Chawar Andean Agave Spirits
Small batch agave spirits from the Andean Highlands of Ecuador
Made by Ecuador’s first all-women’s agave harvesting co-op, MISHKITA, who maintain the ancestral tradition of agave sap harvesting.
CHAWAR is distilled in Yaruqui, a small pueblo just outside Ecuador’s capital, Quito.
The agave sap is called chawarmishki in the native Quechua language, meaning “raw” and “sweet”. The agave americana variety grows up to 15 years, and when the plant reaches maturity, the sap is harvested by tapping into the base of the plant.
Once harvested, the agave sap (or chawarmishki in the native Quechua language) is left to ferment naturally with wild yeast and then double distilled, creating a floral, sweet, and all natural raw agave spirit with a smoother palette than Tequila or Mezcal.
Their master distiller is Elizabeth Guaguilla, pictured below.
Founder Eliot Logan-Hines is an environmentalist and tropical forester. Eliot was born in Austin TX, and has a masters in environmental management from Yale University. He studied physics at UC Santa Barbara and environmental philosophy at Evergreen State. He and his husband, Robin Grefa, are the fathers of alpaca and llama herds in North and South America. He spends his time between Quito, Austin, Taos, Boulder, and Tena (in the Ecuadorian Amazon).
Read more about Eliot, Robin, and their alpaca herd in this 2023 article from the Austin Chronicle.
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