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I'm Francis Lamb and this is the Splendid Table from APF.

If you're a drinker in the US, you're probably pretty into grapes and grains.

You know, wine and beer, whiskey, bourbon, gin, but why don't we drink more cider?

After all, cider was really the drink of the original 13 colonies and apple farming

exists pretty much at all because of hundreds of year olds' thirst for cider, and that's

nothing compared to the ancient traditions of agave spirits, you know, tequila, mezcal

and their cousins, the traditional artistry of Mexican mezcaleros.

You could say that apples and agave should be the heart of drinking in North America.

And they have deep, fascinating histories to learn more about these things we have today,

a restaurateur and agave evangelist, David Sudo-Bignetta, and ethno-bottonist, Gary Paul

Navan, authors of agave spirits, the past, present, and future of mezcaleros.

And first, we have my old friend, Diane Flint.

I first met Diane through the Southern Fuels Alliance and we eventually served on their

board of advisers together.

I remember her leading those meetings and she's just such an exquisitely thoughtful

...