In this second episode of Heritage Mezcal we spend time with Fabio Raya, a Brazilian researcher exploring the potentials that agave has to be used as a source of bioethanol. But really, the most important thing about this episode is that we get a clear, objective explanation behind the complexity offered by agave and how that is perfectly in tune with the artisanal processes used to transform this plant into exceptional spirits.  

In this first ever episode of the Heritage Mezcal Podcast we had the pleasure to have a conversation with Cesar Iván Linares (aka @intergalactic_yeastie_boy) about yeast, fermentation as a creative act and, of course, the many ways in which prickly pears and pink pepper can be transformed into colonche or tolonche. Dr. César Iván Ojeda Linares completed his undergraduate studies at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, later he studied at the Institute of Ecology of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, with a stay at Kyoto Sangyo University. He did his Ph.D. at the Ecosystems and Sustainability Research Institute. He is currently doing a Postdoctoral stay at the UNAM Botanical Garden. His line of research from him is ethnobiology, particularly because he is making a novel proposal within ethnobiology, ethnomycrobiology. In his last years, he has studied how different cultural groups consciously or unconsciously manage microbial communities for the production of fermented beverages, thus identifying possible yeast domestication processes. In the same way, he actively participates in disseminating science, seeking to recapture the importance of fermented foods in the food landscapes of Mexico.You can find Cesar at @intergalactic_yeastie_boy