Craft distillers fear mezcal will become victim of own success

With just a look, Sosima Olivera knows when her cherished agave plants will be ready to make mezcal, tequila's lesser-known Mexican cousin whose fast-growing popularity is raising fears of overexploitation.

The mezcal boom means a greater need for the land, water and firewood used to produce the smoky spirit, said Olivera.
"This excess demand from national and international markets has consequences. If more plants are needed, of course there's more exploitation," said the 50-year-old, who heads a producers' collective.
Craft distillers like Olivera, who has dedicated her life to the process, aim to safeguard mezcal's future with measures including seed banks and efforts to showcase artisanal methods.

"A bottle sums up everything we've done for years," she told AFP while touring a field in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca where magueys, a type of agave plant, grow slowly under the sun.
Once drunk only in small Mexican communities, mezcal has enjoyed a surge in demand, both at home and abroad.
It is traditionally sipped neat, accompanied by slices of orange and salt mixed with dried chiles and ground agave worms.
Nowadays it can also be found on the menu in fashionable cocktail bars from New York to Tokyo.
Celebrities who have jumped on the bandwagon include the co-stars of the hit television show "Breaking Bad," Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, who founded the drinks company "Dos Hombres."
The value of Mexico's mezcal exports skyrocketed from nearly $20 million in 2015 to around $63 million in 2020, according to official figures.

The United States, Canada, Spain, France and Germany are among the top consumers of the drink, which is produced in several Mexican states, but above all in Oaxaca.
Although mezcal and...