New Book Teaches Everyday Drinkers to Taste Tequila and Mezcal Like Experts

Just as Trust in the Category Faces a Reckoning

Agave Today Magazine’s Lisa Pietsch releases Agave 101, a beginner’s guide to tasting tequila, mezcal, and the wider world of agave spirits, on August 6, 2026

GLADBROOK, IOWA — August 6, 2026 — We Woodwards Publishing today announced the release of Agave 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Tasting Tequila, Mezcal & the Spirits of Agave, a new book by Lisa Pietsch, Publisher and Editor of Agave Today Magazine. The book is available today in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook editions, with French, German, and Spanish translations to follow in the coming weeks.

Agave 101 is available now: https://amzn.to/4pPNLGM

The book arrives at a pivotal moment for the category. A boom-era flood of agave planting has tipped into oversupply, prices are correcting, and a wave of lawsuits alleging that some “100% agave” bottles are nothing of the kind has put the question of trust at the center of the conversation. Agave 101 argues that what separates a casual drinker from a confident, informed taster was never money or brand loyalty — it is tasting literacy: knowing what you are holding, where it came from, and what the words on a label do and do not promise.

Organized into four parts and running more than 100,000 words, Agave 101 walks readers from the living agave plant through the full arc of production, label literacy, hands-on tasting technique, and guided tasting practice:

Part One — The Basics: introduces agave spirits as a family — tequila, mezcal, sotol, raicilla, bacanora, and a fast-growing world of agave spirits made outside Mexico — and walks readers from the living plant through every stage of how these spirits are actually made.

Part Two — Understanding the Bottle: turns readers into confident label readers, covering aging categories and a full reckoning with today’s additive and adulteration controversies.

Part Three — How to Taste: teaches the physical mechanics of tasting — glassware, nosing, temperature, and palate care — alongside a working flavor vocabulary built around seven core flavor families.

Part Four — Putting It Into Practice: brings it all together with guided tasting flights, food pairings built on logic rather than cliché, and a closing chapter on collecting and drinking responsibly.

“Most people meet agave spirits at exactly the wrong moment — loud music, salt and lime, no time to actually taste what’s in the glass,” said Pietsch. “Agave 101 is about literacy, not luxury. You don’t need an expensive bottle to taste well; you need to know what you’re holding. That skill matters more than ever right now, when a label can no longer be taken at its word.”

Agave 101 launches alongside Agave Today Magazine, Pietsch’s new print-first publication for agave spirits aficionados, launching this August in English, French, Spanish, and German editions, with ebook and audio editions also available. A companion title for industry professionals, Agave Marketing 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Tequila, Mezcal & Agave Spirits Brands, is forthcoming from Pietsch. Where that book will speak to brand builders, Agave 101 speaks to drinkers — anyone who wants to move past salt-and-lime shots and start tasting the category the way its most engaged aficionados do.

About the Author

Lisa Pietsch is the Publisher and Editor of Agave Today Magazine, a new print-first magazine for agave spirits aficionados launching this August in English, French, Spanish, and German, with ebook and audio editions also available. She is the author of Agave 101, with a companion title for industry professionals, Agave Marketing 101, forthcoming, as well as The Social Media Marketing Playbook for Tequila and Mexican Spirits. Before founding Agave Today, she served as Publisher and Editor in Chief of the monthly print magazine, Tequila Aficionado Magazine, where she spent years covering the agave spirits category as it grew from a niche enthusiasm into one of the most closely watched corners of the global spirits business, and co-authored the Tequila Aficionado Consumer Catador Course.

Availability

Agave 101 is available beginning August 6, 2026, in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook editions: https://amzn.to/4pPNLGM. French, German, and Spanish translations will follow in the coming weeks.

Media Contact

Lisa Woodward

We Woodwards Publishing

Gladbrook, Iowa

Lisa@wewoodwards.com