Don Gerardo Ruelas is the Maestro Sotolero of Flor del Desierto (“desert flower”) and distills his products from the sotol, a flowering plant. Unlike tequila and mezcal, sotol is made from one of 16 species within the Dasylirion genus (the same family as asparagus)—from a plant called the “desert spoon” for its signature squatty leaves. Wild plants grow from Texas to Southern Mexico, and while sotol is unofficially produced across Mexico, with a protected denomination of origin, the spirit can only be labeled as such if made in the states of Chihuahua, Durango and Coahuila.