Owner of Tequilas Restaurant explores mezcal and the environmental implications of its new popularity
Mezcal is a centuries-old spirit with roots in ancient Mexican culture. Agave, the succulent that is roasted and mashed to create mezcal, even had its own Aztec goddess; Mayahuel, in folklore, fed the plant's sap to her 400 children, known as the Centzon Tōtōchtin, or "drunken bunnies."
In Defense of Bootlegging
Long live the bootleggers of the world. My uncles and grandfathers were proud basement distillers of Lebanese araq; my father mashed grapes with his feet in the bathtub after school when he was an adolescent. Some of our best beverages of the Americas had to go under cover during Prohibition
When is a Century Plant not a Century Plant and Mezcal not a Mezcal?
Mezcal literally means “agave plant” (metl) plus “pit-roasted or baked (calli). In Agave Spirits, we daylight the fact that most margaritas sold in the US are still using mix to tequilas, which can be up to 49% high fructose sugars from plants other than agaves, so they are neither mezcal
Agave Spirits is Now Available in Bookstores and Online
After four years of collaborating, interviewing, digging deep into archives & traveling to remote parts of Mexico, our wonderfully-designed book from W.W, Norton is now out in the stores! What we are happy about is that the dozen drawings by Rene Tapia beautifully capture the Mesoamerican and Aridamerican traditions of caring
A Heritage Plant for Our Time: Gary Nabhan Discusses His New Book on Agaves
Patagonia resident, award-winning ethnobotanist and Native Seeds/Search co-founder Gary Nabhan has a new book out, the 40th (or so) in his long career. Co-authored with Philadelphia restaurateur and agave advocate David Suro Pinera, Agave Spirits: The Past, Present and Future of Mezcals (W.W. Norton) is, like so much of Nabhan’s work, an inspiring, encyclopedic read about a complex