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-believer? Are these plants communicating a full culture through a glass or is this just a blatant exaggeration? Eric has been lucky enough to have tasted hundreds if not thousands of spirits from all around the world and he was generous enough to try and tackle why this may or may not make sense.

Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com

Agave Road Trip is Powered by Simplecast.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 great road trip — and we get schooled by road-trippers Ben Schroder (Pensador Mezcal), Craig Thompson, Dalton Kreiss (Maguey Melate), Ismael Gomez (Mezcal Cruz de Fuego), Jon Darby (Sin Gusano), and Sergio Garnier (Mezcal Ultramundo), who have their own rules! Strap yourself in, because that’s the first rule of Agave Road Trip!

Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com

Agave Road Trip is Powered by Simplecast.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 thing that gives it that pulse. One of those things is the landscape from which the agave comes from. Eating to Extinction author Dan Saladino prods us to talk about the beautiful landscapes we’re taking him to on this Agave Road Trip!

Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com

Agave Road Trip is Powered by Simplecast.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 that’s been circulating around in my head that we should never use espadin mezcal to make cocktails. It’s yet another contrarian episode of Agave Road Trip!

Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com

Agave Road Trip is Powered by Simplecast.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 world. Eating to Extinction author Dan Saladino compares pulque to a drink made by the Hadza hunter-gatherers. It’s a cross-cultural episode of Agave Road Trip!

Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com

Agave Road Trip is Powered by Simplecast.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our friends at Bat Conservation International have teamed with a number of other organizations to launch “We Belong Together,” a campaign in support of their Agave Restoration Initiative. The goal is to redevelop the foodways that allow bats to migrate from the southern USA to southern Mexico. So they connected us with Valeria Cañedo from Colectivo Sonora Silvestre and Centro de Colaboración para la Ciencia y Cultura S.C. to wing another episode of Agave Road Trip about bats and agave!

Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com

Agave Road Trip is Powered by Simplecast.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 food security, for the good of the planet, and for the good of our own health. And Chava and I are all for that — but we’re also all for another person in the car to argue with. So we took Dan on an Agave Road Trip, and all you get is this episode.

Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com

Agave Road Trip is Powered by Simplecast.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 world. We talk about the complicated path of sustainability in what’s sure to be another contentious episode of Agave Road Trip!

Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com

Agave Road Trip is Powered by Simplecast.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 make this ever-changing blend. But … can you do that in mezcal? Without getting kicked out of a Facebook group? We tamper with the forces of nature in this episode of Agave Road Trip!

Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com

Agave Road Trip is Powered by Simplecast.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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, there’s an idea that the most delicious batches of that fermented beverage come from pampered, farmed agave. We check in with Gonzalo Álvarez-Ríos (who we call Dr. Pulque) and Dr. Iván Saldaña Oyarzábal (who we all Sir) to better understand the why and how and what of it all in this 150th episode of Agave Road Trip!

Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com

Agave Road Trip is Powered by Simplecast.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.