Information About Tequila Is At The End Of This Page.

Mezcal is the "Mother of Tequila". Mezcal can be made in many varieties from different agave plants, but Tequila is made only from the Weber Blue Agave. Closely related to the lily, the Agave is not a cactus. There are over 120 types of agave, but Tequila is made from only the Blue Agave. It takes 8 to 12 years to produce a "pina", called so because it looks so much like a pineapple. It grows on the hillsides in the state of Jalisco, which is home to the town of Tequila.

The first commercial Tequila begins with Jose Cuervo, the first to get rights from the Spanish government to cultivate the Blue Agave and to produce Tequila, but Cenobio Sauza was the first to import it to the U.S.

Producing tequila is an age old art. The jimadores hand cut and carried the heavy pinas and cooked them for three days in stone ovens. It was then ground into tahona, by a big grinding stone powered by animals, and fermented in wood barrels. It was distilled usually in clay pots.

In the small region that Tequila is made, it comprises the majority of the population's income. The laborers, have never really evolved, working as their fathers before them did. The making of it doesn't really differ from how Tequila is made today, except for the modernization of the process. The Blue Agave is still hand processed. The agaveros (agave farmers) have felt deprived in the commercialization. However, there is a change afoot with a new Tequila, Trienta Trienta (or 30 -30). Seventeen of the agaveros that have joined together to produce a tequila that is is 100% Blue Agave.