Four wheels good! Two wheels more good? For the last few years, Nick Barreiro has organized a moto-rally for small group of motorcycle-and-Mexico enthusiasts. And while motorcycles aren’t my speed, I know they work for plenty of gringx bartenders, and I love this whole different way to take in the stories of rural Mexico. Learn about Nick’s interna…

In his New York Times op-ed about the imploding dream of cultivated meat, Joe Fassler writes, “[It] was an embodiment of the wish that we can change everything without changing anything. We wouldn’t need to rethink our relationship to Big Macs and bacon. We could go on believing that the world would always be the way we’ve known it.” And while I ca…

Pick some mint from the garden (or the farmers market) and grab a bottle of bourbon, because peak springtime is the perfect season for mixing up Mint Juleps. With Derby Day just around the corner, we talk Juleps with Joe Stinchcomb, a veteran bartender and an owner of Bar Muse in Oxford, Mississippi. Radio Imbibe is the audio home of Imbibe magazin…

Vinepair, Wine Enthusiast, Esquire … seems like every publication these days has their suggestions for what you should have been drinking over the past year. Maybe what you should be purchasing as holiday gifts. But these lists can also serve as sales tools for gringx bartenders! It’s a DIY episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road Trip is a criticall…

We’ve done a lot of episodes about the importance of biodiversity, but usually we’re talking about plants. Sometimes insects. Bats, on occasion. So when we got an email from the gang at Alma de Jaguar Tequila about preserving this apex predator, I thought, yeah, let’s really sink our teeth into this subject! It’s a wild cat episode of Agave Road Tr…

Romeo’s opened in New York City this past December, promising to bring a new kind of cocktail experience to the East Village. For this episode, we talk to owner Evan Hawkins about the kind of bar he wanted to open with Romeo’s, and about how the bar combines his years of experience bartending in nightclubs with the lessons he learned at craft cockt…

A trend that’s emerged in the past decade are these drinking straws that are being promoted as made from agave fibers — the agave fibers being a byproduct of the process for making Tequila and Mezcal. The straws are marketed as biodegradable. But I think — emphasis on “think” — that these straws are at least in part made from plastics and are not a…

I’m seeing a lot more restaurants expanding their Mezcal selections, and a lot more events pairing Mezcal with food. So what do you eat when you drink Mezcal? I asked a bunch of industry folks that question over the last several months, then coerced food, science, and nature journalist Rowan Jacobsen to dig through those quotes with me to add his o…

Vermouth is an essential cocktail ingredient, and it can also be spectacular when served on its own. For this episode, we talk to several bartenders about the many reasons vermouth fascinates them and factors into their work: Alf del Portillo and Marta Premoli, owners of Quattro Teste in Lisbon, Portugal, and Francesco Lafranconi, who helped establ…

Since I first met Sergio Garnier, before he launched Mezcal Ultramundo, we’ve debated about the relative merits of certifying your agave spirits as Mezcal. We decided it was time to record our disagreement. It’s a what-side-are-you-on episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bart…

The fist time I tasted an agave spirit fermented in the skin of a bull, it was all anyone was talking about in Oaxaca. I tasted it at three mezcalerias, and all three bottles were made by Amando Alvarado Alvarez in Santa Maria Ixcatlan, Oaxaca. I made my way out to visit him a few months later, to see the bull-skin fermenters myself. And when I sha…

François Monti is a Madrid-based journalist, educator, and Imbibe contributing writer, and the author of books including El Gran Libro del Vermut. For this episode, he joins us to talk about all things vermouth (the focus of our March/April issue), exploring vermouth’s rich history in cocktails, its culinary connection, and the future of this aperi…

Did the small family producers in Tequila, Jalisco, eat the metaphorical and literal lunch of the big producers in Guanajuato and San Luis Potosi at the 1893 World’s Fair? It’s a What If? episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, …

I got obsessed with Rowan Jacobsen when American Terroir hit bookstores in 2010, and was recently re-obsessed when his podcast “Wild Chocolate” dropped into my feed. So I reached out and he noted he was writing a sustainability feature about Mezcal for Bloomberg’s Businessweek. That article dropped last week, but this episode was recorded prior to …

In 2021, we recognized Victoria Eady Butler as one of our Imbibe 75 People to Watch for her work as the master blender for Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey. For this episode, we catch up with her on her ongoing work at Uncle Nearest; get a glimpse into future plans for the brand as it looks toward Cognac; and talk about the Uncle Nearest HBCU Old Fash…

How do you find reliable sources for information about adult beverages? This is a multi-billion dollar industry, there should be reliable places to learn about trends. But I keep seeing significant errors in articles about agave spirits — which leads me to question what I’m reading about other spirits. And food. It’s an “On the Media” episode of Ag…

A couple weeks ago, I threw the Washington Post under the bus for failing to recognize that food journalism is — or should be — journalism. This week I throw myself under the bus for an article I wrote for InsideHook. Not because it fails as journalism — I’ll let someone else make that claim. But because I think it misses the most relevant point ab…

Tequila and mezcal are booming in American bars, and other Mexican spirits are making their way to the mainstream. For this episode, we explore this growing part of the drinks world with Salvador “Chava” Peribán, host of the Heritage Mezcal podcast and one of this year’s Imbibe 75 People to Watch; and Ignacio “Nacho” Jimenez, a partner and master o…

Why are there so few Mezcal and Tequila brands owned by the people who produce them? When I try to rattle off the names of brands of Mezcal and Tequila that are owned by the people who actually make those spirits, it’s more of a clunk than a rattle. Why is that? And why is that important? It’s an own-or-be-owned episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Ro…

Do you want to preserve the biodiversity of agaves? Or do you want to preserve agaves in the wild? Because those are two different things, often at odds with one another. And you can’t have that conversation without talking about the reasons for the disappearing wild lands in Mexico. But that’s exactly what the Washington Post did last week, when t…

In the January/February 2024 issue, San Francisco bartender, bar owner, and author Thad Vogler shares his story of the Single Village Fix. Vogler first created this simple mix of mezcal, lime juice, and pineapple gum syrup for a bar menu in 2008, tying together his passions for agriculturally rooted spirits and simple, classic formulations. In the …

Heather Morse traveled to Mexico City with her husband, Aaron. And her dog. And her cat. By car. From Las Vegas. If you’ve ever wanted cross the border in a car, with your pets, and make it back home with everything intact, this might be the episode you’ve been waiting for. Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps…

In a Wine Enthusiast op-ed titled “Is it time to leave Tequila alone?,” spirits and cocktail writer Kara Newman asks, “When it comes to pushing tequila’s boundaries, how far is too far?” Now, I tend to be a “head to the endzone” kind of guy, so I’ve brought in Ana Rita García Lascurain, founder and director of MUCHO, Mexico City’s museum of chocola…

We’re continuing our coverage of this year’s Imbibe 75 list of people and places who’ll change the way we drink in the year ahead. For this episode, we talk to two of 2024’s People to Watch: cocktail journalist (and Imbibe contributing editor) Robert Simonson, and Baylee Hopings, a Southeast Regional Speed Rack champion who recently made the move f…

There’s Mrs. Butterworth’s, and then there’s fine Vermont maple syrup. And the same extremes exist for agave syrup. But here’s the thing: the artisanal version of agave syrup has this whole cultural heritage aspect to it. And you’ve probably only been able to access Mrs. Agaveworth’s. Until now! It’s a sticky, chicken-feather-covered episode of Aga…

Gonzalo Alvarez is pursuing his master’s degree in pulque. Ivan Saldana has his doctorate in agave. Both tell me that farmed agave produces better pulque than wild agave. But on trips through Nuevo Leon, Cohuila, and Hidalgo, three pulque producers said the exact opposite. So … what’s the truth? They call me the Seeker, and I search low and high in…

We’re kicking off 2024 by introducing you to some of this year’s Imbibe 75 list of people and places who’ll change the way we drink in the year ahead. For this episode, we talk to Denver bartender and beverage consultant Alex Jump about her work as co-founder and senior manager of operations for Focus on Health, and her work with no- and low-ABV co…

It started with a rumor I heard as a kid, that Maraschino cherries and bubblegum would stay in your stomach for seven years. Which led to a conversation about digestion. Which led to a conversation about fermentation. And Bloody Marys. And how your digestive system works. All of which is to say, Agave Road Trip’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Rya…

Well, of course, there is coffee in Mexico. I’ve bought some at Whole Foods in the past. But my friends at Dark Matter — who want nothing more than to source coffee from Mexico — have run into nothing but trouble. So what can we learn from that? It’s a caffeinated, globetrotting episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed,…

A Liquor.com article I read earlier this year highlighted the number of hospitality workers who grew up in radical churches. That made me think about how hospitality itself is a sort of religion – depending on how you define religion. So this is maybe, to you, a sacrilegious episode of Agave Road Trip! Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, awa…

No holiday season is complete without festive drinks, and among the seasonal standards is eggnog. Jeffrey Morgenthaler is an eggnog evangelist, serving his signature Tequila and Sherry Eggnog to guests at his bar, Pacific Standard, in Portland, Oregon. For this episode, Morgenthaler reflects on how he arrived at his recipe, and he shares some tips …

Maybe you were speeding. Maybe you weren’t. Either way, the Mexican police have pulled you over. Question now is, what are you gonna do, punk? Do you feel lucky? It’s a dirty, hairy 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 ru…

I used to regularly come back from Mexico with a lot of alcohol — a lot. But in the last few years, it’s become significantly harder to get bottles back. And I think I know why. It’s a smuggler’s-blues episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcas…

The Cosmopolitan is a modern classic cocktail that’s reached far into drinks culture. For this episode, Cosmo creator Toby Cecchini (owner of Brooklyn’s Long Island Bar) shares the story of the drink’s origins and its rapid takeover of cocktail culture, along with his approach to making his signature drink. Radio Imbibe is the audio home of Imbibe …

On this Day of Thanks, I ponder why Giving Tuesday isn’t Giving Thursday — why we aren’t giving thanks on Thanksgiving. It’s a thankless episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Agave Road Trip by becoming a member! Agave Ro…

It's impossible with coffee beans to get consistency in flavors and aromas from one harvest to the next. Add in the processing of those beans into that morning drug that starts most of our days and … still more barriers to consistency. Which reminds me so much of the things that I love about agave spirits. It’s yet another inconsistent episode of A…

The San Francisco Bay Area has been at the heart of craft brewing for more than 50 years. For this episode, we track craft beer’s tumultuous trajectory with Dave McLean, co-founder of Admiral Maltings in Alameda and founder of Magnolia Brewing, San Francisco Beer Week, and the Bay Area Brewers Guild. Radio Imbibe is the audio home of Imbibe magazin…

With all the press, all the talk, all the social-media posts, there are always people looking to find out what this Mezcal thing is all about. So what’s the best way to introduce them to these spirits? It’s a welcome-to-the-newbies episode of Agave Road Trip! Find extra photos and related links at agaveroadtrip.com Heritage Radio Network is a liste…

A preachment, dear friends, you are about to receive, on Mayahuel, nicotine, and the temptations of maguey. I’ve heard that all sorts of things in the world of agave spirits are sacred and should be treated with respect. But that begs the question, what does it mean to respect something? Or, more importantly, what constitutes disrespect? We bat tha…

The Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing and Distilling aims to provide scholarship support to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the brewing and distilling industries. For this episode, we check in with Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster and MJF chair, Garrett Oliver, about the rationale behind the foundation’s mission, some of the people …

I’m accustomed to people making hand gestures at me, whether in the USA or Mexico. And I’m generally able to understand those gestures in my home country. But just as I don’t understand the spoken language in Mexico, I’m a bit lost on these gestures, too. Luckily, on this specific Agave Road Trip, I have a couple of interpreters to help. Hands are …

The best stuff is always in plastic water bottles — that’s a thing I hear from a lot of Mezcal geeks. But lately I’ve been reading a lot of stories in the news about how most of us have plastic in our blood stream. And that’s got me wondering … is the stuff brought back from Mexico in plastic water bottles really the best stuff, then? Or am I just …

As co-founders of London Cocktail Week, Hannah Sharman-Cox, and Siobhan Payne are familiar with the growing complexity of the bar world. Early next year, Sharman-Cox and Payne (along with co-founder Dan Dove) will introduce The Pinnacle Guide, a bar evaluation and ranking system that’s been compared to the Michelin Guide in the culinary world. For …

Price certainly has to be a factor when considering which Mezcals you stock in your well. And flavor, of course. But what about the environmental impact? Here are six lower-priced Mezcals (and a Bacanora and a Sotol) that you can use for high-volume cocktails that won’t break the bank and don’t threaten the bio-diversity of Oaxaca. It’s a Punch-and…

Back in May 2021, Chava and I recorded an episode titled “The Birth and Death of the CRM.” Alberto Esteban Marina, former Director General of the NOMs for the Mexican government, had provided us with court papers that documented the end of the CRM’s monopoly on certifying Mezcal. Now Alberto’s come back to me with two court decisions documenting th…

Halloween is one of the most popular holidays around, and with this year’s Black Lagoon Cocktail Pop-up, bars everywhere are getting in on the celebrations. For this episode, we talk with Black Lagoon co-founders Kelsey Ramage and Erin Hayes about the origins of Black Lagoon, what visitors can expect from this years’ experience, and what it takes t…

The espresso martini is quickly becoming the go-to cocktail at bars. But is it really an espresso martini? Or are they using cold brewed coffee? What’s the difference? And is cold brew really the ideal way to make coffee? It’s a caffeine-fueled episode of Agave Road Trip, featuring Aaron Campos of Dark Matter Coffee as guest cohost! Find extra phot…

There are three different natural methods agaves use to reproduce, but only one of those methods promotes genetic diversity: growing from seed. And that’s how much agave is grown around Mexico. But Blue Weber agave? The only kind of agave you can use to make Tequila? No one is growing it from seed. It’s all genetically homogenous. So what does that…

Negroni Week is taking place right now, from September 18-24, 2023. For this episode, we explore the wide world of Negroni variations with Lindsay Matteson. Currently the bar manager at the bitters-focused Barnacle and The Walrus and The Carpenter in Seattle, she’s also former head bartender at Amor y Amargo in New York City, and a longtime veteran…

The best agave spirits require a lot of patience. It takes an awful lot of time for the agave to mature, it can take a lot of time to get to the mezcaleros who make the best spirits, and you won’t taste the full complexity of those spirits without taking your sweet time sipping them. Ismael Gomez of Cruz de Fuego Mezcal thinks all of the patience r…