Spring 2021 Tour Update
What a year it has been. The human losses have been incalculable, and the economic ones staggering. Experience Agave has been shut down de facto since the second week of March, 2020.
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2020 Tour Update
July 20, 2020 Dear friends of Experience Agave, We are currently working with a public health consultant and our partner distilleries, hotels, and transportation providers to ensure that when our tours resume, Experience Agave will have effective safety protocols built into every aspect of our tours. We are preparing to implement social distancing, temperature checks, mask…
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Blue Agave Endangered by Highlands Snow
Blue Agave Endangered by Highlands Snow by Clayton J. Szczech, March 11, 2016 Residents of Jalisco’s Highlands region awoke Thursday to a substantial blanket of snow and ice covering the ground and local crops, including the emblematic Highland blue agaves. Online social media quickly filled with stunning and beautiful images, and alteños young and old took…
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Opposition to NOM 199 – An Update
As reported here in December, the Mexican Secretariat of the Economy has proposed legislation – NOM 199 – that could extinguish traditional mezcal production in areas outside of the Denomination of Origin (DO) regions. While presented as an effort to increase consumer protection, these rule changes would in fact result in less clarity for consumers. Non-DO…
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The Latest Affront To Traditional Mezcal: NOM 199
The Latest Affront To Traditional Mezcal: NOM 199 by Clayton J. Szczech, December 4, 2015 Half of Mexico’s population lives in poverty, and yet the country’s Secretary of the Economy is making it a priority to clarify the definitions of frozen shots and Slivovitz. No, really. Oh yeah, and at the same time, renew its attempts to…
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December 2014 Update on Mezcal Norm Revisions
What Next for the Mezcal Norm? by Clayton J. Szczech, December 8, 2014 This is an addendum to a three article series on proposed changes to the Mezcal Norm. Please read the third, second and first parts for background. The first Encuentro Nacional de Mezcal took place in Morelia, Michoacán on the last weekend of November. Dr. Hipócrates Nolasco, President of the…
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Mezcaleros Unify Around Improved Norm
Mezcaleros Unify Around Improved Norm by Clayton J. Szczech, June 26, 2014 This is the third article in a series on COMERCAM’s proposed changes to the Mezcal Norm. Please read the first and second parts for background. An elderly indigenous man with sun-wizened skin and a big cowboy hat stands next to a dapper urban lawyer in…
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Battle Lines Drawn Over Mezcal Rule Changes
Battle Lines Drawn Over Mezcal Rule Changes by Clayton J. Szczech, June 18, 2014 This is the second article in a series on COMERCAM’s proposed changes to the Mezcal Norm. Read the first part here. While the leadership of COMERCAM seeks to build consensus around a modified version of their proposed changes to the Mezcal Norm,…
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COMERCAM Proposal Would Recognize, Define Artisanal Mezcal
COMERCAM Proposal Would Recognize, Define Artisanal Mezcal by Clayton J. Szczech, June 1, 2014 For years, artisanal mezcal producers and their advocates have critiqued the mezcal Norm as biased in favor of large, industrial producers, and out of touch with mezcal culture, tradition and the reality lived by small mezcaleros. Specifically, it seemed to many…
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Mexico Bans Additives in Blanco Tequilas
Mexico Bans Additives in Blanco Tequilas The current, revised “Norm” on Tequila (NORMA Oficial Mexicana NOM-006-SCFI-2012, Bebidas alcohólicas – Tequila – Especificaciones), was published in December 2012 and went into effect in February of 2013. In early 2013, I had extensive and detailed conversations with the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT) and several Tequila producers, which led…
