One of the most challenging things for us here at Mezcalistas has been trying to figure out how to write about the tariffs issue. It has been a constantly moving target of will the administration pull the trigger, won’t they, will it last one day or is it ongoing? And we are just the ones writing about it - imagine being the folks on the ground producing, importing, selling, etc and trying to figure out what is happening. Everyday is a new day with so much uncertainty. For any business, operating in this kind of an environment is in short, not good. How are you supposed to plan?

These tariffs arrive at a time when overall alcohol consumption is down and agave spirits sales have flattened over the past two years. It is now a price sensitive market so any increase will have an impact with how much being the big question. Sales are still well above where they were pre-pandemic, and the huge increase we saw during the pandemic is not looking like a blip. But, there has been a great deal of planning put into the expectation of growing sales, and the static market in the US is much more competitive with the increased number of brands in the market than it was in 2019.

The one “positive” in agave spirits is the price of agave, which is at a decades old low. This may give producers/brands a bit of wiggle room in planning any price hikes due to strong margins, but that’s probably a limited group. Felisa Rogers and I spent a good amount of time on Wednesday trying to look at all angles in order to write a story about what might it all means. It’s a basic intro and we have an outline of how we want to cover this topic going forward.

Given the current political climate and the chaos Trump seems to thrive on, including breaking ties with long time allies and threatening/imposing tariffs on the US’s largest trading partners while constantly changing the goal posts in negotiations, just what are producers, brands, importers supposed to do? As I mention in Felisa’s story, people are going to have to operate with a Plan A, B and C to address the constantly changing tariff environment. And perhaps too there is taking a slightly longer view and shift in export strategy: Given the growing interest in agave spirits in both Europe and China, perhaps it is time for producers in Mexico to seriously explore other markets besides the US. We’re only two months into 2025 and if these initial weeks are any indication, it is going to be a wild ride this year with total uncertainty on every level.

In the meantime, steer clear of doomscrolling and check out our latest stories. It’s March, which is the month we celebrate International Women’s Day as well as women’s history. We’ve two great profiles with Emma Janzen and Isis Hernández. Funny aside, when making a bank wire payment, one sure way to get flagged and called by the bank is to put Isis in the memo section. We’ve also got a fun new perfect pairing from Tess Rose Lampert, more mezcal news for you to check out and a lot of fun upcoming mezcal events below!

Saludos,

MEZCAL NEWS

MEZCAL EVENTS

• March 7th, Loootería Mezcalistas, 5pm Mezcaleria Cuish, Oaxaca

• March 8th, Maguey Spirits Tasting, Mesa Maguey Oakland

• March 11th, Panorama Pre-Shift with Mezonte and Cascahuin, New York

• March 20th, Bowl of ‘Zole, Denver

• March 28th, Mezcal Lotería, Washington, DC (Free event)

• March 31st, Mexico in a Bottle, Washington, DC (SOLD OUT)

• April 10th-13th, Agave Heritage Festival, Tucson

• April 27th, Mexico in a Bottle, Chicago

• SAVE THE DATE: June 5th-9th, Mexico in a Bottle Durango

• June 27th-30th, Mezcal Culture Fest, Miami