Read almost any of those “differences between tequila and mezcal” articles, and they’ll tell you that tequila steams their agave, mezcal roasts it underground. But in the cover to this week’s episode, you can see Chava and me sitting in the skeleton of a century-old boiler at an even older...

When I first started learning about heritage agave spirits, I misunderstood the labels that noted “puntas and colas.” I thought that meant that what was in the bottle was a blend of the heads and tails of a distillation — but in fact the heart of the distillation had been...

We argue a lot about which element in the production of agave spirits contributes most to the flavor of that spirit: the agave itself; where that agave was grown and what grew around it; the cooking process; the yeast that converts the sugar to alcohol, or the mezcalero who oversees...

As a former chef, I’ve always enjoyed the process of shopping and picking out my food, meeting the farmers, the growers, and the butchers that are working. So how does this transition to online? Our guests and friends, Jocelyn Guest and Erika Nakamura, have done just that with their company...

Before you can ferment those agaves to make alcohol, you’ve got to convert the carbohydrates into sugars. One way to do that is cooking. And one way to cook the agave is underground. And, yep, there are lots of ways to do that, which leads us to the question, "Do...

John McEvoy wrote what has to be the first English-language book for mezcal geeks: Holy Smoke! It’s Mezcal came out in 2014. So when John sent us an email complaining that we “left out the most important part” in our “Tequila vs Mezcal” episode … well, we invited him on...

If you’re not pouring a cross on the ground as a gift to the earth … if you’re not bowing to the south in gratitude to the land from which your mezcal came from … if you’re not performing a Mayan Cħa Chac ritual chant before that first sip, you...

This week we're presenting another episode of Agave Road Trip. On this episode, Lou Bank and Chava Periban talk about the distillation process. Though a simple process, it is an essential step in production. We'll be presenting an episode of their first season every Sunday this summer, but if you...

This week we're presenting another episode of Agave Road Trip. On this episode, Lou Bank and Chava Periban talk about the fermentation process. The details of the process have a huge effect on the end result. They also talk to Armando Alvarado Alvarez regarding agave fermentation. We'll be presenting an...

For decades, fish at school mostly meant one thing: breaded fingers and patties--tasty enough with ketchup, but completely detached from their natural origins. That's beginning to change in regions with access to local fisheries and processors. There's keen interest in New England districts with strong local procurement programs and cultural...