Heritage Mezcal

There are many ways to access the very vast diversity within Mexican food and drinks. Some love spirits, others honey or tea. But Martina ( from @colectivoamasijo) has been working with many different producers from around the country trying to showcase milpa-based agricultural products. We hope you enjoy this episode that delves into the many faces of Mexican agriculture.

Agaves and humans have always had an intimate relationship but, believe it or not, a significant part of if has nothing to do with booze. As we've discussed before in this podcast agaves provided to our ancestors with many charms; from clothing to nourishment. But given the fact that many of these relationships have disappeared, this wider understanding of agave is quite hard to imagine. That is why Marcela Sandoval has been researching how and why and with which consequences did humans domesticated agave. While most of us keep on speculating how agave fields looked a few decades ago, she gets to inspect traces that go back thousands of years. Please welcome Marcela and the incredible agave-stories that she has to share.

Methanol is one of the scariest things I can possibly imagine. We’ve all read stories about people getting intoxicated. Losing their sight and sometimes even their lives. And with all of that as a backdrop I’ve always wondered: why is it that after sampling hundreds of agave and dasylirion spirits that have never been tested, have I never had any problems with this?

That answer belongs to a longer, more convoluted discussion, but for now, let’s start exploring methanol from a medical standpoint, which involves the vast wisdom of Mr. Ryan Aycock.

Let’s dive in!

Different places ask for different drinks, even certain music styles, in my opinion, need specific booze pairings.

And even though I am always the first to complain when I can't find delicious complex spirits in the middle of the night. I am starting to understand that calibrating which booze is served on a dancefloor is a important as the stage and lights design.

Without further adieu, please welcome Roberto Ávila, and his many insights on how to create accurate booze experiences.

Vinasse, which are maybe the most offensive byproducts when making mezcal or tequila, can be neutralized in a number of ways. Scientists are always trying to offer more efficient and cost effective options to neutralize this nasty stuff, and one of those experiments was brought to our attention by our brilliant medical correspondent, Ryan Aycock (aka Cocktail MD).

The technical specifics of how Titanium Dioxide nanoparticles can neutralize vinasse is not really the main focus of this episode, but we decided to delve into what would happen if this approach were to be adopted by the industry at large. What would all that Titanium Dioxide could possibly mean to the health of those applying it to the vinasse or those in the vicinity of the distilleries? It all may sound very sci-fi and complicated, but this conversation tries to show that every decision has repercussions that may not be incredibly evident right away and that fighting one type of pollution may create other challenges.

Finally, this is the full citation of the article mentioned in the episode:

Alicia Rodriguez Arreola, Marciano Sanchez Tizapa, Florentina Zurita, Juan Pablo Morán-Lázaro, Rocío Castañeda Valderrama, José Luis Rodríguez-López & Alejandra Carreon-Alvarez (2018) Treatment of tequila vinasse and elimination of phenol by coagulation–flocculation process coupled with heterogeneous photocatalysis using titanium dioxide nanoparticles, Environmental Technology.