Agave Road Trip

I 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 highlight this one very important fact: plain, old Mezcal (in other words, the stuff that can be made industrially) has doubled in one year. Marissa was too busy with her weekly YouTube show, “The TequiLadies,” so Linda Sullivan got tagged in for the conversation!

“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 that I want to buy from the producer. I want to know how it’s made. I want to know if they are planting more agaves, or if they are not cutting trees, or what are they doing for the environment. So we have the information here. Not all of it, but maybe enough information to show the people how we do this Mezcal, how we do Palomo.” That’s mezcalero Carlos Mendez Blas, owner and producer of Palomo Mezcal. We profile Carlos and Palomo in this episode of Agave Road Show!

I 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 that surprised me: the cleaning of the bottles. And it made me realize, there’s an “abocado con” Tequila I never imagined! 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 Marissa Paragano (AKA the eye-rolling, not-easily-offended, kind-of-5’2” Tequila Encyclopedia) of The TequiLadies Show and The Tequila That Cares Foundation and added wisdom from Bruno Barba at Marcado 28 Tequila.

There 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 potatorum. Less than 40 kilometers away, papalometl will refer to a Cupreata. And even the scientific names get screwy. So what’s a nerd to do? 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.

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!

We’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 speaking with – Dr. Sandra Pascoe Ortiz, who has developed a plastic that is compostable and leaves behind no microplastics. So is this a solution for our plastics problem?

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.

I 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 moon affects their production of agave spirits, or the presence of a pregnant woman, I kind of laugh it off. So what am I missing, where is the truth, and how do I reconcile my own hypocrisy?

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?

Last 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 the method back to Chacala, Jalisco! So, why two episodes about the same thing? I was maybe a bit under the influence when I recorded the episode with Paulo, forgot we’d recorded it, got home, and recorded last week’s episode with Linda. It’s a Deja Lou episode of Agave Road Trip!

I 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 disconnect the plant from its roots and let it sit there in the field. It was said to be an old practice that had been lost. Even in the podcast, he said he only heard about this from one guy, so I thought, yeah, probably not really a thing. And then I met Paulo Rodriguez in Chacala, Jalisco.

There’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 either beer or wine. What does this mean, exactly? Or does it mean anything? And why is it that everyone I know will drink wine but wine is, and always has been, the runt of this litter?

I 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 regulations required them to be indoors – or, anyway, he said they did, though I found nothing in the NOM to corroborate that. But … he said they did because when you go around to these traditional vinatas, it was disgusting to see all the birds pooping in the fermenters. But … is it?

When 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 the Americas’ What makes it Filipino? How did it get here? And what’s it got to do with coconuts? Food writer Nic Stevens joins me this week to talk about that plus vino de coco, vino de cana, and the origins of distillation in the Americas!

For 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 sales faster than anything. We’re not drinking less, we’re drinking differently. And those are just three of the insights we gain from the latest DISCUS annual report! If numbers are your thing, this is your episode of Agave Road Trip!

In 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 discerning consumers? Tequila Report pubisher Jay Baer and I try to figure that out in this episode of Agave Road Trip!

Earlier 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 they didn’t understand the stories. Or maybethey don’t understand the lifecycle of agave? Or … maybe they don’t understand the average consumer? Whatever the case, I welcome Claudia to this episode of Agave Road Trip!

In 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 transparency in rum?” And Richard’s answer was not at all what I expected. Close the kimono and call in Linda — we talk about the beautiful mystery of Mezcal in this episode of Agave Road Trip!

That 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 you used for the Exploding Hammers Festival? Even the makers of the world rely on other makers in the world and that’s what makes our world so special!

We’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 leader “El Mencho” in February 2026 led to a more heated public conversation on the issue. So, here’s a third episode. Spoiler alert: I think AI is a far greater danger than is traveling to Mexico.

Even 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???

Some 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 buy to squirrel away those bottles that they expect they can sell for more money in a few years. How does that affect the marketplace for Mezcal?

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!

According 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 revenue. And this during a year when Don Julio was dragged through the mud. So, what does this tell us?

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.