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?

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 John Douglass of Pretty Decent, an award-winning Mezcal-focused cocktail bar and a boutique plant shop in Louisville, Kentucky.

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!

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 Linda Sullivan of seynasecreto with wisdom from Daniel Mohn, Eduardo Angeles of Lalocura, and Ari Marks and Michael Schallau of is/was Brewing.

Episode Notes

Thanks to Miguel Dimayuga Meneses for the cover photo of El Choforo working on the well project in Atempa, Guerrero — a project funded by SACRED Agave through a grant from 818 Tequila.

Shout outs this episode to Fiji water, Felipe Camarena of G4 Tequila, and the bio-digester project of Serafin Morales Cruz of Mezcal Alarii!

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?

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 of The Tequiladies and Tequila That Cares.

Episode Notes

Marissa is also a board member of Tequila That Cares, a philanthropic organization bringing positive change to the agave spirits industry!

Read the full story in Shanken News Daily (which requires a subscription) and subscribe to VinePair’s VP Pro newsletter (which is free).

Shout outs this episode to Shawn Miller, Don Julio Tequila, Tito’s Vodka, White Claw, Jose Cuervo Tequila, that UFC Cuervo ad, Tequila Patron, those Patron additive-free ads, Chava Rosales of Cascahuin, and tattoos!

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

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.

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 of The Tequiladies and Tequila That Cares.

Episode Notes

Marissa is also a board member of Tequila That Cares, a philanthropic organization bringing positive change to the agave spirits industry!

Shout outs this episode to mezcalero Ildefonso Macedas Ginez, mezcal con gusano, Tide pods, Chava Periban, Chava Rosales of Tequila Cascahuin, and Ronnie Kaplan!

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

Traveling 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 an Agave Bike Trip!

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 Zach Jarosz of CH Distillery, makers of Jeppson’s Malort.

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

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?

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 Shawn Miller of PKGD Group.

Episode Notes

You can find Shawn’s article that inspired this episode here: “I know everything about how to make Tequila but I don’t know how to make Tequila.”

Shout outs to Sergio Garnier and Mezcal Ultramundo, Lalo Angeles of Lalocura, and the Additive-Free Alliance!

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

Most 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.

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 with wisdom from Benjamin Scott of Mal Bien.

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

Scotland 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 finds its way into whisk(e)y country?

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 John Douglass of Pretty Decent, an award-winning Mezcal-focused cocktail bar and a boutique plant shop in Louisville, Kentucky, with wisdom from Rachel Bailey Palumbo of Chancho, a just-shuttered agaveria in Edinburgh, Scotland, and sister to the award-winning Hey Palu.

Episode Notes

Shout outs this episode to Jim Beam, Old Forester, Copper & Kings, Alberto Martinez Lopez, Cinco Sentidos, Buffalo Trace, Michael Rubel, The Pinnacle Guide, Malort, and Fortaleza!

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

Not 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 whiskey writing,” according to the New York Times. When did he have his first drink? When did he have his first whiskey? For whom did he make his first cocktail? All that and more!

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 Chuck Cowdery!

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

This 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 episode of Agave Road Trip!

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 and Bruce Costa of the Granite Forest Dojo!

Episode Notes

Shout outs this episode to Dark Matter’s Sleep Walk Chocolate, Lifetime Wells International, “The Last Tourist,” Hampden Estate Rum, and Appleton Estate Rum!