Tequila

The raw material of tequila is the Blue Agave plant (different names: Agave Tequilana, Agave Azul, Agave Tequila Weber), which belongs to the lily family and not, as has been mistakenly paraphrased, to the cactus family.

The high production of sugar (fructose) in the core of this plant is the main characteristic that makes it suitable for the preparation of alcoholic drinks. Tequila is produced by removing the heart of the plant (piña) in its twelfth year.

In more detail

When the blue agave reaches the age of 8–12 years, it matures and can be used for the production of tequila. The agave producers, the jimadores, cultivate and collect its fruits by hand and without the participation of machines. Then the sugar-rich central stem, that is the piña, which resembles a huge pineapple and weighs about 90 kilos, after the leaves have been cut off, is baked in a stone oven for 3 days and then left in the mill so as to release its juice, rich in sugar, as well as its spicy and astringent aromas. It should be noted that when agave is raw it is poisonous, while when it is roasted it acquires a sweet and mild taste. This is followed by the fermentation of the sugars into alcohol in wooden barrels or tanks, resulting in the mosto, which is distilled twice in copper pot stills of discontinuous operation. It is heated for 10 days and then cooled and “rested” for several months in barrels, usually of white oak, which give it a slightly dark shade.

For a spirit to be called tequila, it must meet certain specific requirements. The law therefore states that it must be produced only from the concentrated sugars of blue agave, cultivated in specific regions: Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas. The same law requires every tequila made from 100% agave to be produced from start to finish and bottled within the borders of Mexico. Bottles that do not state “100% agave” are mixtos, with at least 51% agave, in combination with sugars from sugar cane and water.

The types of tequila according to Mexican legislation are:

• Silver, Blanco, Plata: white tequila that is bottled immediately after distillation or within 60 days. It may be stored until bottling in stainless steel tanks, but not in wooden barrels.
• Gold, Oro, Suave, Joven or Joven abocado: yellow tequila, similar to Silver, with the only difference that additives are added, usually caramel and oak extract, in a proportion of up to 1% of the total volume, with the purpose of creating flavor and color that make it resemble aged tequila.
• Rested or Reposado: tequila that has matured in oak barrels for 2 to 12 months before bottling.
• Aged or Añejo: tequila that is stored and left to mature in oak barrels with a capacity of no more than 350 liters, for more than one year before being bottled.
• Extra Añejo: the aging may extend to 3 years and more.

Mezcal

A spirit related to tequila with an intense smoky aroma called mezcal. We could say that it is the “big brother” of tequila, a Mexican spirit distilled from the agave plant as well. The basic difference between tequila and mezcal is that mezcal can be made from different types of agave, more than 30, including blue agave, while it can be produced in the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Durango, Guanajuato, and Tamaulipas.

A special difference in relation to the flavor characteristics of mezcal is that it acquires its smoky taste because the piñas are roasted in earthen underground ovens, unlike the piñas intended to be distilled into tequila, since these are baked in ovens that resemble kilns more. It should also be noted that the myth concerning “good tequilas containing a worm” actually owes its existence to the bottling of mezcal. A larva called guzano appears in mezcal bottles for marketing reasons, in order in this way to attract the attention of the public.