The two most famous agave spirits share a plant and a country. Beyond that, almost everything is up for discussion. Someone at the table picks up the bottle, squints at the label, and asks: “Wait, is this the same as tequila?” You have about thirty seconds before the conversation moves on. Here is how to use them well. Start With the Plant Both tequila and mezcal are made from agave,…
The bottle arrives at the table in a brown paper bag. The label is hidden, the price is unknown, and the story that usually travels alongside it, the one about the maestro jimador who hand-selects mature agaves by moonlight, or the third-generation distiller working in a remote canyon in Oaxaca, goes unspoken. In a blind tasting, none of that matters. Only the liquid in the glass does. This is both…
Während das Vertrauen in die Kategorie auf die Probe gestellt wird Lisa Pietsch von Agave Today Magazine veröffentlicht die deutsche Ausgabe von Agave 101, einen Leitfaden für Einsteiger zum Verkosten von Tequila, Mezcal und Agavenspirituosen, am 27. August 2026 GLADBROOK, IOWA — 27. August 2026 — We Woodwards Publishing gab heute die Veröffentlichung der deutschen Ausgabe von Agave 101: Ein Leitfaden für Einsteiger zum Verkosten von Tequila, Mezcal und Agavenspirituosen bekannt,…
Walk into any decent bottle shop and you will find shelf talkers festooned with scores. 93 points. 96 points. Gold Medal. Best in Class. These little badges are supposed to help you make a faster, smarter purchase. And for a twelve-dollar bottle of table wine, maybe they do. But agave spirits are not table wine, and the assumption that a numerical score serves you well in this category deserves a…
Five books that moved the conversation from shot glasses to scholarship Long before mezcal was a menu category at every third cocktail bar in America, a small but serious group of writers, botanists, sociologists, and spirits professionals was doing the hard work of documenting agave culture. They spent years in the field, in archives, in palenques, and in community meetings. They argued with regulators, sat with jimadores, and took on…
Alors que la confiance dans la catégorie est mise à l’épreuve Lisa Pietsch, d’Agave Today Magazine, publie l’édition française d’Agave 101, un guide pour débutants sur la dégustation de la tequila, du mezcal et des spiritueux d’agave, le 20 août 2026 GLADBROOK, IOWA — 20 août 2026 — We Woodwards Publishing a annoncé aujourd’hui la sortie de l’édition française d’Agave 101 : Guide du débutant pour déguster la tequila, le mezcal…
The story of agave spirits is not a tidy straight line. It is a story built in fits and starts, across centuries of indigenous knowledge, colonial upheaval, commercial ambition, regulatory struggle, and cultural reclamation. From the first fermented cup of pulque offered to Aztec deities to the modern mezcalero bottling single-village spirits for a global audience, every glass of agave spirit carries the weight of that history. These are seven…
The bottle on your shelf holds years of patience. Maybe a decade. Maybe two. The liquid inside was shaped by rainfall, altitude, soil chemistry, the genes of a specific plant population, and the hands of the person who cut it from the earth. Most drinkers know vaguely that agave takes a long time to grow. Far fewer understand what actually happens at harvest, or why it matters for what ends…
Justo cuando la confianza en la categoría enfrenta un ajuste de cuentas Lisa Pietsch, de Agave Today Magazine, presenta la edición en español de Agave 101, una guía para principiantes sobre cómo catar tequila, mezcal y los espíritus del agave, el 13 de agosto de 2026 GLADBROOK, IOWA — 11 de septembre de 2026 — We Woodwards Publishing anunció hoy el lanzamiento de la edición en español de Agave 101: Guía…
Ten years ago, the word “mezcal” drew blank stares at most American liquor stores. Tequila was a party shot or a margarita ingredient, its finer expressions appreciated by a small but growing tribe of converts. Today, agave spirits occupy the most valuable shelf space in the country, a celebrity-saturated, investor-fueled, multibillion-dollar juggernaut that shows no sign of slowing. How we got here is a story worth telling carefully, because the…
