John P McEvoy

John McEvoy, born in 1964, grew up in Houston and attended the University of Texas at Austin. In 1986, he moved to New York City to pursue a career in finance. In 1999, he pursued an entrepreneurial path in finance and started his first company. He has been involved as a founder or co-founder in two other ventures since then and is currently running a New York-based venture group.

Throughout the 1990's he was a passionate tequila drinker and began to tinker with mezcal in the early 2000's. By 2012, John was a mezcal evangelist and started his blog, Mezcal PhD, as a forum to inform and educate people on this amazing spirit.

In 2014, he published the first edition of his book, Holy Smoke! It's Mezcal!, which was widely acclaimed in the spirits industry. In 2018, he added to and updated this work and released Holy Smoke! It's Mezcal! The Revised Second Edition.

John travels to Oaxaca at least once a year and believes he has the largest private mezcal collection in the U.S., topping 400 bottles. He loves to drink and talk about mezcal endlessly, so be sure you know what you are getting into before you start that conversation with him!