Mezcal: From Farms to Bars and the Unseen Consequences of Its Popularity
Latino USA
My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts
4.8 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For some years now, mezcal, Mexico’s other national spirit, has been in a cultural spotlight in and out of Mexico—especially here in the U.S. But the unseen devastating consequences of that demand have had a profound impact on the people making it. In this episode of Latino USA, we take a journey to Oaxaca to understand the ancestral connections to mezcal, how the spirit is made, and how to become a better consumer. Because there's “so much tradition, every time you sip, every time you smell, and every time you taste it.”
This episode first aired in 2021.
Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You know reggaeton, but do you know the whole story? |
| 0:11.1 | Hi, I'm Jeannie Montalbo, senior producer and sound designer of Loud, the history of reggaon. |
| 0:16.9 | Did you hear the news? |
| 0:18.5 | Loud is back by popular demand. |
| 0:21.4 | Listen to all 10 episodes that break down the beats, politics, and power behind the genre. |
| 0:26.6 | Hosted by La Caballiota herself, Evie Queen. |
| 0:30.0 | Listen now only on Spotify. |
| 0:36.4 | Futuro. |
| 0:44.1 | Thank you. To make mescal, first shave down the spiky leaves of agave plants |
| 0:48.7 | in order to reach its core, |
| 0:51.5 | turning a large agave plant into something |
| 0:54.0 | that looks more like a round, large, |
| 0:57.7 | pineapple. In Mexico's most indigenous state, Oaxaca, families have been producing mescal |
| 1:05.5 | like this for generations. But starting in the 2010s, U.S. consumers have been wanting more and more of this traditionally made drink. |
| 1:17.6 | By 2021, Meskale become the fastest growing spirit in the U.S. |
| 1:23.6 | with a global market estimated to be a half a billion dollars by 2028, and |
| 1:30.9 | celebrities are cashing in. |
| 1:33.2 | This is a bottle of Dos Ombres. It's Moscow. |
| 1:36.9 | Yeah, please stop telling us who love our tequila. It's Moscow. |
| 1:40.8 | Brands like Dos Ombres created by Breaking Bad-stars, Aaron Paul and Brian Cranston. |
| 1:48.0 | It was important for Aaron and I to do this right. |
| 1:52.0 | Are buying into the authenticity of the traditionally made spirit and bottling it up for U.S. consumers. |
... |
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