Don Cuco, as he’s known to friends, was the president of a local association of mezcaleros and magueyeros (agave farmers) for many years, and has been a leading force behind popular agave and tree reforestation efforts that have helped make agave more plentiful today than in his youth. Though he works almost exclusively with maguey papalote, Don Cuco’s bodega is home to a diverse collection joven, capón and glass aged spirits, as well as a few special batches macerated with chumilin (Atizies taxcoensis), a local stink bug considered a seasonal delicacy.

Notes of coffee ice cream, cinnamon and winter spices just a few of the notes that pop up time and again on Don Refugio's papalotes.