Erstwhile Madre Cuishe (2021 Ancestral Limited Edition)

Brand Introduction

A mission-driven, social impact-driven company, Erstwhile is a boutique agave spirits importer based in Brooklyn, New York.  Our mission: advocate for small, independent, family-owned producers who lack representation outside their local communities in Mexico; and bring their craft to mezcal lovers in international markets for the first time.

We work closely with our partner producers and set them up for success.  No haggling.  No exclusivity contracts.  We guide producers through the complicated steps to export in their own names for the first time, and cover necessary expenses including local attorneys, accountants, license fees, and more.  We absorb our producers’ marketing and supply chain costs as our own. 

We believe in autonomy for producers, be it hiring their own workers or using their own bottling facility. We only step in if they want our help. We connect our partner producers to share knowledge and help each other in production. 

Revenue from every Erstwhile bottle sold creates jobs in our partner producers’ and vendors’ local communities in Mexico.  Our producers hire their own team of local men and women, on their own terms. 

Erstwhile is a woman-owned, women-led business.  Our team is multicultural and multilingual.  We are outspoken about elevating underrepresented voices in Mezcal and our industry. 

Erstwhile Madre Cuishe (2021 Ancestral Limited Edition)

Distilled in clay pots and quiote.  A legacy of the era when Mezcal production was illegal in Oaxaca, this extraordinary batch of Madrecuishe crafted by Silverio García Luis – a 2021 Ancestral Limited Release – rescues a García family tradition that had been lost for about 50 years.  In the 1960's and 1970's, mezcal production was illegal in Oaxaca and other parts of Mexico.  Don Lencho, Silverio's father, used a hollowed out quiote (the flowering stalk of agave plants) instead of a copper tube, to evade the military that would come and seize his distillation equipment by force.  The García family went back to using copper stills around 1980, as prohibition came to a gradual end in Oaxaca.  Now you too can partake in this unique distillation method and family tradition from the García family in Rancho Blanco Güilá, Oaxaca, available for the first time in the United States in partnership with Erstwhile Mezcal.