Agave Spirits: The Past, Present, and Future of Mezcals [Paperback]

Winner of the 2024 James Beard Foundation's Award for Beverage Writing without Recipes The craft of agave spirits is part science and part art, but always about embracing where we come from to understand where we are going. This book, as with David Suro Pi?era and Gary Paul Nabhans lifes work, is a true celebration of how a communitys respect for its biodiversity can create liquid magic. Mr. Nabhan, an ethnobotanist and naturalist, and Mr. Pi?era, a restaurateur, serve as guides to the complex making of mezcal and lead readers through various steps in the mezcal-production process, from growing and harvesting to mashing, fermenting and distilling. But they also aim at a far-reaching overview of the precarious place in which mezcal now finds itself after an extended and harried history. Talking about agave with Suro Pi?era is akin to discussing the Bible with the pope: His knowledge is so deep and intuitive that it draws you in, even if you consider yourself agnostic, or perhaps (shudder) more of a gin drinker. With agave spirits clearly guiding, Gary Paul Nabhan and David Suro Pi?era have blended fascinating science with a loving homage to a mystical plant and the wizards who tend it and extract its juicesand a timely plan for safeguarding its native origins, so we all might keep imbibing. 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. Gary Paul Nabhan and David Suro Pi?era 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 Mexicos emblematic drink. lÓ!