Heritage Mezcal

When I first read Fabio's profile I was rather suspicious. A genetist in the agave realm? Isn't the point to just leave agave alone to be glorious and genetically diverse? Well, turns out that Fabio does a significant number of great ideas to continue the centuries-old-interaction between agave and humans. Here is Fabio's profile on his own words. You can find him in LinkedIn as Fabio Raya:I’m BA in Biotechnology (UFSCar at Araras) and MSc. in Genetics and Molecular Biology (Unicamp). I’ve worked

We would all love to think that agaves are the most untainted agricultural product given its propensity to prosper in the "wild". But now, given the size of the tequila and mezcal industry, it is clear that pesticides are being used in unprecedent quantities to keep this machinery going. In this episode we try to get the basics of how pesticides work and their consequences from a medical perspective. Dr. Ryan Aycock is a practicing emergency physician in the Panhandle of Florida and holds faculty

We have the pleasure to keep the conversation going with Cesar Ojeda (aka @intergalactic_yeastie_boy). This time we talk about  how a palenque/taberna/vinata is nothing like a "distillery" and why the landscapes surrounding a palenque/taberna/vinata are critical to the yeast populations that will ultimately create either pretty or dull flavors.Dr. César Iván Ojeda Linares completed his undergraduate studies at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, later he studied at the Institute of Ecology of

How did mezcal become part of our lives? Who were those brave first souls that made it possible to make this rural drink a poster child of craft spirits? Welcome to the secret secret origin of mezcal. Zaloren Gonzalez Fontes is a Citizen of the World a Nomad that has danced her way into the Adventure She calls Life.Since the year 2003, she embarked on the Agave journey playing the role of educator, brand consultant, project manager, category ambassador, sacrileges spirit sommelier (pairing food with

Today we will be talking baseball with Darian Martyniuk, extraordinaire tour operator and owner of the " De Matachines" agave spirits brand.  We know that sports may sound outside of the mezcal realm, but believe us, somehow it makes sense. After a long career as a Business Jerk of All Sorts (TM), Darian Martyniuk realized there were a few things in life that he loved, and two of them were agave spirits and baseball. So one day, he decided to combine the two and another passion, travel, and create a

In this second episode of Heritage Mezcal we spend time with Fabio Raya, a Brazilian researcher exploring the potentials that agave has to be used as a source of bioethanol. But really, the most important thing about this episode is that we get a clear, objective explanation behind the complexity offered by agave and how that is perfectly in tune with the artisanal processes used to transform this plant into exceptional spirits.

In this first ever episode of the Heritage Mezcal Podcast we had the pleasure to have a conversation with Cesar Iván Linares (aka @intergalactic_yeastie_boy) about yeast, fermentation as a creative act and, of course, the many ways in which prickly pears and pink pepper can be transformed into colonche or tolonche. Dr. César Iván Ojeda Linares completed his undergraduate studies at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, later he studied at the Institute of Ecology of the Universidad Nacional