In Search Of Authentic Agave

Courtesy SACRED

One mezcal enthusiast’s quest to demystify ethical agave and understand how conscious consumerism can exist for the complex spirit of Mexico.

WORDS Alisha Miranda

I remember the day I realized I should stop drinking mezcal. It was an early afternoon in October 2023. Despite the room packed with bartenders, everyone was silent.

“There is no such thing as sustainable mezcal. The only pathway towards ethical mezcal consumption is limiting agave production to available resources.”

Zinacantán Mezcal cofounder Diana Pinzón’s words commanded attention.

Agave plants’ life cycles are dependent on aspects like biodiversity, bat pollinators and sufficient rainwater, she continued, all of which keep declining because of climate change and consumer demand, among other factors. There isn’t even enough running water to sustain the local families producing the spirit. Conversely, she proposed, a brand can’t claim to be small batch if they sell high-volume products at cheap prices, right?

I left that lecture confronted with a dilemma: How do I continue drinking mezcal without furthering its demise?

NAVIGATING NOISE

The following summer, walking through countless floors and tasting rooms at Bar Convent Brooklyn (BCB) and Tales of the Cocktail, two prominent trade shows for the bar and beverage industries, I couldn’t help but notice the overwhelming presence of agave brands. Every tasting of blanco, reposado and añejo came with the same spiel: “We work with a family of agaveros in Mexico to produce small-batch, artisanal mezcal.”

But to be honest, I couldn’t differentiate between their tasting notes or backstories. I left those conferences more confused than ever. How do I know which mezcals are the good ones? The “authentic” ones?

Harvesting organic blue Weber agave in Jalisco for Quintaliza / The J Projects Jaci Peña

Years of reporting on food and beverage taught me to never take information at face value. Sorting through all the hype and press releases in my inbox doesn’t always cut through the noise. Consumers need context, even spirit connoisseurs like me, because there’s so much (mis)information, trends and deceptive marketing.

Without first-hand experience of what was happening in Mexico, I sought out experts leading the effort on ethical agave consumption to navigate my conundrum.

“The only people who are the experts are the producers themselves,” says David Suro Piñera, the owner of Tequilas, his Philadelphia restaurant of nearly 40 years, and the James Beard Award-winning coauthor of Agave Spirits: The Past, Present, and Future of Mezcals.

Suro Piñera, his son Dan Suro and I shared lengthy conversations about agave in his Philadelphia apartment. Yes, they agreed, there’s an overwhelming amount of reading material and research on this topic, but unlike wine, there is no agave certification, no course on the spirit category for me to take. Instead, they gave me a crash course.

First to know: Tequila is a region, agave is a culture and mezcal is the spirit of Mexico. Much like wine, Tequila and mezcal render a sophisticated palate of flavors, aromas, textures and characteristics representative of terroir.

Second, there is more to authentic agave beyond a Denominación de Origen (DO), or a regulated geographical indication. The importance of a DO was largely contested with the overturning of Mexico’s NOM-199 proposition, which sought to define and regulate the production of all alcoholic beverages made in Mexico largely at the detriment of small producers and the country’s spirit-making cultural heritage.

Such misconceptions are why Suro Piñera and his colleagues at Tequila Interchange Project (TIP) and Siembra Spirits act as a bridge for the traditional producers they work with around Mexico to bar pros, distributors and academics around the world, to see their agave production process up close.

“We as importers, as owners of brands, as producers have to be more responsible and pay attention to the educational aspect of the category,” says Suro Piñera. The Suros also travel extensively across the U.S., hosting seminars and on-site bar training to spread the message about agave transparency, traceability and terroir—including with Pinzón that October afternoon.

Accountability is core to their Siembra Spirits portfolio, knowing each agave spirit they import inside and out, understanding Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT) labels and Agave Responsible Environmental (ARA) Certification. For them, this is what makes for a more transparent bar program at Tequilas, one that features only 100-percent single-source agave, an intentional pushback against agave spirits being treated like any other liquor.

A pit oven at Cascahuin Distillery used for making Siembra Valles Tequila / David Suro

REAL ENGAGEMENT

Agave spirits remain one of the fastest-growing drink categories in the world, and it seems everyone wants to cash in on mass production and high demand. But does the world really need another Tequila brand? I needed an insider’s perspective.

“The way we have to look at it is damage control,” says Suro, who advises consumers to be wary of brands throwing huge money behind their marketing or producing “a ton of juice” while advertising their brand as small-batch producers.

Consumers should be empowered to have direct conversations with distributors and brand ambassadors, he adds. “It’s your right as a consumer to demand answers from things that you’re purchasing.”

Suro cites Mezonte, Real Minero, and Pinzón’s Zinacantán as examples of brands doing the right thing via ecological responsibility. In fact, Suro organized Pinzón’s October lecture that also discussed conservation projects and cultivating agave-rich habitats via her Fondo Agavero nonprofit project.

Real Minero’s agave nursery program provides maguey growers with access to agave plant seeds and rare varieties that contribute to the biodiversity needed for sustainable mezcal production. Mezonte’s website stands out as a transparency-first platform, name-checking producers, technical production processes, equitable labor practices, bottle pricing and more.

“[Brands] truly need to be engaged culturally, technically, historically,” says Suro Piñera.

Agaves waiting to be cooked at Cascahuin Distillery / David Suro

I turned to Master Distiller Iliana Partida, who I met at BCB and Tales, for insight on running authentic agave labels in a saturated market. Her family distillery in Jalisco, Hacienda de Oro, has three generations of Tequila makers (including her) and four generations of agave farmers. She also partners with agave suppliers and develops other Tequila brands like Elevación1250 Tequila and Quintaliza Tequila.

Rancho Mesa del Charco in the Lowlands region of Jalisco / David Suro

Partida sees authenticity as a duality. Authentic agave is an organic product that requires quality-assurance inspections of plant species and their environment. But people also need to be authentic.

She does business with partners who respect her vision, her opinion and her Tequila-making process. She acknowledges it’s challenging to establish trust with people outside of Mexican culture, fearing they might be seeking profit by taking shortcuts; they have to be in it for the work.

As a CRT-certified microdistillery, her family’s Hacienda de Oro prioritizes employee and community engagement. Their efforts include financial literacy programs for women in Amatitán, Jalisco, working towards closing the gender wage gap.

A water- and agriculture-security project in Atempa, Guerrero / Miguel Dimayuga Meneses

RESPONSIBLE RESOLUTIONS

So how can enthusiasts preserve agave as a cultural heritage without harmfully furthering it as a commodity? Can there be consumerism without extraction?

Lou Bank, the founder of SACRED, a nonprofit that supports rural Mexican communities that make heritage agave spirits, and cohost of the Agave Road Trip podcast, helped to calm my agave anxiety.

“Making tiny little changes is the best we can do,” he offers. Instead of burdening myself with deep-rooted systemic issues that spin my head, I should focus on making small changes regularly.

Bank encouraged me to keep having ongoing conversations with bartenders, brand ambassadors and producers, asking them: What are their agave production practices? When was the batch harvested? Who is the family behind the label? What other regional agave spirits are behind the bar beyond mezcal and Tequila expressions?

Bank says these questions can create demand and push bars to carry Tequilas made from lesser-known regions besides Jalisco (Tamaulipas, Guanajuato, Nayarit and Michoacán) and mezcals made from less-common agave species or other states.

“If you want to preserve agave biodiversity, drink more agave species,” he says. “Corporations will plant more of them, then we’ll be able to preserve the species and preserve wild lands.”

Through his work with SACRED, particularly in programs that help replant agave, ensure water security and repair damage done by earthquakes, as well as his podcast reporting, Bank has learned the importance of supporting agaveros’ traditional, multigenerational harvesting methods rather than industrial monoculture farming. Communities need more funding to establish rain-harvesting systems, greenhouses and nurseries, which will empower them to replant their local agave varieties.

Partida seconds the notion of persistent questioning and seeking out bartenders and bar programs with integrity or ethically curated agave spirits.

“Ask about micro Tequila distilleries or more bar menus with full references of Tequileros on the label,” says Partida. She also wants to see conferences and forums that integrate the expertise of farmers and Tequileros to forge larger connections and advocate for real policy changes.

Months after our initial discussion, I asked Pinzón if she had more wisdom to share. She paused and became introspective, reflecting on her own responsibility to sustain agave’s future.

“This [topic] has hit home for me,” she admitted. “We will scale back our [distillery] production and continue to prioritize using our voice and knowledge about mezcal and biodiversity.” Her next project at the Agavero Fund is focused on female bat conservation.

The Suros’ parting words were more direct: There are no easy solutions—in the end, we all need to drink less agave spirits and pay more for it.