Melate 3.0 Intro and Context
Seven years in, we are rebuilding this club around what you tell us. This page is where that happens in the open: our own numbers, your feedback, the arguments we are still having, and the decisions that come out of them. The flattering parts and the rough ones. We are all in this club together, we would all like it to be here for years to come, and we would all like it to keep getting better.
We have built something we are proud of, and the membership has been slipping by a small percentage each year for three years running. If we keep drifting, in a year or two we would be forced into changes far more drastic than we would choose. So Melate 3.0 is about getting that trend line pointing the other way, and I honestly believe that, with your help, we can make this the most rewarding alcohol subscription club in the world.
Startup Melate
Figuring it out as we went. Dalton working massive days and running the company top to bottom, plenty of sleepless nights just to keep it alive, with Hanna playing a huge role in content and mezcalero relationships.
Chava and beyond Oaxaca
Chava joins the team and we look past Oaxaca for expressions you cannot easily find. A growing budget goes into sourcing and content trips, and into high-end content built for a premium experience.
Feedback, revamp, adjustments
We put the feedback and our own numbers in the open, and let them shape what we source and the top to bottom experience we offer. We do not yet know where that lands — that is rather the point of asking.
A personal note from the founder on how we got here Read the noteClose the note
We have watched the club decline for three years now, hoping it would eventually reach an equilibrium point that was still profitable. We have a product we are proud of and a model that is nothing short of complicated. My attitude was that we had created something amazing that is nearly impossible to directly compete with, that we were delivering what the Taste & Chat members asked for, and that the declining numbers were driven by exterior forces beyond our control.
Then we reached the point where we could no longer afford to hold onto that hypothesis. Recently, roughly July 2026, we started pouring attention into how we could improve the experience and tie that into better marketing: the social media clips, the newsletter, the Taste & Chat, the brand voice. All of our focus was on the content side… and then came the Tamaulipas bottle.
One club member email, shared publicly (it is included below), led to another email, which led to a stream of butterfly effects that changed our whole approach. After some reactive and much needed data analysis, we quickly learned that we have more of a retention problem than a marketing problem. We also realised that the feedback we are getting is not necessarily representative of the greater club. And what it finally culminated in is the creation of this page, and an effort to turn this trend around before it is too late.
The epiphany that should have been obvious by now: collect the feedback, then shape the club around it. We thought we were doing that, but it is clear we need to do it much better.
Luckily, we are living in a time of massive technological advances that are giving small businesses the ability to do things we simply did not have the expertise, bandwidth or budget to do. By leveraging that tastefully, we can create not just the best mezcal subscription, but a project and a community worth more than bottles arriving in the mail. We are not going to abandon our core principles, or years of feedback from the Taste & Chat group, but we will see where adjustments, compromises and mutually beneficial improvements can be made via creative solutions. What those are — I have ideas, but we will let the feedback drive it, if you are willing to give it.
–Dalton
A huge effort to gather feedback and analyse it.
Design the mechanisms and the culture that keep feedback coming in consistently.
Adjust what goes in the box, and build the solutions step 1 points to.
Adjust the content experience and circulate feedback back into it, growing the community.
How to read this page
Right now it runs in story order, from the beginning: the Tamaulipas emails that started it, then our analysis, then the Taste & Chat and the feedback that followed it.
Once the whole story is here, we will flip the order so the newest feedback sits at the top and this becomes a running stream rather than a document.
Each section below has a comments section. What has become undeniable this week is that sharing feedback encourages even more feedback. Let's get it out there in the open! Check the "anonymous" box as you wish.
The first email
In mid-August, not long after the box with Rosario Lozoya's Tamaulipas ensamble went out, one member wrote to ask whether anyone else had complained. These are their words, trimmed for length and otherwise untouched.
From a club memberAugust 2026
“I have a question about the most recent bottle. Have you had any complaints? The bottle that I received seems off. There is no discernible aroma/nose but alcohol and the palate/flavor is almost non-existent and unpleasant.”
“I hate complaining to you, but I really can't imagine this is something Dalton and Chava would knowingly send out to club members… This is the first thing I've gotten from MM that I've thought was actually bad and poorly produced and not up to the standards you guys set.”
“I get that not everybody has the same palate and some people like some bottles more than others. This isn't that. This is just not up to the standards set by MM.”
More from this exchange
“One last note. I still think this has to be a bad bottle. I poured a copita full and let it sit to get some air for about 30 minutes in the hopes it would open up. When I came back to it I was completely shocked - it tasted like water with no Agave aroma or flavor whatsoever.”
“You guys have earned so much trust and good faith from me and most others that while it might be an off selection and a bumpy call, it will still be fun.”
Why we made it public
For about a month we waited to see if anyone else would write in about the bottle. Nobody did. So on 14 September, in the invite to that week's Taste & Chat, I put the complaint in front of the whole club, without the member's name, and said this:
“After one member gave us some polite, honest, and much-welcomed critical feedback, we were waiting to see if other members wrote in with similar complaints. Nobody did. So either y'all are holding your tongue, there was some bizarre anomaly with [the] bottle, or this member just had an outlier of a palate.”
The hope was simple. If members could see a hard email land, get a real answer, and get thanked for it, maybe more of the helpful, honest, constructive kind would follow. A quiet inbox had always read to me as a happy club, and I wanted to know if that was true.
The email that came back that same night
A month of silence, and then, within hours of that invite going out, this arrived from a long-time member who had paused their subscription. The part that got me: they had written it weeks earlier and never sent it. It had been sitting in their drafts the whole time we were waiting to hear from somebody. Again trimmed, and otherwise word for word.
From a club member14 September 2026
“I wanted to let you know that I had the same experience with that bottle, and it was what caused me to pause my subscription. But I have been less and less impressed by the club boxes for at least the last year, so the bottle from Tamaulipas more like the straw that broke the camel's back. I drafted an email when I first put things on pause, but I didn't want to come off as cranky, so I decided not to send it. Clearly, though, you all are open to feedback and care about subscribers' experiences, so I'm sending the letter I initially wrote, in case you find it to be helpful.”
“For at least the past year, though, there have been too many misses to hits for us to justify the expense… For what it is worth, my sense is that quality is being sacrificed for novelty, especially as it relates to regions. (But also expressions and even plants - why is sotol part of the club now?)”
“For what it is worth, we would stay subscribed today if the club box were consistently delivering mezcal in the very good to excellent range. Again, for what it is worth, I would love to see the club boxes have a ratio that is closer to one adventurous, rare, and potentially divisive bottle for every one solid, crowd pleasing, more common expression (e.g., tepextate, cuishe, salmiana, madrecuishe, lamparillo).”
More from this email
“Some of the best mezcal we have ever had has been through MM, and we have learned about types of mezcal that we would never have learned about otherwise through you. During the first few years in particular, we looked forward to your shipments with a lot of excitement. One of our favorite things to do was to share MM mezcal with our close friends on special nights.”
“It is not that everything has been subpar: we loved the cupreata with chumulin and thought the barril and ixtero amarillo were solid. But overall, the misses have outweighed the hits for a while now.”
“We understand that you can't please everyone, and perhaps some inconsistency is to be expected with a club that emphasizes novelty and rarity.”
“Thanks for reading this feedback. I am giving it because I am grateful for the many years of great mezcal. We hope to return soon.”
What it got us wondering
Are we putting the right bottles in these boxes? That is the question this email left us with, and it is a bigger one than whether one ensamble from Tamaulipas was a miss.
So the first thing we did was check it. If the boxes really have been slipping for a year, the ratings our bottles get on Mezcal Reviews should show it. That is the next section.
Have you ever had feedback for us and not sent it?
No account needed. You can change your answer.
Every featured bottle, by club month
Each dot is one bottle's overall rating on mezcalreviews.com (their 0.5–5 scale), placed at the month it was featured, as of 15 September 2026. Months that shipped several bottles show each one. Hover or tab through the dots for details.
Do not take this trend line too seriously
Most of these dots rest on five to ten reviews on mezcalreviews.com. That is not a safe sample size to conclude anything from, ours included.
The reviewers are also self-selected — a small slice of drinkers, enthusiastic enough to take the time to write detailed reviews.
So treat the chart as weak evidence: good for spotting a bottle that clearly missed, like the Rosario Lozoya, and not much else.
What we are doing about it: we are working out our own review system, so you can score a bottle where you already are without being sent to Mezcal Reviews if that is not your thing. We are also talking with Mezcal Reviews about integrating the two, so they combine rather than compete for the same handful of ratings. Nothing is decided — if you have an opinion on how you would want to rate a bottle, the comments below are the place for it.
What the numbers say
Why 2026 feels worse
Average of every mezcalreviews.com review written in each calendar year, across all 132 of our bottles listed there. The 2026 drop disappears when the August 2026 Rosario Lozoya Ensamble and the December 2025 Destilado de Pulque are set aside.
Rosario Lozoya Ensamble (Aug 2026): ten reviews in its first five weeks, averaging 1.95. Mezcal Reviews' summary calls out "rubbing alcohol, chlorine, pencil lead, and diesel" and says most reviewers "consider it a disappointing, harsh miss." It is the lowest-rated feature in the whole period by nearly a full star — worth its own conversation with Chava, separate from any trend question.
Where that left us
We came here to test the second email, and the ratings did not give us the clean answer we half expected. No steady slide, just two bottles that clearly missed, on a sample too thin to lean on.
But the club has been shrinking for three years all the same. If a drop in ratings does not explain it, something else does. So the next thing we did was go through our own records to work out why we are leaking members. That is the next section.
Does this match your own experience of the last year of boxes?
No account needed. You can change your answer.
3 comments
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Steve October 1, 2026
I consider myself a novice in the mezcal realm having made just three mezcal focused trips to Oaxaca in the last 5 years. So I appreciate the varieties and the media content around each box. I'm just beginning to discover my preferences. So for me, the boxes have been consistently new experiences.
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Randy October 1, 2026
I'm in this club for the experience, both in the variety and the discussions. I probably don't really need more mezcal as have accumulated enough bottles and can now find reasonable bottles in Minnesota. While the two outlier bottles disappointed many, I really enjoyed them for the experience. I particularly liked the uniqueness of the Destilado de Pulque, but also appreciated being able to try the Rosario Lozoya Ensamble even though not my favorite. If this club was sending easy drinking, safe and ordinary mezcals, I would not likely continue my membership.
Thanks for all the experiences. -
Tim October 9, 2026
Im commenting from beginning of '24 to end of '25. I found it to be consistent. some were knockouts, and while some were not my speed, almost all were things I'd either never had prior or wouldnt have bought (or been able to) otherwise. Well done!!
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Growth stopped in 2022
For three years running we have lost more members than we have gained. Cancellations have held steady. New members have fallen by more than half. The club isn't collapsing; it's leaking, and the tap has been turned down.
Members over time
The membership peaked in late 2023 and has drifted down since. The cliff in October 2024 isn't people leaving — it's a batch of accounts with dead cards being cancelled in one bulk edit.
Is it a city-versus-country thing?
One theory we had: members without a good bottle shop nearby join for reliable quality, while members in cities that already have great mezcal join for the strange and hard to find. If that were true, the two groups would leave at different rates.
They don't. The members who leave look almost exactly like the members who stay. Where somebody lives is not what drives them out the door.
If anything, the rural side of the club is the loyal side. Small towns and rural addresses are a small slice of the membership, but they hold on longer than the cities do, and they are a slightly bigger share of who is still here today than of who ever joined.
Members are grouped by the population of their county, which is the honest way to do it with public data, though it is blunt at the edges — a rural corner of a large county still counts as big-metro. No individual member information is shown here or used beyond this grouping.
Why they left, in their own words
The old exit form collected 360 answers between September 2019 and 2 April 2024, the day it stopped recording. It is the only direct evidence we have of why anyone left, and it says something we should sit with.
350 of those 360 people said they would still recommend Maguey Melate to a friend. Ten said no. People are not leaving unhappy. What they report is a backlog — bottles arriving faster than they drink them. Taste and content complaints together account for under 8% of answers, though keep reading, because we are not sure that settles it.
Members asked for the pause, the skip and the slower cadence themselves — unprompted, for five years. The form never offered it as an option; roughly one in ten typed it in anyway.
"Just backed up on bottles. If I could pause instead of cancel I would have." — October 2023
"Love this club, just on a tight budget — I'd love to do a half-membership of 2 bottles every 4 months." — January 2021
"I've cut back on drinking so have built up quite a nice mezcal selection — would be great if you offered options for every 6 months or so — I'd be back for that!" — April 2021
"I love it but I consume very little. As a result, I'm accumulating too much. A longer interval of delivery could work." — August 2022
Where we think this gets it wrong
Read the above quickly and the answer looks obvious: people have a backlog, so give them a pause button, a skip and a slower cadence. We are not convinced that is the whole story, and we would rather say so here than quietly build the wrong thing.
"Too much mezcal" may be a symptom, not the cause
A backlog is what happens when bottles sit unopened. If every bottle we sent were one you couldn't wait to pour again, the same shipping schedule might feel completely different. It is at least as likely that we are not choosing the mezcals you actually want to drink through — and "I have too much" is the polite way that shows up on a form.
We already built the obvious fix, and it hasn't taken off
Club-Mini exists precisely because of the feedback above: a smaller, slower, cheaper way to stay in. It has not caught on the way the survey answers suggested it would. So either the appetite for "less mezcal, please" is smaller than people report when they're cancelling, or we have done a poor job putting Club-Mini in front of the people who asked for it. We suspect some of both, and the marketing side is our own doing.
Which means the honest summary is not "we know what's wrong and we're fixing it." It's that we have to do a much better job of engaging the club for feedback: how we collect it, when we collect it, and who we collect it from. The vote below is one small piece of that.
It is also why, after that week's Taste & Chat, we did something we had not done before. We wrote up what was said on the call, sent it to the whole club, and attached one pointed question. The results are in the next section.
If you have ever thought about leaving, what would have kept you?
No account needed. You can change your answer.
6 comments
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Anonymous member October 1, 2026
My son is the VP of a wine and spirits distribution company in the Pacific Northwest (Vehrs). He is also fighting the tide of people generally drinking less or preferring non-alcoholic drinks.
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Randy October 1, 2026
Since I am accumulating more bottles (both mezcal and other spirits), I could envision taking a pause at some point rather than completely unsubscribing. I hesitate to consider the minis as if I really like a bottle, it's frustrating knowing I likely won't find more (unlike if it was a more standard commercial bottling). Part of why I have so many open bottles is that I find it hard to use up the last bit as then I can't continue to compare it to others.
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Todd October 1, 2026
I’m a happy Club-Mini subscriber. I can get predictable mezcal anywhere, but it’s always one big bottle at a time. That means I get to try 1 or 2 expressions a year. It’s a hard way to learn the wide range of this spirit. Your little 100ml bottles scratch my explorer itch! If I don’t like one (so far, just That One), it’s ok! That’s exploration; I learned more about what I like and don’t. And those transcendent bottles? Each is l like a beautiful sunset: I enjoy them, then they’re gone, never to be seen again.
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Tim October 9, 2026
first off, remember. a global pandemic. it affected ordering conveniences, some people had more time on their hands (&some did not!), less going out for drinks, and was general agave boom. now is a different era. inflation, market fluctuations. generational cycles and trends. Im thinking your chart line is now more closer to being accurate of what is sustainable for the current offering. Also, Im a former member, I never thought of a skip. as for bottle id drink faster - thats kind of a minor needle mover - even the best of the best can sit around, but sure wont hurt! Club mini is great already. lower price?? im mean..sure ofc. but the $ seems very approachable to me. First, I left cause shipping and receiving was a PITA! Second, I have a boat load of mezcal. Here's how it went for me -- the reg. club was more or less perfect lasting until the next cycle and I could nip some from a couple other bottles. I'd usually have a little left over and it was fun to have some remnants to compare and share. But compound that with prior stock, trips to MX with palenque bottles, experimenting with other labels and agaves, supporting your local bars, some non-drinking downtime, and just general life, then went to club mini which also rules. and then came time to confront my other dusty bottles. So personally my 2c I tend to think the long term customer base is pretty narrow/niche without modifying MM if you're looking to expand.
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Randy October 11, 2026
Just a word on the new members: your website appears to indicate the Club is full and the Club-mini with only 10 memberships available. If numbers are declining, shouldn't there be memberships available to new members? If it is month by month availability, might it be better to allow someone to join at a time indicated in the future?
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Dalton October 11, 2026
Very valid point Randy.
Completely new website, checkout process, cancellation process, and emails coming this week that will address this.
But the story line here... our December batch showed up about 10 or 20 liters short which ends up bottle necking our membership by about 50. he could have kept the still running to squeeze out another 10-20 liters, but glad he didn't. part of the game sometimes when we put in a custom order and they can't tell how much mezcal will result from the agaves/fermentation.
The other thing that is constantly a complication in this model is that we'd love to have bottles for re-order, but when we end up with overstock for whatever reason, our warehouse and capital piles up in a corner. There is only so much the distribution market will take on. When a batch turns out par or less, it becomes impossible to move. I think the solution here is simple. Every bottle needs to be a gem!
But in one week, people shopping will have the option to choose the next available box.
Log in with your Maguey Melate account to join the conversation.
The whole recap email, with members' comments Read it
Sent 18 September 2026 · “Should we have flipped the 375? Your Taste & Chat recap”
Last Thursday we broadcast our Taste & Chat from our new little space on the Zócalo in Mexico City, and about 25 of you joined Chava and me to talk through the August–September box. We knew going in that the Tamaulipas had divided people, and it turned into one of the most honest, useful conversations we've had in a long time.
Here's the short version. The room split on the liquid and came together on the idea. Most of you scored the Tamaulipas low in the glass, but almost nobody wished they hadn't gotten to try it. Fernanda's 54% sotol turned into the quiet winner of the night, and Artemio's Sierra Negra was the solid, traditional pour you'd hope for.
Early on, Al made a point that's changing how we score boxes: how a bottle tastes and whether it was worth getting are two different numbers. He gave the Tamaulipas "like a two, two and a half" on taste and a five on value, "because there's no chance I would have ever tried this". So every bottle below gets both scores, and the box gets one overall.
There's also one question we're still trying to get to the bottom of, and we'd love your vote on it. It's right after the bottles.
The box, overall: 3.5 / 5 (Liquid 3.1 · Experience 3.9). Solid in the glass and one of the more memorable boxes we've sent. The sotol carried the liquid, and the Tamaulipas carried the experience.
Tamaulipas Ensamble
Rosario Lozoya · San Nicolás, Tamaulipas · Cenizo, Verde, Lechuguilla
Liquid 2/5 · Experience 4/5
Taste-only scores on the call ran 1 to 2.5 · Mezcal Reviews 2.0 (11 reviews)
This is the lowest-rated bottle we've had on Mezcal Reviews, and a good part of the call agreed: rubbing alcohol up front, pencil lead, not much agave on the nose. A few of you gave it time and air and found butterscotch underneath, and Al got green apple up front. We compared bottle numbers live to see if a bad batch was to blame, and there's no pattern. It's the liquid, not your bottle.
And yet the conversation kept coming back to why you're in this club. Chava took a rickety plane into a corner of Mexico almost nobody exports from, to a palenque crushing agave with a wooden trapiche built from memory, making spirits for the people who live there. That's the part of this bottle that scored a 4.
"It is very bland. The only thing my nose picks up is isopropanol" — Simon
"I feel like it hints at some more complex flavors but never quite realizes it." — Will
"This ensamble, I don't love it. I don't even like it. But I love the opportunity to try it." — Carter
"The Tamaulipas might disappoint (some), but it disappoints much less when you hear about it and understand where it fits into the mezcal universe." — Matthew
Sotol 54%
Fernanda Arrillaga · Saltillo, Coahuila · Dasylirion cedrosanum
Liquid 4/5 · Experience 4.5/5
No numbers posted on the call, but the praise was close to unanimous · Mezcal Reviews 3.4 (6 reviews)
I didn't expect a sotol to steal the night. Jay, who has a lot of sotols at home, called this one "by far my favorite." Tom and Simon both put it at or near the best they've had. The word that kept coming up was clean, with none of the medicinal, cough-drop edge that turns people off sotol. That's on purpose: Fernanda cooks with steam and mills with rollers so the plant and the desert do the talking. (Chava also corrected himself on air: the plant is Dasylirion cedrosanum, and some of these may be 120 years old.)
Not everyone's sold. One Mezcal Reviews reviewer called it an "alcohol slap." But the room agreed on one thing: a 50%+ sotol belongs in the club at least once a year.
"As someone whose experience with sotol feels like licking pine tar, this one was lovely" — Will
"This is the best. This is so clean." — Jay
"Sotol belongs, Mango distillate belongs, Zapote distillate belongs, that corn liquor I forgot the name of belongs" — Matthew
"keep it over 50% and i'm cool with it" — Rob
Sierra Negra
Artemio · just outside Matatlán, Oaxaca · Sierra Negra
Liquid 3.5/5 · Experience 2.5/5
Two 3.5s posted in the chat; the room landed "between solid and good"
Artemio makes beautiful, seriously artisanal mezcal, and we could only get 120 liters of this one, tasted before we bought it. Matthew and Chris both scored it 3.5, and Rob called it "very traditional sierra negra," which is exactly the point. It came in the 100 mL, which brings us to the big question.
Should we have flipped the 375 and the 100 mL?
This box put the Tamaulipas in the 375 and Artemio's Sierra Negra in the 100 mL. On the call, a slight majority said they'd rather have had it the other way around. Jay put it best: "Based on having tasted both? Yes. But I like the thought process behind offering the Tamaulipas since it's not something we would normally get to try."
Randy and Señor Muc argued for keeping it: the Tamaulipas is the more unique bottle, and a 375 means there's more of it to explore. My own take is that the 100 mL never makes it to your bar. If you finish bottles with friends, you want the Sierra Negra in the big bottle. If you're building a bar that tells the story of Mexico, you want the Tamaulipas on the shelf.
This isn't just about one box. It's the question behind how we build every box from here: how much of the big bottle goes to the unusual, and how much to the reliably delicious. A quick thank-you opens in your browser, and this email stays right where it is. Then hit reply and tell us why. Every reply gets read.
Final thoughts
Here's what we heard, and what we're doing about it:
- Try before we buy, every time. When we go to a region we don't know, we taste every container before committing to a batch. Tamaulipas taught us that one.
- Risky liquid goes in the 100 mL first. If it lands, it can earn a 375 later.
- The 3 clues are coming back. Jay, you were right, we dropped that. Look for them with the next box.
- Recordings are back on the website, starting with this one at magueymelate.com/tasteandchats.
- Bigger QR codes on the minis. Dave, noted.
- Sotol at least once a year, at 50% or higher.
I said it on the call and I'll say it here: we need to get better at hearing from you, especially when a box misses. A polite "it's fine" doesn't help us pick better. Specific, honest notes do. So keep them coming, here, on Mezcal Reviews, or in the survey that's on its way.
Your turn
If you had one of these bottles, the most useful thing you can do for the next member is leave an honest review on Mezcal Reviews. The good and the bad both help us pick better, and it takes two minutes.
Review Rosario's Tamaulipas Ensamble →
Review Fernanda's Sotol 54% →
Thank you to everyone who joined us Thursday, and a big welcome to our first-timers. A few of you asked how to visit the new space in Mexico City. Just reply to this email and we'll set it up.
See you at the next one. Salud!
-Dalton
P.S. Jay, still waiting on the name of that sotol-with-a-Z from Puebla.
We weren't going to let ourselves off the hook that easy
It would have been comfortable to stop there. But the people who show up to a Taste & Chat are a very particular, and very valuable, slice of this club: the ones most into the idea of the thing. I was somewhat shocked by how forgiving the room was, and skeptical that it spoke for everyone else. So the recap put one pointed question to every member and made it a single tap to answer.
What that question is really driving at is the core question of this club, and potentially of retention: where is the optimal balance between discovering new flavors, regions and plants, and always making sure the juice itself is top notch in quality and enjoyability? This is it, exactly as it went out:
The big question
Should we have flipped the 375 and the 100 mL?
This box put the Tamaulipas in the 375 and Artemio's Sierra Negra in the 100 mL. On the call, a slight majority said they'd rather have had it the other way around. Jay put it best: "Based on having tasted both? Yes. But I like the thought process behind offering the Tamaulipas since it's not something we would normally get to try."
Randy and Señor Muc argued for keeping it: the Tamaulipas is the more unique bottle, and a 375 means there's more of it to explore. My own take is that the 100 mL never makes it to your bar. If you finish bottles with friends, you want the Sierra Negra in the big bottle. If you're building a bar that tells the story of Mexico, you want the Tamaulipas on the shelf.
This isn't just about one box. It's the question behind how we build every box from here: how much of the big bottle goes to the unusual, and how much to the reliably delicious.
Tap one below and your vote is counted. A quick thank-you opens in your browser, and this email stays right where it is. Then hit reply and tell us why. Every reply gets read.
Shown as it appeared in the email. To vote now, use the buttons at the bottom of this section.
Here are the results
Eleven days in, flipping is ahead by better than two to one.
Votes from the recap email and this page as of 29 September 2026, one per member. 27 votes is a small base, so read it as "flipping has more support than keeping", not as a mandate. The vote is still open at the bottom of this section, and these 27 are already counted in it.
What became way more interesting: the emails
The vote was the easy part. What I did not expect was the mail. Here is some of what landed in our inbox that week, trimmed for length, otherwise word for word, and with nothing that points at who wrote it. Read them side by side.
Before the Taste & Chat · 16 September
“Am part of the "holding your tongue" crew. I'm with Member X on this one; really didn't enjoy it. I don't have the bottle anymore (dumped it honestly) and don't remember exact notes. Had high hopes too because I typically love the maguey varietals used and northern Mexico techniques/elements generally, but was disappointed.”
Reply to the recap · 18 September
“We tasted both bottles when they came in and really enjoyed both. Tasting a little bit more blind, we likened the Tamaulipas to an understated, lighter but complex, slightly savory (floral, heather) white wine… After seeing all of these emails, we retested both that and the Sotol, and still really enjoyed both.”
“So, all of that said, please keep bringing in the fun stuff from everywhere and taking those chances.”
Sent after the invite · 18 September
“It’s not just that that was the worst mezcal I’ve ever had, but that was the worst bottle of booze I’ve ever had.”
“I want to let you know, that it wasn’t a choice about sending in a complaint or not sending in a complaint. I was making a choice about continuing with the subscription or just cancelling it! Fortunately for you there has been enough good mezcal to outweigh the bad. For now.”
“I expect that the mezcal I receive is not sent out just because it has a cool story, but that it actually represents the high quality and unique flavor we’ve come to expect, because you’ve tasted it.”
Why I voted: Keep it · 19 September · in full
“I agree with those that said it gives you more time to try it and allows you to build a bar focused on all of Mexico. I’d be fine with either and didn’t enjoy this particular bottle but it goes back to the whole reason I love the club. You all bring incredible spirits from all over Mexico I otherwise would not have tried. That’s why I love the club and I’ve stuck with it over the years.”
“On the flip side I typically haven’t enjoyed Sotol and wouldn’t have ever bought or seeked out the Sotol bottle in this box. But after trying it wow! It’s the absolute best Sotol I’ve ever had and I’m glad to have a full bottle.”
“To have those WOW moments like I had with the Sotol you have to take risk and push the boundaries a bit. The Tamaulipas is part of that and the risk you run when pushing those boundaries. I feel like for every 9 bottles yall have I may get one I really don’t enjoy like this but still appreciate. I’ll take a 10% chance I won’t like something all day long to have more WOW moments like when I tried the Sotol.”
“Don’t stop exploring please!”
Reply to the recap · 19 September
“I have only occasionally been getting the monthly boxes due to price being a factor, so I'll say from a value perspective I would not be able to justify the Rosario bottle. At the high price point for me, the choice to go with a risky bottle was a disappointment and an experience I could have done without. Anyway, thank you for soliciting feedback.”
Why I voted: Flip it · 20 September
“…we found the Tamaulipas a bit too alcohol-forward with a methanol-like nose and an unfinished aftertaste, closer to the Heads than the Hearts.”
“Overall, we are very happy with the experience and this doesn't change our excitement for the membership—and for the record, the Sotol is incredible.”
Why I voted: Flip it · 18 September
“I’ll keep it simple I too struggled with the Tamualipas. It was borderline offensive at first but as of last night by it settled into the “not much going on” and slightly off putting category.”
“I think you should put your two best in the 375s. Keep it simple, wouldn’t you want more of what you like most?”
Why I voted: Flip it · 18 September
“I'm pretty open minded, and can say that I've never gotten a bottle that I didn;t like after a couple of tries. But, now I have… It was good to have had a taste of it, but the flip would have been much better. I don't even want to make a cocktail out of this.”
“I love that we have these discussions. Our group does have a wide range of tastes so it is always delightful to hear what others have to say and form my opinions from my own taste buds.”
Same box, same bottle, same week. One member wants us to never stop exploring and will happily take a miss for it. Another, at this price, wanted no part of the risk. One calls the sotol the best they have ever had; one of the two emails at the top of this page asked why sotol is in the club at all.
And one more comparison, maybe the most important one. Of the 25 or so people on the call, the vast majority were into the idea of the Tamaulipas being in the box, including the ones who could not drink it. Those are the members we hear from the most, and theirs is the feedback we have been shaping this club around for the last five years. The members who were not on the call read very differently. Almost every email above came from someone who was not there, and when the question went out to the whole club, the vote came back close to two to one for flipping it.
These emails show just how real the struggle is to satisfy everyone in this club. When the full data comes back, we will explore how best to resolve that constant conundrum. If you have a view on it, the comments are right below.
By now we had two emails, two analyses, a Taste & Chat, a vote and an inbox full of replies, and it was all sitting where only Chava and I could see it. That is where the idea for this page came from: tell the whole story of how and why we are turning this company around, in the open. That is the next section.
Should we have flipped the 375 and the 100 mL?
No account needed. You can change your answer.
4 comments
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Anonymous member October 1, 2026
I got 10 or so pours from a 375 mL bottle and about 3 from the 100 mL bottle. 3 pours satisfies my interest in trying something completely new, but challenging. 10 pours satisfies my interest in tasting delicious but perhaps recognizable varieties.
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Anonymous member October 1, 2026
Another way to view this (which I'm sure you have) is if you "flip it"...I can't imagine anyone would every complain about receiving a delicious Sierra Negra in 375ml, and a unique, maybe controversial Tamaulipas 100ml. Whereas the reverse is true and what you are going through now. So Flip It = very little complaints, vs Keep It = Many...
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Randy October 1, 2026
I'd still vote to keep bottles like the Tamaulipas as the 375 for the experience. Artemio's Sierra Negra was very good, but also much more like other bottles I have or can get, so in the end less memorable. I've actually drunk much more of the Tamaulipas bottle by percent than the Sierra Negra due to this.
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Randy October 1, 2026
I might be a bit more in favor of flipping a more challenging bottle if the 100 ml extra bottle had the same level of information as the 375s. The info is a lot of the experience.
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Two things happened at once
Every piece of feedback leads to more feedback
There is a theme building here. One email, shared, produced another. A Taste & Chat, written up and sent out, produced a vote and an inbox full of replies. People engage with what other people say, and want to share their 2 cents. So why not just keep the cycle going?
The feedback conflicts, and I don't want to keep that to myself
You could see it in the last section: the emails I receive pull in opposite directions. People might not be fully aware how challenging it is to shape this club around such diverse needs. So I want to show you two things. One, the conflicting feedback we are receiving. Two, the strategy and storyline for how important that feedback is, and how we can make better decisions with it.
The AI in the room
Maybe now is the appropriate time to address it. As mentioned in the note at the top, we are carefully selecting how much AI becomes member facing. Generally, our content and newsletter will not use it.
But when it comes to streamlining data crunching, presenting tons of information in an organized way, and making sense of piles of emails, surveys and Mezcal Reviews in one easy to understand conclusion, I believe it is giving small businesses abilities they simply can't otherwise achieve.
This page is one of them. Forget writing this content alone… the programming to include one-click feedback and a comments section would have taken me days on its own.
Who this page is for
Here is what I want to say about this entire effort. I know members are here because they love mezcal. This whole sub-project, and the inside look at our operations, is not what people signed up for.
I am creating this page for those of you who have expressed interest in, and appreciation for, our transparent decision making around the club. I don't expect everyone to engage with it or even read it. The newsletter stays focused on mezcal, with only short updates and a link back here.
Like everything else in this club, some people want to hear this stuff, while others tell us they have no interest in how we run our business, just send them great juice. Both are fair.
I would really love some feedback on this entire page, and on the extremely unconventional approach we are taking to turn around this very unconventional club. Vote, and comments below please!
How much of this inside look do you actually want?
No account needed. You can change your answer.
6 comments
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Anonymous member September 29, 2026
I read the page with great interest. AI. - I have no issue with you using AI in club communications, especially for crunching data and making sense of feedback like this.
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Anonymous member October 1, 2026
I'm one of the members that canceled recently. I felt there was a decline in the quality of the mezcal. Several years ago I thought 2 out of 3 bottles were top tier and couldn't wait to drink them. But now it's more like 1 out of 4 bottles are great. So those subpar bottles are building up because I'd rather drink something else. I don't want to toss them, as they are still decent mezcal, but not worth the price paid. I think I have at least 10 bottles mostly full. I may join again in the future, but I think it would be the club mini so that I could taste what I was getting before buying a full bottle.
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Reagan October 1, 2026
I just sent this in the Questions & Comments box on the main site, then I read found this, so here's a little copy/paste action lol:
I, like many, wasn’t a big fan of the Tamaulipas ensemble (or the Sotol for that matter, but in that I see I’m the minority). That being said, I don’t care. The whole point of this club, as I see it, is to share simultaneously the best, craziest, and rarest expressions of Mexican agave spirits. Those qualifiers don’t always coincide; to me that’s just fine. I didn’t join the club to replace my liquor store (despite that often being the case), I joined to be able to taste through the spectrum of aroma, flavor, and culture of what one of the worlds most beautiful spirits has to offer—arguable the only spirit that can truly lay claim to terroir.
An example: the barril from July. Unique? Not so much. Tasty? Absolutely. Quite a flip from August's ensemble which was certainly rare if not unique, but again, not super enticing on the flavor side. To my mind, July and August's expressions are two ends of the spectrum that Maguey Melate provides. The ensemble was a case of inverting the sliders from that barril, and that’s perfect—if you had polled the club and asked in July who would want to try an ensemble from Tamaulipas in August, despite it being a left-field sort of distillate, who’d have said no? I don't always get in the mail the juice I'd pick in a blind tasting, but that's fine with me; it's like listening to music on the radio instead of Spotify.
On a more personal note: I subscribe to club mini because I can’t afford the main club. You know what else I can't afford? To try this many different mezcals by buying bottles at a liquor store. My wife and I are on a tight budget after just having our second child and her not working, and there is no way I’d be tasting mezcal like this without Maguey Melate. If someone wants more consistent home runs from a flavor perspective and can afford it, there's Old Town Tequila, Potomac Wines, K&L, and others. Also, I’m in rural Wisconsin. It’s a spirits desert. Getting anything good is hard… getting good agave spirits is impossible. Without Melate, I’m earthen-pit cooked. I’d be counting on one hand how many sips of decent agave spirit I’d have had in one year.
I’ll land the plane with what I think would excite me about the future. I’ll be honest, I’m not a big sotol guy. I’m still glad they’re in there, but they don’t get my mouth watering like agave does. That being the case, though, what if there were other spirits that aren’t agave? Maybe for the bonus bottles? I know y’all have bottled a couple eau-de-vies and stuff in the past, but that was before my time and I constantly hear how there’s different Mexican distillates of all stripes cropping up all over the place. I’d love to get some of that in my cabinet. That tobala with apples was unreal. All I’m saying is if we’re doing sotols, that’s gotta open the door for fruit distillates, rums, gins, and other stuff, right? That would be a huge value-add for me and hopefully others. Maybe that means keeping the monthlies to strictly mezcal, but then the bonus bottles are always something a little different? I don't know.
Plane landed-ish. Also, if anyone complains about having a backlog of bottles (as seems to be the case), my email is reagandricken@gmail.com 😉
Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk.
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Anonymous member October 1, 2026
I too read this page with great interest. Coming from a rural PNW city, this "club" is a rare and invaluable resource for me as a mezcal novice interested in expanding my horizons. While not all the bottles have been home runs for me, they have all increased my knowledge and interest in this fascinating spirit. I think you're all doing an amazing job with the limited resources and fierce headwinds you face (declining alcohol imbibing, tariffs, inflation, etc....), this coming from a grandpa who's son is the VP of a wine and spirits distributing company. This old student thanks you.
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Todd October 1, 2026
Are you trying to satisfy two non-overlapping client types with one product?
Maybe the Adventurer’s Club gets a wider range and riskier stuff. Maybe Club Predictable (well, you can workshop the name) gets the popular bottles that Club Adventurer members tried and rated the previous quarter + more repeat tried and true bottles.
Because what you really need is an even more complex system I know. 🙂
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Tim October 9, 2026
this page is awesome and shows the curious and creative spirit that is MM. as for AI pick your poison. its gonna be a rollercoaster. thanks for acknowledging it.
wildcard thought -- I like mezcal yes. a lot. And. I also like supporting mezcal and mexico. so in addition to liquid deliciousness, education, stories, if ppl say they have too much mezcal give them something else and I don't mean like a box of chapulines (which is cool but bear with me) but like some other way to participate in the club for an off cycle or side club offering. how about somewhat direct or transparent way to support the traditions, cultural practices, wellbeing. the mangos we helped fund 1 month were able to be used in next years pechuga, or the water cistern went into helping to establish that mipla that resulted in that epic ensamble. or some fresh machetes for people you go to sample from and thats just cool cause its cool to pass it along and we don't see a thing back from it other than a story from Chava. ..now I know thats not for everyone as plenty will request consistently good mezcal and thats rad. but im on here writing feedback for what i'd want to be considered!
while we're at it. some way to give back these bottles to you other than to the bin.
and the cardboard box map is a nice touch but difficult to read and doesnt always have the places or sometimes seemed incomplete. all for now. thank you and great work.
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2 comments
I actually agree with the last note received on 14th September (ie: club has been slipping in quality the past year). While I didn't pause my subscription, I have noticed a trend of seemingly average / sub-average mezcales. Enough so for me to say outloud and to my wife: "these mezcales seem to be getting worse". Without wasting paragraphs of details, I think succinctly I would reiterate what's already been said: All things being equal, I would rather have great tasting mezcales than anything that is close to being average...no matter the region, story, or unique species behind it. And if there's ever a question or you're in a pinch or indecisiveness in making a decision - you guys have the best Oaxaca resources available and ease of getting batches (example: I've never heard of anyone complain about having to drink another great, delicious mezcal from Miahuatlan ; )
Generally I think you're putting in the right bottles in the boxes for a certain audience. those that are willing to be surprised, open to new aspects, explorations, risks. and thats cool if thats the angle. When I think of MM, I think get the unexpected 🙂 . Could be good, could be great, could be totally not what you want, but almost for sure its educational and different than the norm. Met a new person, hear a new story, have a taste of their life. thats a specific customer. radical approach if thats what you're after. great when its good, and tested when the mezcal waivers, and further so when money gets tight.
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