THE owners behind two of Glasgow's most popular contemporary restaurants are teaming up to bring the first-ever tequila and mezcal festival to the city.
Any bartender will tell you that the agave spirit renaissance has been years in the making.
Gone are the dreaded days of tequila slammers - instead, tequila and mezcal are to be celebrated and savoured like a Mexican whisky.
Copita Mezcal and Tequila Festival on April 29 is set to transform the Briggait for a day of tastings, street food, spirit masterclasses, and a pop-up bar from some of Glasgow's top bartenders.
Joanna Nethery, owner of Five March, and Colin Campbell, owner of Sylvan, are banding together to bring the event to life.
Both restauranteurs are long-running leaders in the city's food and drink scene, and over time have both fallen in love with mezcal and tequila.
Before opening Five March, Joanna, 38, lived in Mexico for a couple of years where she learned about the spirits and developed a fondness for them.
Meanwhile, Colin, 36, was at the helm of a Mexican restaurant in the city when he was younger and went on to co-find the National Whisky Festival.
Combining their knowledge and experience, Colin and Joanna hope to share their passion with the city.
Colin said: "I just feel that I always wanted to do a mezcal festival and there's just never been one in Scotland.
"I think it's the right time for it and it's such an underrepresented drink, especially in the public.
"Being in the on-trade in bars and restaurants in Glasgow, you do see it a lot. But it's not in the shops that much, it's only in speciality bottle shops.
"And I think people's perception of tequila is needing to be changed a wee bit."
Joanna added: "The thing people need to learn about mezcal is the diversity of the spirit.
"Something we've talked about quite a lot is the similarities that it has to whisky in Scotland.
"You've got your really smoky mezcals, your really smooth ones. It's represented so differently depending on the brand that's making it and the processes of making it."
Despite its growing global popularity, mezcal is still a very 'artisanal and handmade' spirit which is very unusual for the drinks industry, Colin says.
He added: "Learning this deep dive into mezcal that we've done for the last year or so is really impressive and it's made us all even more excited about bringing this festival to Glasgow and to Scotland."
Joanna and Colin have designed the festival to be like a love letter to the city's hospitality industry as well as a chance for anyone curious about Mexican spirits to dive in and learn all about it.
The pair are working with Glasgow-based events company Inhouse along with street food vendors Rafa's and Baked Al Taglio and top bartenders from venues across the city.
Joanna said: "I think Glasgow is always quite a good city for launching new projects because people are quite interested in seeing something new and learning about new things.
"Mezcal and tequila have just become so popular, particularly amongst bartenders. We've got such a great bartending scene here, and through cocktail lists, people have really started learning about these spirits.
"So we figured we would let them see something a little more developed as an idea and have this big festival."
Copita Mezcal and Tequila Festival is at the Briggait on Saturday, April 29 from 12pm to 7.45pm.
Tickets cost £35 which includes access to one of two 3.5 hour sessions and the opportunity to try more than 50 different agave-based spirits.
For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.
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