The Museum of Tequila and Mezcal opened in 2010 inside a restored colonial building on Plaza Garibaldi's north edge, converting three floors of what was once a vecindad into Mexico's first institution dedicated exclusively to agave distillates. Its location is deliberate — Plaza Garibaldi has been the capital's mariachi heartland since the 1920s, and pairing music with mezcal reflects a tradition older than the nation itself. The museum holds over 400 bottles in its permanent collection, including pre-industrial mezcals from Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Michoacán, some dating to the late 19th century when production was entirely artisanal and regional identities were encoded in clay pot stills and maguey varietal selection. Mezcal production predates the Spanish colonial period by centuries. Indigenous communities fermented agave pulque long before distillation arrived with European copper stills in the 1500s, but the transformation into mezcal — roasted, fermented, and distilled — created a spirit that carried terroir, smoke, and ritual into a single vessel. By the 20th century, tequila had captured international markets while mezcal remained a regional product, often misunderstood and undersupplied. The museum's curatorial mandate corrects that imbalance, tracing mezcal's journey from village palenques to protected denomination of origin status in 1994, which formalized production standards across nine Mexican states. The building's interior architecture preserves original stone walls and wooden beams, contrasting with contemporary exhibition design that uses backlit displays and sensory stations to explain fermentation chemistry, wood choice in distillation, and the 30-plus agave species used in mezcal production. The third floor hosts the tasting salon, where the 60 MXN entry includes a basic flight — typically three pours representing different agave types or regional styles. This democratizes access to spirits that, in retail contexts, often carry premiums disconnected from their artisanal origins. Docents explain how espadín differs from tobalá in sugar content and maturation time, why earthen pit roasting imparts smoke, and how ABV in traditional mezcal often exceeds 45 percent because distillers prioritize flavor concentration over commercial dilution. The museum's educational model has influenced similar institutions across Oaxaca and Jalisco, establishing a template for how heritage spirits can be contextualized without being commodified.