BOTTLE DETAILS

• DISTILLER: Humberto Alvarado and processed by Cazcanes Tequila (NOM 1614)
• MASH BILL: 100% Blue Weber Agave fermented spontaneously with airborne yeast
• AGE: None
• YEAR: 2025
• PROOF: 94 (47% ABV)
• MSRP: $110
• BUY ONLINE: Cazcanes Online Bottle Shop

STEVE'S NOTES

SHARE WITH: Fans of any agave spirit, especially those who love something a little funky, vegetal and packs a mild proof punch. If you're a devoted blanco tequila fan, you don't want to miss this.

WORTH THE PRICE: Absolutely. This is a rare bottle you'll never regret buying.

BOTTLE, BAR OR BUST: Bottle if you can find it. Believe me, it's worth the hunt.

OVERALL: In January, Cazcanes Tequila invited a group of bartenders, influencers and writers to Mexico to see not only its distillery (near Amatitan, Jalisco), but the very distillery that inspired its owners to create their brand. The drive northwest from our base in Guadalajara to Magdalena (the named location closest to the unnamed distillery) was a trek of about 2.5 hours into deeply rural farming country. The last 20 minutes of the trip finished on rough dirt roads, crossing small streams and where speeds averaged less than 10 mph.

Finally, the distillery, operated by distiller Humberto Alvarado and his family, came into view atop a small hill. On the tech-free rustic site sat a simple copper pot still and hand-fabricated autoclave (steam-fed agave pressure cooker), both fired by wood. In the bed of a nearby pickup truck were cooked agave halves that a worker used an ax to chop into pieces. Those pieces were then fed to a shredder powered by a straight-six-cylinder, muffler-free truck engine. As the fine fibers were shot about 10 feet from the shredder to a concrete wall which stopped them, they were gathered by shovel into a water-filled trough, hand rinsed of their nectar, which was then moved to an open fermenter. There, spontaneous fermentation would begin and turn the mosto fresco into a mosto muerto "beer" in three to five days. (Check out this short Instagram video of the place by videographer Doug Price.)

While you may have to see this place to understand how it works, you need only taste the agave spirit trickling off the still–at about 130 proof–and into a plastic 55-gallon drum to be fine with all of it. It was fantastically delicious, vegetal, sweet, spicy, candied, minty and, not surprisingly, potent.

Despite using nothing but Blue Weber agave to produce this spirit, it cannot be called tequila since the distillery isn't registered with or regulated by the government. What's cool, though, is the agave spirit made here can be sold legally by the distiller to locals or traded for whatever they need. Sounds exactly like what happened in the U.S. before the government saw the chance to raise revenue on whiskey.

Wanting to give agave spirits fans a chance to taste it, Cazcanes partnered with Alvarado to purchase the spirit, proof it to 94 (47% ABV) at its distillery, and release bottles to the market. Trust me, I'm grateful to get a bottle for review.

The nose on this is crazy: sharp and surprising if all you've ever nosed is common blanco. The cascade of aromas is deeply vegetal and serrano peppery, pleasantly malolactic (slightly sour), loaded with petrichor and dried epazote and oregano. Dried grapefruit peels are about as sweet as this nose gets though some cinnamon chewing gum lurks in the background.

The palate is delicious and adventurous, racing from sweet to tart to vegetal to minty to petrichor and back ... all in the first few seconds of sip No. 1. What presents as spice on the nose becomes dryness and a pleasant coarseness on the tongue that, if you stop sipping for a moment, wintergreen appears. Further sips offer up fresh, lemony notes that turn a little oily to counter the initial coarseness. Keep at it and cinnamon candy appears alongside hints of vanilla. The flavors are endless, unlike the time I can devote to this review. But trust me, I could go on.

Context matters so much to everything I write, and visiting the Alvarado distillery surely adds to the experience of drinking this spirit. But even if I hadn't tasted it off the still, seen how and where it's made and listened to the man who makes it, this would still be one of the most amazing agave spirits I've ever enjoyed.

BRAND NOTES

Nuestras Raíces—Spanish for "Our Roots"—is a tribute to the deep-rooted traditions of agave distillation, crafted by Humberto Alvarado, a third-generation distiller in the heart of Jalisco. Using a centuries-old family recipe, Humberto preserves the true essence of agave, honoring time-honored methods that celebrate purity and craftsmanship.

We call it "Jugo de la Selva"—Jungle Juice—a raw and unfiltered expression of agave in its wildest form. Nuestras Raíces is vibrant, vegetal, and intensely agave-forward, capturing the untamed character of agave in its purest state. Every drop embodies the hands that shaped it, the spring water that nourished it, and the ancestral knowledge that has stood the test of time.

Disclaimer: Bourbon & Banter received a sample of this product from the brand for review. We appreciate their willingness to allow us to review their products with no strings attached. Thank you.