Part One: Mezcal's historic legacy. The family of agave spirits

Drinking and thinking like an agave

Biodiversity in a bottle

Mezcal as culture

The thorny problem of farming agaves

The mezcal mash

Blessing the ferment of agave-loving microbes

Distilling agaves down to their essence

The tequila pandemic and its discontents

Part Two: The future of the human-agave symbiosis. From still to barstool

Lost agaves and their forgotten spirits

The wild dance between agaves and bats

An agave agriculture

The creativity of maestras mezcaleras

Agaves' essential workers

Empowering bartenders

Epilogue : Policies for a brighter, more delicious future

Appendix 1. The Mezcal Manifesto / Gary Paul Nabhan and David Suro Piñera

Appendix 2. Wild agaves and cultivated landraces (Razas criollas) distilled into agave spirits

Appendix 3. Human-agave symbiosis : Domesticated agave species used in mezcal and other distillates

Appendix 4. Plants and animals used in cured or infused agave distillates, in pechugas, or in seasoned salts

Appendix 5. Mezcalexicon : A folk vocabulary.