When Disney Bet on Agave Straws (And Why It Wasn't Just a Trend)
In 2019, La Cava del Tequila — the signature tequila bar in Epcot's Mexico Pavilion — stopped serving its margaritas with plastic straws and introduced something different: straws made with agave fiber. It was part of a broader push by Disney to cut down on single-use plastics across its parks, and the detail didn't go unnoticed by guests. A Mexican cultural icon, solved with a material rooted in Mexico, served in the very pavilion dedicated to Mexico.
What's interesting is that the idea itself — using the fibrous byproduct of the agave plant, which the tequila industry already produces by the millions of tons, instead of throwing it away — wasn't a one-off idea from Disney. It's a shift that has kept gaining ground across the food and beverage industry, and it's still growing today.
Why Agave Makes Sense as a Material
Agave fiber is already there. Every liter of tequila or mezcal leaves behind plant fiber that traditionally ended up as waste. Putting that fiber to use in straws cuts down on two things at once: the volume of plastic reaching oceans and landfills, and the waste of an agricultural byproduct that already existed.
At Agave Straws, we work from that same logic. Our straws are made with a compound that incorporates agave fiber, built to reduce dependence on virgin plastic without giving up the durability a beverage business needs day to day — something a fully plastic straw can offer, but at an environmental cost that more brands and customers are no longer willing to pay.
From One Bar in Epcot to Thousands of Businesses
What happened at La Cava del Tequila — a high-volume venue serving thousands of drinks a day — is some of the best proof that this kind of straw holds up in real operations, not just in theory. If a location with that level of demand could make the switch, the question for any restaurant, bar, or café isn't really "does an agave straw work?" anymore — it's "why are we still using plastic?"
That's the conversation we want to keep pushing forward at Agave Straws: helping more businesses — from a single cocktail bar to a restaurant chain — get access to a real, available, and competitively priced alternative, without having to redesign their whole operation to do it.