Agave Spirits
The Past, Present, and Future of Mezcals
16 June 2023
Description
An acclaimed ethnobotanist and a pioneering restaurateur beautifully capture the unparalleled diversity and distinctiveness of artisanal mezcals
The agave plant was never destined to become tasteless, cheap tequila. Follow Gary Nabhan and David Suro Piñera on the trail with archaeologists and botanists to caves where 9,000-year-old remains of agaves have been found, and then fast track to the 1990s, the peak of the “margarita craze,” before a deadly cocktail of microbes devastated blue agave plants on Mexican lands.
Culled from decades of fieldwork and interviews with mezcaleros in eight Mexican states, Agave Spirits reveals the stunning innovations emerging today across the mezcal supply chain and offers solutions for improving sustainability and equity. Thousands of years of tradition are inspiring a new generation of individuals (including women), with an explosion of cutting-edge science pointing a way forward for the betterment of the drink and the lives of the people who create it. Agave Spirits boldly delights in the most flavourful and memorable spirits humankind has ever sipped and savoured.
Reviews
"Agave Spirits invites the reader to a place of wonder and learning all at the same time. It is a captivating journey into the past, present, and future of artisanal mezcals. It’s a book about Mexican history and archeology, plant botany and climate change, the promises of mezcal and its kindred spirits, with prose that leaps from the page." — Pati Jinich, chef, author, PBS host of La Frontera and Pati's Mexican Table
"With agave spirits clearly guiding, Gary Nabhan and David Suro Piñera have blended fascinating science with a loving homage to a mystical plant and the wizards who tend it and extract its juices—and a timely plan for safeguarding its native origins, so we all might keep imbibing." — Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us
"A thoroughly fascinating dive into all that goes into the spirits, revealing an elaborate web of biological and cultural entanglements, with rich biodiversity in terms of plants, microbes, and even animals, all mediated by skilled human practitioners, carrying out (and refining) cultural traditions. The authors also show how this biodiversity as well as cultural diversity is threatened, concluding with a call to action." — Sandor Ellix Katz, fermentation revivalist and author of Fermentation Journeys, The Art of Fermentation, and Wild Fermentation
"Gary Paul Nabhan and David Suro Piñera combine years of expertise, research and devotion to capture the artistic intricacies of an ancient drink now threatened by greed. Salud to a remarkable achievement and to the rescue of Mexico’s emblematic drink." — Alfredo Corchado, author of Midnight in Mexico, reporter, The Dallas Morning News
"Talking about agave with Suro-Piñera is akin to discussing the Bible with the pope: His knowledge is so eep and intuitive that it draws you in, even if you consider yourself agnostic, or perhaps (shudder) more of a gin drinker. " — Food & Wine
"Agave Spirits is both a paean to and lamentation for the unique intersection of nature and community that produces mezcal." — The Wall Street Journal
Also By: Gary Paul Nabhan 
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Food
Paperback, 2009
"The first manifesto of the local food movement, and it remains one of the best—eloquent, bracing, and full of vital information." —Michael Pollan
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods
E Book, 2002
"Amazing and eloquent....Nabhan makes us understand how finding and eating local foods connects us deeply and sensually."—Alice Waters, Chez Panisse
