Cooking & Milling

In Oaxaca, regulations dictate exactly how deep the pit for the oven must be. In Queensland, no one dictates anything of the kind. Australia has no designation-of-origin system for agave spirits, so there are no categories here like Mezcal Artesanal or Ancestral that would require a specific cooking method.

Before the piña can become alcohol, its stored starch, inulin, must be converted into fermentable sugar. Heat is the most reliable way to achieve this. Whether that happens in an earthen pit, a masonry oven, or an autoclave is, at its core, the same chemical question everywhere in the world. Only the solution differs.

On a farm with more than half a million agaves, a single earthen pit simply isn't practical. In Oaxaca it's enough for a few hundred piñas, but not in Bowen. Top Shelf International says its distillery at Eden Lassie runs on solar power and hydrogen, a strong indication that cooking here is industrial rather than done over an open fire.

For consumers, this isn't a labeling deception. Without a Denominación de Origen, Australia simply has no obligation to disclose a specific cooking method the way Mexican regulations require for Mezcal. Anyone buying here is buying an Agave Spirit, one whose production is judged under Australian rather than Mexican law. Two countries, two raw materials from the same plant, two entirely different legal systems, and in the end, two different names on the label.