S5.C5 - Benito

It's a wrap. On the drive back to Guadalajara, Esteban, Cate and Diego reflect on their journey and all the places they visited, but didn't have the opportunity to record.

El Lobo is a legend. Soft spoken, much like his products, he uses a philosophical approach to create unique flavors. You will always immediately know a Lobo expression when you try one.

Unlike most other maestros in this season, Benito's family doesn't have a long tradition of distilling. His scientific approach, love for the plants, and approach to leadership, however, make him a rising star. His products are exciting and innovative.

Preview Text snippets This is the third stop, the beach! Don Beto and Dona Juana took amazing care of us, and Dona Juana is a mean cook!

We made it to Cabo Corrientes! First Stop: "Rancho el Cono" Don Chalio and Blanca, explained everything about their taberna and the tradition that runs in the family for generations.

Preview Text snippets Tuxpan. Arturo, his Family, Carnitas, Raicilla, Tradition. We were so excited to begin our travel and get to meet one of the greatest producers. Arturo is young but comes from a long line of producers. The tradition in this Taberna is vibrant.

For this season we went on a road trip through the state of Jalisco and we had the opportunity to meet the maestros, maestras and their families at their homes. Where it seemed appropriate Cate and Diego recorded their conversations that we are now sharing with you. Albert was with us only in spirit (and he provided all the technology and knowledge for us to record). This chapter is a warm-up conversation between our new co-host Cate (welcome!) , Diego and Albert and provides the context for the things to come. We will publish three more chapters together with this one. We hope you enjoy this incredible experience - which already took place in 2022. A big thank you to our guide Esteban Garibi. Without your relationships this trip would not have been possible.

Carl Wrangel is our guests on today's chapter. He represents Agave love from a bartender and bar owner perspective. We do not know how different the European knowledge of our beloved spirits would be without Carl, but we are pretty sure it would be less educated and less passionate. In our conversation we tag along Carl's journey starting as a kid, when he wanted to have a hangover from a tequila, along to his first bar gigs, trips to Mexico, coincidences, genetic memories, his businesses and end at his current life as a father. Weh have a guest host, Esteban Morales, who himself advocates the diversity of Mexican craft spirits through his brands La Venenosa and Derrumbes and is a good friend of our show. Join our Agave family, have some drinks and enjoy a conversation that goes deep.

You might have already met Bernardo and Nikša in our season premiere, but it took us about two years from being introduced to the first bottle of Noble Coyote at a bar in Munich to get to this conversation that we recorded back in July 2021. In fact, the recording was the first time we saw each other. And as always it did not take us long to go deep into a conversation about our favorite spirits, with Bernardo linking his biologist background to starting a Mezcal brand and Nikša's passion to bring parts of his Mexican experiences to Europe. In this talk we are learning about curanderos, infusions, brining up agave seedlings, the discovery of a new species, the Oaxacan community system and of course, amongst other things, we had to touch the CRM as well. Thank you both for sharing your thoughts and wisdom so openly and transparently. In the show notes and on the blog we have attached some images from the farm where Bernardo is growing the seedling that are later delivered to the farmers as well as some photos from the first batch of the newly created Ensemble. Elixir of the Gods Instagram – @elixirpodcast Elixir of the Gods Facebook – @elixirofthegods Elixir of the Gods Twitter – @elixirpodcast Elixir of the Gods Mail – [email protected]

For our season premiere we mingled with the crowd again, and it was glorious. Starved for face-to-face human contact the European spirits world met up at BCB - in a new location and at a smaller scale than the years before. Nevertheless we were able to capture interesting conversations on our audio device. We met old friends and found new ones. A big thanks to Gernot, Ioannis, Iván, Bernardo and Nikša for their time and insights Elixir of the Gods Instagram – @elixirpodcast Elixir of the Gods Facebook – @elixirofthegods Elixir of the Gods Twitter – @elixirpodcast Elixir of the Gods Mail – [email protected]