Cocktails as cultural bridges
I’ve heard a lot about how bartenders use cocktails as a way to introduce their guests to Mexican spirits like Mezcal, Tequila, Raicilla, Bacanora, and Sotol. And lately, I’ve also heard a little about using those same cocktails to introduce guests to the communities those spirits come from – turning the cocktail into a gateway to another culture. So I spoke with some bartenders about exactly that. Alex Dominguez checks in from Calico in New York, Matthias Ingelmann from KOL in London, Mariane Garcia from Copitas Cholula, and … Aithan Shapira from MIT Sloan School of Management. It’s a globe-spanning episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Linda Sullivan of seynasecreto
The Contagious Patience of Mezcal
The best agave spirits require a lot of patience. It takes an awful lot of time for the agave to mature, it can take a lot of time to get to the mezcaler@s who make the best spirits, and you won’t taste the full complexity of those spirits without taking your sweet time sipping them. Ismael Gomez of Cruz de Fuego Mezcal thinks all of the patience required has had an effect on me. I try to talk him out of it in this episode of Agave Road Trip!