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.

Episode Notes

Thanks to Google Books for the agave image on this week’s cover, which comes from El Maguey: Memoria Sobre el Cultivo y Beneficio de sus Productos (1901) by Jose Carmen Segura.

Shout outs this episode to Michaela at Waffle House #431 in Tucson, the Agave Heritage Festival, mezcalero Ildefonso Macedas Ginez, mezcalero Amando Alvarado Alvarez, Jason Paul Cox and Cinco Sentidos, and Hidden Rose Apples.