If you’re not already all over the Tequila Matchmaker app, you should be. Scarlet and Grover have built an amazing resource for anyone interested at any level in Tequila.

They started the Additive-Free Alliance, a coalition of Tequila brands, retailers, consumers, and producers of other agave-based products who are dedicated to processes that do not use additives.

“An Undercover Operation, a Raid and the Fight Over What Makes a True Tequila,” Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2024

If you want to learn about the 1990 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act and what came before it, check out “History of Nutrition Labeling” from the National Library of Medicine.

Shout out to Lalo Angeles of Lalocura for his insights about the damage done to the palenqueros who mill agave by hand.

Shout out to Jake Lustig of Mina Real and Mezcal Don Amado for his efforts to reduce smoke in the lives of the people from whom he sources his spirits.

Shout out to Neta for supporting the healthcare of mezcalero Celso Garcia.

Shout out to Dark Matter Coffee and Maguey Melate for supporting healthcare costs for some families in need in rural Oaxaca.

Want easier access to beautiful spirits? Add your signature to ShipMySpirits.org!

Live in Illinois and want easier access to beautiful spirits? Send a letter to Deputy Governor Andy Manar!

Read the article that inspired this episode: “U.S. Craft Distilleries Are in Crisis,” Food & Wine, July 31, 2024

That quote from Peter Holland, rum expert and Foursquare Distillery’s UK brand ambassador, appeared in “Could independent bottlers transform rum?,” The Spirits Business, September 24, 2024

Haven’t heard about Empirical’s Doritos spirit? Click here!