Del Que Toma el Cardenal was born in 2014 in response to the industrialization of mezcal. With mezcal's rise in popularity, more and more of this spirit is being produced using less-traditional methods. Major brands are buying up the agave farms that had serviced the small producers, putting the future of independent Mexican spirits producers at risk. A small group of these producers, in partnership with entrepreneurs from the city of Oaxaca de Juárez, founded Del Que Toma el Cardenal in an effort to preserve the ancestral legacy of their families and to safeguard the multi-generational wisdom that has fueled international interest in agave spirits. The producers who participate in Del Que Toma el Cardenal are from the municipality of Santo Domingo Albarradas, a Zapotec community located in Oaxaca's Valles Centrales region, in the Tlacolula district. They follow a set of rules that is more rigorous than the criteria established to certify mezcal.