Filipino sailors helped bring the stills that made tequila possible
People in Mexico brewed pulque from agave sap for thousands of years, but it was fermented, never distilled. Distilling agave heart juice arrived with Filipino sailors and migrants on the Pacific coast of what was then Nueva Galicia. By the mid-1700s the technique had reached the valleys around the town of Tequila, whose local mezcal took the town's name.
Tequila is a kind of mezcal made only from blue agave, grown mostly around Tequila, some 65 kilometres northwest of Guadalajara, and in the Jalisco highlands. More than 300 million plants are harvested from the red volcanic soils each year. Highland agaves grow bigger and yield sweeter, fruitier spirit; valley plants give an earthier, more herbal taste. The landscape of agave fields and old distilleries became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006.
Harvesting is still done by hand, by jimadores who inherit the craft. They keep cutting back the tall central flower stalk so the plant does not bloom and die before ripening, then judge when it is ready and slice off the leaves with a round-bladed tool on a long pole called a coa. What remains is the piña, the heart, averaging about 70 kilograms in the valley and 110 in the highlands. Picked too early or too late, it holds the wrong amount of sugar.
The hearts are slow-baked to turn complex fructans into fructose, then shredded or crushed under a big stone wheel, the tahona. Leftover fibre becomes compost, animal feed, fuel or paper. The juice ferments for days, partly thanks to wild yeasts and bacteria from the surroundings, reaching only 4 to 9 percent alcohol. By law it must then be distilled at least twice. The clear result is bottled as silver tequila or aged in wood for colour and mellowness; the extra añejo class, created in 2006, needs at least three years in barrel.
Spain's King Carlos IV gave the Cuervo family the first commercial licence, and Cenobio Sauza first exported tequila to the United States. Mexico declared the name its intellectual property in 1974, and it is protected in more than 40 countries, including the European Union since 1997. Every bottle carries a number identifying its distillery. In 2006 a one-litre limited edition in a platinum and gold bottle sold for 225,000 dollars, a Guinness record.
Source: Tequila
