{"id":28502,"date":"2024-03-28T21:52:28","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T04:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/?p=28502"},"modified":"2024-04-22T12:52:40","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T19:52:40","slug":"love-tequila-taste-madre-mezcal-ryan-fleming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2024\/03\/28\/love-tequila-taste-madre-mezcal-ryan-fleming\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Tequila?\u00a0 Discover the Gateway to better taste with Madre Mezcal &#8216;s Ryan Fleming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Love Tequila?\u00a0 Discover the Gateway to better taste with Madre Mezcal Ryan Fleming<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today\u2019s conversation is with Ryan Fleming from Madre Mezcal.\u00a0 The LA nightlife veteran reveals his time working behind the bar in some of Southern California\u2019s spots, as well as the inspiration that got him to travel to Mexico, discovering Mezcal.\u00a0 T<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">he aroma, flavors, science and food pairings for Mezcal.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_28503\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28503\" style=\"width: 720px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28503\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-9.32.01-PM.png\" alt=\"Love Tequila?\u00a0 Discover the Gateway to better taste with Madre Mezcal's Ryan Fleming\" width=\"720\" height=\"654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-9.32.01-PM.png 720w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-9.32.01-PM-300x273.png 300w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-9.32.01-PM-696x632.png 696w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-28-at-9.32.01-PM-462x420.png 462w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-28503\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Love Tequila?\u00a0 Discover the Gateway to better taste with Madre Mezcal&#8217;s Ryan Fleming<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.\u00a0 For the full, unedited conversation, visit our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@FlavRReport\/videos\">YouTube Channel<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Mezcal lovers, the inspiration behind the flavor of Madre Mezcal with Ryan Fleming\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rcArSUZ_Wpw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 Can you share the behind the scenes or how the brand itself was created?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I&#8217;ve been a big <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/2022\/04\/05\/nosotros-tequila-mezcal-earth-day\/\">Mezcal<\/a> lover before I ever even sold it or made a dollar doing that. So I got to actually meet Ron Cooper, who is the legend that started the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Del Maguey<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> label back in 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I got to drink rabbit Pachuca with him and all these other amazing things. The reason I bring him up is he&#8217;s a kind of one of the people that we look up to, how to sustainably bring a brand and how to create culture that crosses boundaries in a sense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He has a beautiful book that I recommend anyone to read if you haven&#8217;t read Ron Cooper&#8217;s book.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But we share a similar story. One of our founding partners, Tony Farfalla and one of my good friends, Stefan Tony&#8217;s an artist and he was literally traveling through Oaxaca doing documentaries and embracing the art and culture. He happened to meet Jose Morales, which is the first family we ever worked with.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-28521\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.41-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.41-PM.png 876w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.41-PM-300x217.png 300w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.41-PM-768x556.png 768w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.41-PM-696x504.png 696w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.41-PM-580x420.png 580w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.41-PM-324x235.png 324w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you have original bottles of Madre [Mezcal] before the labels have changed, it used to say Jose&#8217;s name on the bottle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So Tony was bringing bottles back to Brooklyn in plastic water bottles and it snowballed. His friends in Brooklyn were like, this stuff&#8217;s great. Started out in plastic water bottles in 2014. I think it was 2016 when our first glass bottles actually came by and we became like of a more legit brand and company.\u00a0 But it started with Tony and Stefan; and they brought on our CEO and COO, Chris and Davide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chris actually is one of the founding driving forces in the electronic scene in the 90s in Europe. Chris comes from a very artistic, music based background. Then he went on to work for some bigger alcohol brands in the vodka world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-28687\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-04-22-at-11.41.27-AM-1024x699.png\" alt=\"madre mezcal\" width=\"696\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-04-22-at-11.41.27-AM-1024x699.png 1024w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-04-22-at-11.41.27-AM-300x205.png 300w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-04-22-at-11.41.27-AM-768x525.png 768w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-04-22-at-11.41.27-AM-218x150.png 218w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-04-22-at-11.41.27-AM-696x475.png 696w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-04-22-at-11.41.27-AM-1068x729.png 1068w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-04-22-at-11.41.27-AM-615x420.png 615w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-04-22-at-11.41.27-AM.png 1508w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Davide, who is our COO, my direct boss, who I love, is Italian and his whole family built furniture and he got his big break by importing and bringing furniture over [to the United States]. He also works with a beautiful high end apparel line.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So everyone has a very unique artistic background, which really reflects the brand and the label. Just not wanting to make a quick buck and actually make something we can stand behind and believe in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the families now blossom into four, we use three: the Vasquez family, the Blas family and the Morales family are our three main producers for our red and black label, which most people are familiar with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We just brought in Moises and he&#8217;s actually from Santa Catarina Minas.\u00a0 That&#8217;s a little town where all they really make is their production. It&#8217;s a town known for nothing but clay pot distillation. So if you actually use a copper pot in, in Manera and Santa Caterina Minas, you&#8217;re looked at as what are you doing? That&#8217;s not what we do here.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He&#8217;s our last and newest producer and he may be the most cowboy of them all, and he&#8217;s my favorite.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you get to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tlaxcala<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, you have to walk over like a little rope bridge over like a river and stuff into the hills of Minas to see his production, and he&#8217;s got his grandfather&#8217;s old still, and he&#8217;s got his mom&#8217;s little kitchen that he wants to reopen, and it&#8217;s like a restaurant. But if you and I were to look at it, it just looks like a backyard set of tables and chairs with a cooking center.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No, this is a restaurant for the village. It&#8217;s really beautiful down in Minas. I recommend everyone, if you get a chance to go down there, it felt like the jungles in Costa Rica, cause it&#8217;s up near the hills and it&#8217;s just so green and lush up there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Flavor of Oaxaca&#039;s Mezcal: How he became a Mezcal Pro with Madre Mezcal Ryan Fleming\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8iGG9ASxmJ4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What got you down there? Was it for a vacation or for Mezcal?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I&#8217;ve been working in the alcohol industry for almost 15 years and I worked for the Houston Hospitality Group for over a decade, helping run programs and menus. I worked for a couple other restaurants, but I used to work for Stillhouse Whiskey, which many people remember the terrible flavored moonshine in a gas can.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah I actually sold that. I did pretty well, there was always one flavor that someone loved. I had the mint chocolate chip and I would keep it in the freezer to take care of my sweet tooth when I didn&#8217;t have ice cream. So that&#8217;s how it started.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My buddy, Stefan, who&#8217;s one of the founding partners goes, \u201cHey, we got this Mezcal company.\u201d\u00a0 I was just basically consulting for free lunches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One day he goes, do you want to go to Oaxaca? And I went, absolutely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-28514\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.42.37-PM-1024x522.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"355\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.42.37-PM-1024x522.png 1024w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.42.37-PM-300x153.png 300w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.42.37-PM-768x392.png 768w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.42.37-PM-1536x784.png 1536w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.42.37-PM-2048x1045.png 2048w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.42.37-PM-696x355.png 696w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.42.37-PM-1068x545.png 1068w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.42.37-PM-823x420.png 823w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I familiar with going down to Mexico city, but I&#8217;d never been as far South as Oaxaca. So I jumped at the chance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Meanwhile] we all got an email from Stillhouse saying \u201cHey, I know things are being shaken up right now, but trust me, everything&#8217;s fine. Don&#8217;t worry about it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That weekend, apparently the whole team got laid off, but I didn&#8217;t get the email untll I came home Monday. They&#8217;re saying, \u201cRyan, are you going to be okay? Do you need help finding work?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I went down to Oaxaca, met the families, broke bread with Jose Morales, got to meet his mother who blessed the roast and cooked us dinner.\u00a0 They offered me a job.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-28520\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.25-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.25-PM.png 812w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.25-PM-300x209.png 300w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.25-PM-768x535.png 768w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.25-PM-696x485.png 696w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.25-PM-603x420.png 603w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.48.25-PM-100x70.png 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was started my journey about six years ago with Madre [Mezcal ]and I&#8217;ve been with him since.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fleming motions to tattoos on his arms and hands.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have it tattooed on my hand right here. I have it tattooed on my palm right here. And I think I have another one on the inside of my leg too. We do tasting events and we&#8217;ll have pop up tattoo artists all the time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Cocktail lovers: What you didn&#039;t know about Mezcal from Madre Mezcal\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QhEaM4kQJvY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You mentioned the tastings and the education.\u00a0 Are there quick lessons that you teach the most often?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Basic production, culture, financial, environmental and economic sustainability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don&#8217;t think people understand that Oaxaca is the second poorest state in Mexico.Everyone thinks the Mezcal boom must be bringing so many jobs, but it really only affects about 20 &#8211; 40,000 people that live in Oaxaca for the production,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mezcal is great because it does bring some financial sustainability to the families. Jose started off driving a taxi to pay his bills and now he\u2019s making Mezcal in his family\u2019s tradition.\u00a0 His whole family, his cousin, his uncles, they all make Mezcal for a living now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-28518\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.46.12-PM-1024x739.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"502\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.46.12-PM-1024x739.png 1024w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.46.12-PM-300x216.png 300w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.46.12-PM-768x554.png 768w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.46.12-PM-696x502.png 696w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.46.12-PM-1068x770.png 1068w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.46.12-PM-582x420.png 582w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.46.12-PM-324x235.png 324w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.46.12-PM.png 1234w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There&#8217;s so much culture behind it. Even the old argument of did the Spanish bring over copper stills and that started distillation or does it go back to the Aztecs and Mayans? Because they found distillate and pottery from 3000 years ago. It&#8217;s those little nuances.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People really like to talk about the environmental, but giving back to the people down there by not just buying product, but giving them some ownership, which Madre does do, so that everyone has a little bit of skin in the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I think Sustainability, whether it&#8217;s environmental, economical, cultural, and production. Those are the things I really like to talk about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Bartending Pro Reveals:  the actual difference Mezcal vs Tequila\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SiFebhum5iI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is the basic difference between mezcal and tequila? Or is it more complicated?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You could say production techniques, additives, mass production are probably the three biggest differences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tequila can only be made with one agave. It&#8217;s a blue weber.\u00a0 Mezcal can be made with the other 47-ish varietals, and that number is always fluctuating, based on classification and family genius.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Production is the big one. Tequila is made in massive factories and made with either chemicals or steam for the most part.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-28519\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.47.04-PM-1024x605.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"411\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.47.04-PM-1024x605.png 1024w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.47.04-PM-300x177.png 300w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.47.04-PM-768x454.png 768w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.47.04-PM-1536x908.png 1536w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.47.04-PM-696x411.png 696w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.47.04-PM-1068x631.png 1068w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.47.04-PM-711x420.png 711w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.47.04-PM.png 1824w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whereas mezcal is actually made by hand, roasted in an earthen oven. The biggest thing that separates Tequila and Mezcal is the 1% additive rule.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tequila can have up to 1% by volume additives, and they don&#8217;t have to tell you. That&#8217;s why certain large brands will say 100% Agave, but it&#8217;s full of additives, because it doesn&#8217;t take much <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with modern chemistry. Just a couple drops of glycerin or vanilla extract to change the flavor and hide\u00a0 all the nuances.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mezcal can&#8217;t have any additives by law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Mezcal Drinkers: Meet the Small Family business behind the incredible brand Madre Mezcal\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/q2g3OUrVVdg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can we walk through the roles and responsibilities between the families that produce Madre Mezcal?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, the four families. Let\u2019s start with Jose Morales. Him and his brother both make mezcal. Now they produce for us in the US exclusively. We encourage all of our families to continue making mezcal to trade. They use it for a local economy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every time I go down there, [their operation is growing].\u00a0 When they started, they had three stills. Now there\u2019s 12 up and running and they have solar power.\u00a0 It&#8217;s just so crazy to see how much the transformation has happened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The original recipe, the blend of cuishe and espadine at 90 proof, that&#8217;s his family&#8217;s recipe. So we expanded that and we brought on Carlos Blas and the Vasquez family. Unfortunately, Natalio the father passed away a couple of years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His daughters are now producing in the family&#8217;s tradition and we take whatever we can from them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what we do, that&#8217;s a little bit different is, we started out when it was just Jose, he was making the blend himself. Now we have them make the espadine and the cuishe separately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All three families are part of the process. Sometimes we just get cuiche from Jose. Sometimes Carlos makes all the espadine, but Carlos is like a master blender.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We blend a cold style like Scotch does. Even though it&#8217;s not the most traditional way, all the distillation and process is as true as it can be.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But by blending post distillation allows us to keep consistency, which was a huge problem because every batch with your wild fermentation, your wild yeast and all these beautiful nuances, it&#8217;ll be inconsistent as you grow as a brand.\u00a0 It was hard for us to keep consistency.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But by blending multiple terroirs and three different families&#8217; production, we can keep a consistent product that tastes the same as well as expanding and bringing on more families to help instead of just going to a large factory house and not making what I would call \u201ctraditional Mezcal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"A Former Beatle, Justin Bieber and more! Adventures in Hollywood Nightlife before Madre Mezcal\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q37csk8VFds?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So focusing on your background, you mentioned that you&#8217;ve been a bartender in the LA nightlife.\u00a0 Any memorable adventures or lessons you can share?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are some stories I could tell that I probably don&#8217;t want to share publicly. But there are some amazing stories I can tell.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the oddest experiences I&#8217;ve ever had, I worked at Good Times at Davey Wayne&#8217;s, which is one of the most famous bars in the Hollywood nightlife in the past decade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paul McCartney showed up at our door.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But because our staff is younger and our door guys are a little bit younger, they thought it was an old weird British man that just showed up and they turned Paul McCartney away from the door.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He was like, do you know who I am? The guys [were like] \u201dWe don&#8217;t care.\u201d Like straight up, blowing Paul McCartney off. One of our managers came out and was like, \u2018Holy crap, is that Paul McCartney\u2019? And they&#8217;re like, wait, the guy from the Beatles?!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My manager ran out, \u201cPlease come back,\u201d and Paul had a great time at the bar. We got him a special little area to sit down. It was a packed Saturday.\u00a0 It&#8217;s not a nightclub where <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">w<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">e have gated off [areas]. Even if you reserve a table, people are inches away from you where you&#8217;re sitting at your table.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Justin Bieber showed up one time and everyone went nuts.\u00a0 He comes in, walks around, does a loop, comes out and goes, \u201cI thought this was a hip hop club.\u201d and just left.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a 1970s themed bar and we played nothing but 70s music.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The dichotomy between the two different generations and to see them all melt into one location was one of the coolest things about working at that bar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Pizza!  Pasta!  Perfect for so much flavor : What are great food pairing for Madre Mezcal?\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U_iH1o5ycH0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s so crowded because it\u2019s so popular.\u00a0 The Houston Brothers always do such a good job.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah.\u00a0 The cocktails are still really good too. For as much volume as we used to do there, the biggest thing is how can I make a really beautiful cocktail that&#8217;s still cost effective and doesn&#8217;t take 12 steps. We got really good at batching stuff and figuring out how to infuse things.\u00a0 Luckily our back of house was just the most amazing.\u00a0 Mariano is the best barback I&#8217;ve ever had in my whole life. He&#8217;s still there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He is just a workhorse that got all the infusions. He would cook, he would infuse all of our products and he was just great. Even if we just did a jalapeno infusion on our tequila, if it got too spicy, he could break down the ratio and water it down with more products so that we could keep the spice level approachable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is the secret to high quantity yet high value cocktails?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Batching is definitely the way to do it. Any of your alcohols that are shelf stable, you want to put all of those in the proper ratios in a bottle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead of grabbing a modifier and your base spirit and another modifier, you&#8217;re grabbing one bottle with a special tape at the bottom, so you know which cocktail it goes to and then all your fresh stuff.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can&#8217;t batch the fresh stuff. It has to be separated because you put citrus in something and it goes bad in three days.\u00a0 Now the whole batch is bad. So keeping your fresh stuff separated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back to Madre Mezcal.\u00a0 Obviously the bottles themselves are where all the power is.\u00a0 So let&#8217;s talk about labels and taste profiles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People love our labels. Our branding is top notch. It&#8217;s one of the first compliments we always get. \u201cOh my God, I love your branding.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-28522\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.33-PM-1024x680.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"462\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.33-PM-1024x680.png 1024w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.33-PM-300x199.png 300w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.33-PM-768x510.png 768w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.33-PM-1536x1020.png 1536w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.33-PM-696x462.png 696w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.33-PM-1068x709.png 1068w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.33-PM-632x420.png 632w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.33-PM.png 1656w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Looked at Oaxacan culture and some other like medieval culture and combined the art from the two.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As far as the red label it&#8217;s the woman on the bull. It&#8217;s a really beautiful message of Mother Earth coming down and starting to share humanity and move across the world to plants and spread love.\u00a0 That&#8217;s why she&#8217;s on the bull.\u00a0 It&#8217;s the combination of animal, Mother Earth, and humans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-28524\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.53-PM-1024x595.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"404\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.53-PM-1024x595.png 1024w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.53-PM-300x174.png 300w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.53-PM-768x447.png 768w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.53-PM-1536x893.png 1536w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.53-PM-696x405.png 696w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.53-PM-1068x621.png 1068w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.53-PM-722x420.png 722w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.53-PM.png 1596w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The black label is a beautiful logo of a woman on the ground.\u00a0 She&#8217;s planting and spreading the seed of life that gives us agave and flowers and fruit and vegetables and everything else.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-28523\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.40-PM-1024x669.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.40-PM-1024x669.png 1024w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.40-PM-300x196.png 300w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.40-PM-768x502.png 768w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.40-PM-1536x1004.png 1536w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.40-PM-696x455.png 696w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.40-PM-1068x698.png 1068w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.40-PM-642x420.png 642w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.40-PM-741x486.png 741w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.54.40-PM.png 1658w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ancestral is this beautiful clay bottle with old clay vessels from Greece that carried wine with the fluid coming out and it&#8217;s supposed to celebrate the ancestral way of making mezcal and clay pots and clay distillation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I always love telling the story of people who say mezcal is not supposed to be aged, which is a true-ish statement in my opinion. But back in the day, everything got transferred in barrels. So Mezcal would accidentally get aged in barrels because it would travel from town to town on horseback after the product was made.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So the idea that Mezcal was never aged is it wasn&#8217;t aged on purpose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mezcal was accidentally aged in wood. The traditional way that people would age Mezcal is in glass and they would hide it underground.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I always tell people, if you have a beautiful bottle of Mezcal, you should open it and take it out and put a wine cork in it, or at least crack the bottle and get some air because it really lets alcohol open up and aerate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mezcal benefits from a resting period. Pouring it in a nice open glass, like a snifter or a wine glass, letting it sit for about 5-10 minutes will really open it up.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Madre Mezcal tasting notes\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Madre is designed to be less smoky. I really hate the term smoky. I like the word roasted because what you&#8217;re tasting is like barbeque.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-28516\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.43.20-PM-1024x696.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"696\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.43.20-PM-1024x696.png 1024w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.43.20-PM-300x204.png 300w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.43.20-PM-768x522.png 768w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.43.20-PM-1536x1045.png 1536w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.43.20-PM-696x473.png 696w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.43.20-PM-1068x726.png 1068w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.43.20-PM-618x420.png 618w, https:\/\/dailyovation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Screenshot-2024-03-29-at-12.43.20-PM.png 1744w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 696px) 100vw, 696px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You&#8217;re tasting the roasting of the agave and the charcoaling and the burning of the outside agave which will affect the sugars, the caramelization.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Madre really was designed to be a more approachable mezcal. We call ourselves \u201dThe gateway to the category.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We want to bring people from tequila over to Mezcal so you can explore what agave spirits also have to offer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s bright, clean, and smooth. I always compare it to a really nice, made tequila.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our Espadine is actually a close cousin of [tequila\u2019s] Blue Weber. It tastes really bright, clean and smooth.\u00a0 But you&#8217;re going to get some of that minerality and smoke in the end.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like easy drinking with some earthy aromas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That night when I met you, what you handed me was my first taste of the night. I love that it was so pure and smooth.\u00a0 It didn&#8217;t clog up my mouth for the rest of the night.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&#8217;m like you. I want to have 2-3 cocktails a night. Not just one and my palette\u2019s done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our Espadine to me is a 2-3 second palette.\u00a0 It clears up and you get like a breath and it&#8217;s fading.\u00a0 Our Ensemble goes on for 10- 12 seconds.\u00a0 From sweet vanilla to chocolate to mineral and then to smoke.\u00a0 Then the smoke fades and you get just a really beautiful, crisp.\u00a0 It&#8217;s viscous. You can feel the oil in your mouth when you swirl it around and it makes the best Negroni.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let&#8217;s talk about food pairings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I want to know if this caught you off guard, but it&#8217;s Italian food.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Very rich foods. These beautiful Mezcals are light and almost floral and fragrant, It cuts through the richness and creaminess of food.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That&#8217;s why mezcal and chocolate are consistently paired together, but that was just way too easy. There&#8217;s always mezcal chocolate pairings, but like a really nice Italian dish, something creamy and rich, like an Alfredo or a really well done piece of pizza, like a margarita or a white sauce pizza.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are working on doing some [pizza] pairings with some places in LA. \u00a0 Do a different slice of pizza with three different cocktails of Madre and then have a tasting at the end.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chocolate has a big part of Oaxaca too. You can&#8217;t not have some chocolate and mezcal at the end of the night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Espresso martinis are so hot again right now. Try making one with mezcal instead of vodka and just [see] how coffee helps open up the agave and the notes, and you&#8217;re going to get so much more going on in your cocktail.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you pair a nice espresso martini with\u00a0 beautiful, dark chocolate from Oaxaca.\u00a0 That is your final cocktail at the end of the night, it won&#8217;t let you down.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You mentioned replacing Mezcal with vodka in a martini, are there any traditional or more common cocktails we should also try replacing Mezcal in?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I tell you this, it may blow your mind. Most gin cocktails are a little bit better with Mezcal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are certain times you need botanicals, but a lot of really good classic gin cocktails, if you sub them for Mezcal, are absolutely fantastic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&#8217;m shocked because most gins have such unique aromatics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which Mezcal has so many of those same unique terpenes going on that it changes the cocktail, but it works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So instead of having botanicals, you have all these beautiful vegetal and mineral notes that just come from agaves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are the biggest misconceptions in the world of Mezcal?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of people have a misconception, especially on the trade side, that we have grown exponentially. It&#8217;s been a lot of hard work. People think we have this massive team behind us.\u00a0 There\u2019s less than 20 of us on the whole team. That includes our team down in Oaxaca, who\u00a0 watches over manufacturing and production for us down there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We don&#8217;t have an office.\u00a0 We have a little tiny apartment in Venice for meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of people don&#8217;t understand the hard work that goes into creating a small brand. It&#8217;s just a lot of people working hard to create beautiful Mezcal, especially the families.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People [unfairly comparing it to] tequila.\u00a0 What do you mean, we can&#8217;t get more? Why is it so expensive? We have people going out hand collecting wild agaves and harvesting espadine.\u00a0 All of that is hand cut, hand chopped. \u00a0 I&#8217;ve hand cut agaves with the families.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">None of this is industrialized or mechanized like tequila.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Appreciate every drop of mezcal you have, because someone put a lot of love and labor into it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ryan, as we wrap up, let&#8217;s talk about where can learn more about Madre Mezcal?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have a beautiful Instagram.\u00a0 Madremezcal.com is our website.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We also have this Instagram called mezcal. Learning and it&#8217;s a little short videos and little blurbs to talk about production, families, history, and culture. It is focused on Madre, but it&#8217;s not just Madre, it&#8217;s Mezcal as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want to know more about our families who produce, where it&#8217;s made, you can find all that information on madremezgal. com.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our bottles are in most of your nicer bottle shops, liquor stores. In California, we&#8217;re lucky enough to be in Trader Joe&#8217;s for the Espadine and Whole Foods has our Ensemble.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you can&#8217;t find it,\u00a0 go to madremezcal.com and we ship bottles to almost every state in the U S.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We&#8217;re in nine countries, too. Australia. All over Europe, Costa Rica.\u00a0 We&#8217;re working on Japan and South Korea as well. So I&#8217;m just excited to see the culture of mezcal just expand beyond just America and see how excited because I, when I talk to people that are in London or, people in Australia, and they&#8217;re so excited about the idea of being able to get mezcal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Mezcal&#039;s tasty future is here and wait &#039;til your hear Madre Mezcal has exciting plans\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5jDNNo7tDfU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Joe Winger:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> What is the future for Madre?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ryan Fleming:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I can&#8217;t tell you about the big one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, [exciting things for] our Ancestral, which is pretty new and every batch of that&#8217;s going to be hand numbered and labeled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We&#8217;re going to start doing small batch productions that will be very limited. Then the desert waters, which we have ready for summer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To learn more about MadreMezcal, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/MadreMezcal.com\">MadreMezcal.com<\/a>. Find them on Instagram at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/madremezcal\/\">MadreMezcal<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Love Tequila?\u00a0 Discover the Gateway to better taste with Madre Mezcal Ryan Fleming Today\u2019s conversation is with Ryan Fleming from Madre Mezcal.\u00a0 The LA nightlife veteran reveals his time working behind the bar in some of Southern California\u2019s spots, as well as the inspiration that got him to travel to Mexico, discovering Mezcal.\u00a0 T he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":28515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8236,8251],"tags":[10766,10977,10976,10978,4009],"class_list":{"0":"post-28502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured-posts","8":"category-food-drink","9":"category-more-stories","10":"tag-joe-winger","11":"tag-madre-mezcal","12":"tag-mezcal","13":"tag-ryan-fleming","14":"tag-tequila"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - 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