Mexico may be best known for its beaches or food, but right now it’s having a moment as an environmental success story. Scientists just reported a stunning 64% surge in monarch butterfly populations, with wintering colonies now occupying 7.24 acres compared to 4.42 the previous year. This comeback took decades of sustained conservation effort. Meanwhile, the country’s most famous export is quietly doing its own version of the same work.
To see this work in action, you just need to order a drink. Next time you’re at your favorite dive bar or hole-in-the-wall taqueria, ask for a margarita with Jose Cuervo. Or order that shot of Jose and lick salt on your hand, lime wedge ready to chew, as a chilled shot is poured into a shot cup. If it’s got a warm, natural tan color and feels suspiciously solid for something that isn’t plastic, you’re holding one of Cuervo’s agave shot cups or straws. And it has a great origin story.
The fibrous pulp left over after the piñas are pressed for juice gets upcycled into a bio-based composite that decomposes up to 200 times faster than regular plastic. Unlike paper straws, which turn to mush in about 40 seconds flat, it has the mouthfeel of traditional plastic without dissolving in your drink. Sometimes, the greenest ideas come with a shot of genius.
But that shot cup is just the beginning of the story. Since 2019, Cuervo’s Agave Project has been finding consumer-facing uses for that leftover agave fiber, and making straws, surfboards, car parts, and a Fender Stratocaster, among other things. CMO Lander Otegui puts it plainly: “Big Tequila are the ones capable of doing the big things for the community, the big things for the environment, the big things to protect the future.”
This vision of responsibility is what brings tequila and butterflies together. The monarchs and the agave don’t share a direct ecological relationship. After all, butterflies need milkweed, not Blue Weber. But they share something bigger: they’re both emblems of a Mexico worth protecting, and both are proof that sustained, unglamorous conservation work actually moves the needle—one measured in acres of forest, and the other in fiber that is repurposed instead of ending up in a landfill.
Lick the salt. Take the shot. Squeeze the lime. Mexico’s doing the work, from the forest to the distillery.
San Francisco-based Dina Novarr enjoys sharing her passion for fine wines, spirits, non-alcoholic craft beverages, and more with others.
Cocktails with Dina
Published on April 9, 2026
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