Resources and Articles about Agave, Mezcal & Pulque

2025:

Clase Azul Tequila is now producing a high end mezcal: Clase Azul reinterprets mezcal-making for latest Tequila - The Spirits Business

​On this website page, just scroll until you find an article published June 3, 2025, entitled Becoming a Master or Expert in Mezcal and other Agave Distillates Oaxaca mezcal tours - Mezcal Blog

Here's a nice little article about sotol, as compared to agave distillates in Mexico, and its history including being banned throughout the country: The Native Mexican Drink That Was Banned For 50 Years

Once again non-mezcal non-Mexican agave distillates is featured: Can Non-Mexican Agave Spirits Go Mainstream? | SevenFifty Daily

​SIP Magazine features the long journey of a mezcal (agave distillate) brand, its owners, and the San Baltazar Chichicapam family they represent. These three Washington state gentlemen are doing it the CORRECT  way: Nosotros Avanzamos Juntos: We Move Forward Together - Sip Magazine

New York Times Weighs Into the Agave Distillate Boom (but of course you can't call it either tequila or mezcal):
Just Don’t Call It ‘Tequila’ - The New York Times
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Agave spirits distilled in India: Indian agave spirit lands in UK - The Spirits Business

For primarily novices to the mezcal industry, here is a rather lengthy (close to 2000 words) primer explaining most steps in producing traditionally made mezcal, our iconic Mexican spirit: Inside Oaxaca’s Mezcal Production Process - Expat Health Pulse Mexico

Mezcal brands Los Danzantes (and I think Alipus) are the most recent brands to sell a majority interest to a large corporation, publicly traded, somewhat of a surprise to me: Emperador acquires luxury mezcal company in Mexico | Philstar.com

2024:

The downturn in tequila production due to how blue agave is reproduced, we explain on our educational excursions, will not happen with mezcal production, and there are a myriad of reasons: Blue Agave’s Genetic Decline Threatens Tequila Production

Israelis are now producing an agave distillate: Kibbutz that fought off Oct. 7 terror endeavors to develop Israeli version of tequila | The Times of Israel

Punchdrink.com pipes in during October 2024, about the best places to drink mezcal in the US; I have friends and clients who own several mezcalerías in the US some of which are noted, but regretfully have only set foot in ones in Seattle ... and of course in Toronto: The 10 Best Mezcal Bars and Mezcalerías in the U.S. | PUNCH (punchdrink.com)

The Smithsonian pipes in about the threats potentially impacting Mexico and the mezcal industry: The Race to Save Mezcal From the World | Smithsonian (smithsonianmag.com)

The importance of mezcal for the continued economic growth of Oaxaca: Why is Mezcal so important to the future of Oaxaca? - MexConnect

Mezcal in India? Agave distillates are rising in popularity: Is Agave The New Gin? Exploring The Rise Of India’s Next Big Drinking Trend | Times Now (timesnownews.com)

A recent blind tasting mezcal podcase: Maestros del Mezcal Podcast: Blind Tasting With...Dan (Mezcal Room) (libsyn.com)

A non-blind mezcal tasting to rank the best? The problem is that presentation has been shown to impact decisions, time and again: The 15 Best Mezcals for 2024 | VinePair
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Did vino de coco precede agave distillates? Is This Mexico's Oldest Spirit? - Gastro Obscura (atlasobscura.com)

2023:

The best mezcals for mixing cocktails: The Best Mezcal Brands for Cocktails, According to Bartenders | PUNCH (punchdrink.com)

​It importance of drinking mezcal, or at least acknowledging the importance of agave based spirits: Having A Moment: Please Drink More Mezcal. Like, Right Now. | Newcity Resto

Mezcal and Margaritas: Some opinions regarding the best agave distillates for making the cocktail: The Best Mezcal Brands for Margaritas, According to Bartenders | PUNCH (punchdrink.com)

Heading to San Miguel de Allende? (Once was enough for me); here's a piece about a new mezcal bar: ​ANOTHER New Mezcal Bar in San Miguel de Allende? (substack.com)

​California's agave distillate industry: California’s take on tequila, mezcal coming to distilleries | The Sacramento Bee (sacbee.com)

April 2: The science of mezcal with the worm: Mezcal worm in a bottle: DNA evidence suggests a single moth species – PeerJ Blog

April 2: While centering upon tequila, Lou Bank and other mezcal friends and business associates work towards mezcal sustainability and "doing the right thing:"  ​Kendall Jenner's 818 Tequila Is the Second Family Business to Earn B Corp Status – Ethos (the-ethos.co)

April 1: Article about the evolution of the still: The Evolution Of The Still – bourbonveachdotcom

January 10: A sotol primer: Move Over, Mezcal. A Sustainable Tequila Alternative Is Taking Over. - Modern Farmer

January 18: When visiting Oaxaca, here are some mezcal brands and palenques to seek out based on a recent blind tasting event held in Toronto. Both surprises and predictions prevailed at the end of the day: ​Takeaway From a Mezcal Blind Tasting - Tequila Aficionado Magazine

2022:

September 23: And yet another article about sotol: What is sotol and why is it all the rage now? (mysanantonio.com)

September 23: New strain of henquen for fiber and for distillate: Mexican scientists create modified henequen agave (mexiconewsdaily.com)

September 19: Bloomberg comments about the boom in sotol: Sotol, the Next Mexican Spirit Boom, Will Get an American Boost - Bloomberg

September 15:  The danger of paying too much attention to the gloom and doom which many mezcal geeks forecast: The Business of Agave Distillates: Does Multinational Takeover and Cel (mezcalforlife.com)

September 10: Celebrity brands of mezcal and tequila: Kendall Jenner tequila, Post Malone rosé: An era of celebrity alcohol (usatoday.com)

​September 2: While I personally reject the premise of using just espadín for cocktails, here's a recent article about mezcal v. tequila in cocktails: A Classic Tequila Cocktail Gets an Update With Mezcal and Mole | PUNCH (punchdrink.com)

August 26: The revitalization of añejo and reposado mezcal: Development of a Oaxaca Mezcal Reposado & Añejo Program: Change is Finally in the Wind - Tequila Aficionado Magazine

​August 24: Arizona bacanora anyone? Great historical piece: Spirited! Mexican Beverages in Arizona | Arizona Highways

August 23: While this recent article deals specifically with the growth of the tequila industry, I think we can extrapolate to mezcal, with more meteoric growth: Tequila trends: cristalino, RTDs, and global expansion (beveragedaily.com)

August 14: Texas agave distillate spirit comes of age: Turning Roma, a Texas border town, into a mezcal mecca (expressnews.com) and again here, earlier: ​Blasfemus 7 Year Agave Spirit Review - YouTube

​August 7: And yet a trailer of another film about mezcal, "Yo Soy Mezcal." Trailer with English subtitles: YO SOY MEZCAL | Documentary Trailer on Vimeo

August 1: Recycling agave waste: How Mezcal Makers Recycle the Spirit’s Vast Waste (globalpressjournal.com)

August 1: This two-minute trailer of the film Agave: The Spirit of a Nation, is worth a peak: Agave Documentary – The Spirit of a Nation

July 30: There is still a lot of misinformation in the world of mezcal, propagated by the dogmatists and the rest with self-aggrandization in mind: Mezcal Dogmatism & Misinformation: The Bane of the Industry - Tequila Aficionado Magazine

July 28: The most recent article about mezcal de pechuga, by friend and colleague Lou Bank: What You Need to Know About Pechuga, the Mezcal Made With...Chicken? - InsideHook

July 25: Mezcal has finally made it big time in the UK, London in particular. I have personally assisted three brands from the outset, owned by British citizens, though only one is noted: Is Mezcal the new gin? What it is and where to drink the hottest spirit of the moment | Metro News

July 19: Did methanol kill the 21 teens in a tavern in South Africa in June/22? Regardless, we do not have a methanol problem with mezcal in Oaxaca. Methanol in blood of teens who died in South African tavern (msn.com)

July 13: Mezcal in Mexican Resorts makes the online news, big time in foodandwine.com: The Best Hotel in Mexico Is Worth the Trip for the Mezcal Alone | Food & Wine (foodandwine.com)

June 24: My friends at tequilaaficionado.com were kind enough to publish this article I recently penned. Being around mezcal can be a shitload of fun: The Anatomy of Mezcal de Pechuga Recipe Development - Tequila Aficionado Magazine

June 23: The latest on agave distillates outside of Mexico (Down Under; I just need an Aussie client to bring me a bottle to try, and to evaluate relative to mezcal): How Aussie farmers are hoping to win over tequila fans - BBC News

June 17: Mezcal Cocktails. Why the industry needs them, and more retailers promoting them: Mezcal Blog - Oaxaca mezcal tours

June 12: Mezcal and tequila sales top whiskey in the USA: Mezcal and Tequila Pass Whiskey as US's Second-Most Purchased Spirit - Bloomberg

June 8: "Mezcal" production in California. The agave distillate cannot possble taste the same as mezcal distilled in Oaxaca, but it is certainly worth a try, to my estimation: California Agave Spirit Producers Band Together - The Santa Barbara Independent

May 21: Are you kidding me? Talk about selling out to the man. So, stop being critical of celebrity brands without knowing the stars personally, or their motivation. Begin taking aim at brands which bastardize mezcal by canning it into a cocktail: Madre Mezcal Launches 'Desert Water' Artisanal Mezcal-Based Canned Cocktails - BevNET.com

May 20: Is the traditional way of making mezcal really in jeopardy as suggested here? Slow, Reflective, Quiet — Meditations on Mezcal in San Baltazar Guelavila — Good Beer Hunting

May 12: For me the challenge is maintaining the same traditions for making mezcal, while using multinationals and celebrities to help us to sell more: Capitalism, celebrity, and the death of Mezcal | by Jon Darby | May, 2022 | Medium

May 4: Reposado con Gusano? Here's the most recent essay on mezcal with the worm, and the worm (a larva) on its own: The Real Reason There's a Worm in Your Mezcal - InsideHook

May 1: Notwithstanding the article below, there is much more to how you should decide what mezcal to buy, than considering the quality of the agave distillate. Does the brand owner do the "right thing?" How to Choose a Brand of Mezcal to Buy - Tequila Aficionado

May 1:  Here's the latest installment about what the so-called experts have to say about the best mezcals currently in the US marketplace. I have trained two of them (Lane and Shad), so would tend to trust their opinions, but do remember that no two batches are the same, so what you sample from the list is likely not from the batch noted in the article, and the essay does not deal with the fact that arguably mezcals of equal or better quality are best sourced directly from small distilleries without access to the export market: Best Mezcal Brands Available in the US - Thrillist

May 1: While not directly on point, here is the abstract of an academic article about the prevalence and impact of methanol in the spirits industry, albeit fruit spirits produce I am told much more methanol that do agave distillates: (PDF) Methanol Mitigation during Manufacturing of Fruit Spirits with Special Consideration of Novel Coffee Cherry Spirits (researchgate.net)

April 4:  Mezcal and Sustainability:  It's not all gloom and doom: Overcoming the Risks of Mezcal’s Huge Growth | SevenFifty Daily

April 1: Here's an extremely comprehensive primer on mezcal, minus the subjectivity one often finds in and around the industry: All the Different Types of Mezcal, Explained | VinePair

​March 26: Here is the third in a series of articles designed to assist those wanting to be mezcal or agave distillate tour guides and teachers, this installment about receiving commission, gifts and other perks: Successful Tour Guide Series: The Commission Conundrum - Tequila Aficionado

March 20: The best premium mezcals, supposedly, according to industry pros. REAL professionals qualify by the batch: Premium Mezcal Recommendations from Top Beverage Professionals | Food & Wine (foodandwine.com)