can’t be used to make Mezcal is a dead agave
The only agave that can’t be used to make Mezcal is a dead agave
About this podcast
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. If you're interested in Mezcal, Tequila, Raicilla, or other things you'd drink in Mexico, this might be the place you're looking for.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 337 episodes
- The only agave that can’t be used to make Mezcal is a dead agave · 28 min · Episode 173It feels like for the past five or six years, I’ve been reading or hearing “Mezcal can be made from 30 or 40 kinds of agave.” And even Howard Scott Gentry suggested that there…
- Howard Scott Gentry and the 11 best agaves for spirits · 27 min · Episode 172Howard Scott Gentry’s 670-page Agaves of Continental North America (University of Arizona Press, 1982) is a seminal work in the field. Gentry included thorough descriptions of…
- The uncanny power of hibiscus · 29 min · Episode 171In my quest to lower my blood pressure, I stumbled on an article suggesting that jamaica — the Mexican agua fresca made from dried hibiscus flowers — can do exactly that. So I…
- Is Mezcal cool? Or cooling down? · 26 min · Episode 170I've been having a lot of conversations recently with people who own brands of agave spirits. And my friends who own Tequila brands, they're a little uncomfortable with the state…
- What cooked agave doesn’t taste like · 32 min · Episode 169The rules around Mezcal are so complex that I’m not surprised when someone gets the details wrong — even brand owners. But I still used that as a jumping-off point to get into it…
- The sex lives of agave: hijuelos, bulbils, and seedlings · 33 min · Episode 168Agaves have three ways to reproduce: they can generate seeds, bulbils (semi-clones that grow on their quiotes), and hijuelos (clones from the roots). But sometimes, you’ll hear…
- What we drink when we don't know what to drink · 27 min · Episode 167My frequent-but-not-frequent-enough cohost Linda Sullivan has a beverage education business, seynasecreto. And while she’s doing the education part at events, sharing funky…
- Proposed changes to the rules of Mezcal · 39 min · Episode 166The Mexican government is considering a revised version of the NOM that defines what is and what is not Mezcal. My big takeaway is that it feels like the changes are either…
- Has the Margarita become a victim of its own success? · 38 min · Episode 165That’s what I thought we were talking about: the Margarita collapsing under the weight of its popularity, so to speak. But food writer Alisha Miranda thought we were exploring…
- September 16 is Cinco de Mayo! · 31 min · Episode 164As we approach September 16, we prepare to celebrate Cinco de Mayo: Mexican Independence Day! And we do so in Agave Road Trip style with lawyer and professor Dr. Juan Pablo…
- NC Stevens read all the royal directives so you don’t have to · 22 min · Episode 163When most people think about Mexican drinks, they think about Tequila. But Tequila's success is really built on the vibrancy of the broader landscape of drinks and drinking in…
- The reason to ID every drinker · 25 min · Episode 162I was watching an episode of John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” about gas-station drugs and it felt to me like, while never mentioned explicitly, the reason to ask every guest who…
- Plastic and glass in the age of Mezcal · 28 min · Episode 161“This brings us to the question of glass versus food-grade plastic, because both are used at José Alberto's palenque, and food-grade plastic is certainly used to store mezcal at…
- The ten categories of ancestral mezcal · 37 min · Episode 160Mezcal can get very confusing for the average consumer. You’ve got regular Mezcal, Mezcal Artesenal, and Mezcal Ancestral. And then there are variations among those, including…
- A tahona doesn’t make your Tequila authentic · 39 min · Episode 159There was a time (about a week ago) when posting to social-media that you would only drink “additive-free” was a way to say, I know Tequila. Now it feels like “milled by tahona”…
- The Raicilla episode featuring El Acabo and Asil · 1 h 28 min · Episode 158“You just do it by the old way. It's not difficult. It's not fast, but it's not difficult. If we make it fast, you have to correct a lot of things. When you give the real time…
- Gasoline & electricity: The science of Mezcal · 22 min · Episode 157Before science was invented, things were confusing. And, to be fair, for several decades into the birth of science, it was still confusing. Don’t believe us? Check out Scientific…
- The profound justification for Raicilla · 48 min · Episode 156Okay, for real, this episode is only vaguely about Raicilla. It’s a bit more about profound justifications — that’s a reference to a quote from my guest co-host, Shawn Miller of…
- The great rise of industrial Mezcal · 30 min · Episode 155I recorded a few weeks ago an episode with Marissa Paragano in which we talked about the 2025 numbers from Comercam. But we got so distracted by overall sales that I forgot to…
- Palomo Mezcal: It’s better not to count · 57 min“Before, only white people or gringos used to sell Mezcal, and the consumer was used to only buying it from those people. But now the consumer is changing their mind and saying…
- It’s a Tequila dust-up of epic proportions! · 20 min · Episode 154I don’t know, maybe I’m just behind the curve on this one. But I had a conversation with Marcado 28 Tequilero Bruno Barba and, during that conversation, he brought up a subject…
- What’s in a scientific name? · 43 min · Episode 153There are scientific names and common names for agaves … or magueys, to use the common name. But the common names lack commonality: A papalometl in one part of the Mixteca is a…
- Is Mezcal searching for mainstream success? · 32 min · Episode 152A 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…
- Agave straws and cactus plastic · 22 min · Episode 151We’ve talked about agave straws in previous episodes, but I’ve been spending more time digging into them. And more than that, I’ve been spending time reading about – and now…
- Where can Mezcal geeks go to geek out? · 25 min · Episode 150There 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…
- G4 Tequila: Felipe Camarena doesn't have the whitest legs · 36 min“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…
- Mezcal, the moon, and multi-generational wisdom · 23 min · Episode 149I find myself saying “multi-generational wisdom” pretty frequently, in reference to these communities I get to visit in rural Mexico. But when they start talking about how the…
- The difference between a good agave and a bad one · 28 min · Episode 148How 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…
- The tumbado way to harvest maguey (Paulo Rodriguez remix) · 24 min · Episode 147Last episode I talked with Linda Sullivan about the tumbado process of harvesting agave. This episode … also about tumbado, but with Paulo Rodriguez, the raicillero who brought…
- Harvesting maguey the “tumbado” way (Linda Sullivan remix) · 29 min · Episode 146I was listening to Tim McKirdy’s podcast “Mezcal’s Untold Past, Soaring Present, and Fragile Future,” and he talks about an agave harvesting process called tumbado, where you…
- Spirits vs beer vs wine: Last alcohol standing · 35 min · Episode 145There’s a graph in the latest report from the Distilled Spirits Council of the US that shows that for the first time in recent history, we’re drinking more spirits than we are…
- Bird poop in the fermenters · 26 min · Episode 144I was talking with a brand owner about the process used to make his Tequila, and when he described his fermenters, I asked if they were indoors or outdoors. I hadn’t realized the…
- Making sense of the Filipino still · 29 min · Episode 143When people talk about stills in Mexico, you hear “Filipino” and “alambique” a lot … “Mongolian” a little. And it’s been suggested that the Filipino still was the first to arrive…
- Making (non)sense of 2025 spirits sales · 39 min · Episode 142For the first time in a decade, we’re paying less per liter for Tequila/Mezcal, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the US. The most expensive cordials are growing in…
- When 130 Tequilas are additive-free, does that matter anymore? · 32 min · Episode 141In a recent issue of The Tequila Report, more than 130 Tequila brands identify as additive-free. So how do those brands distinguish from one another? What else matters to…
- Those Mezcal stories in the AP News · 41 min · Episode 140Earlier this month, journalist Claudia Rosel released three Mezcal stories via the AP. Some of the agave nerds derided the stories as “at least 5 years late.” But I’d suggest…
- Does transparency ruin the mystery of Mezcal? · 21 min · Episode 139In the December 2025 episode of his amazing podcast “The Curious Bartender,” Tristan Stephenson asks Foursquare Rum CEO and Master Distiller Richard Seale, “How important is…
- Molcajetes, exploding hammers, and the makers of the world · 20 min · Episode 138That guacamole you just made from scratch? Well, did you make the molcajete you used to grind the onions, cilantro, chiles, and salt? Did you make the gunpowder and sledgehammer…
- The dangers of Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, and AI · 31 min · Episode 137We’ve already done a couple of episodes about the dangers of traveling to Mexico. But … the violence around the apprehension and killing by the Mexican government of cartel…
- How much does a mezcalero make per bottle? · 37 min · Episode 136Even the lowest-priced bottles of Mezcal aren’t cheap. So that means the people making those spirits are making better money than the people making other spirits, right? Right???
- Are collectors ruining Mezcal? · 51 min · Episode 135Some people buy bottles to drink now. Some people buy to drink later. Some people buy special bottles to share when special guests are over having a special meal. And some people…
- Does the water matter in Mezcal and Tequila? · 19 min · Episode 134Okay, 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…
- Don Julio is the best-selling spirits brand in the USA · 32 min · Episode 133According to a story in VinePair’s VP Pro newsletter, quoting an article from Shanken News Daily, Don Julio in 2025 became the biggest spirits brand in the USA, measured by…
- Eating vegan in rural Mexico · 23 min · Episode 132When 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…
- Agave Bike Trip! · 20 min · Episode 131Traveling the hard way to visit mezcaleres who make agave spirits the hard way seemed right to me. So I grabbed my cyclist friend Zach Jarosz and we set off from Oaxaca Centro on…
- But did you really make that Tequila? · 31 min · Episode 130Slippery 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…
- A lot of talk about lote numbers · 33 min · Episode 129Most spirits don’t have lot numbers … or lote numbers … or batch numbers. But some (a lot?) do. And what exactly do those numbers mean? Maybe nothing. Maybe a lot.
- Mezcal in whisk(e)y country · 34 min · Episode 128Scotland is known for Scotch whiskey. Louisville for Bourbon. But award-winning bartenders have opened agave-focused drinking halls in both places. What does it mean when Mezcal…
- The secret origin of Chuck Cowdery · 31 min · Episode 127Not an episode about agave, agave spirits, or rural Mexico! For this special Christmas episode of Agave Road Trip I offer you the gift of Chuck Cowdery, the “dean of American…
- The problem with the Cadbury dark chocolate ad · 41 min · Episode 126This new ad for Cadbury’s Bournville “dark” chocolate is funny. But there’s a cost to that humor, and it isn’t to Cadbury. We take Goliath to task for attacking David in this…
