Tequila (; ) is a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the town of Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands (Los Altos de Jalisco) of the central western Mexican state of Jalisco.
The red volcanic soils in the region of Tequila are well suited for growing the blue agave, and more than 300 million plants are harvested there each year. Agave grows differently depending on the region. Blue agaves grown in the highland Los Altos region are larger and sweeter in aroma and taste. Agaves harvested in the valley region have a more herbaceous fragrance and flavor. Due to its historical and cultural importance, the region near Tequila was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006, the Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila.
Tequila differs from mezcal—other distilled spirits from the agave plant—because it is made only from blue agave. By Mexican law, no beverage may be sold as tequila unless it contains between 35% and 55% alcohol content (70 and 110 U.S. proof) and is produced in the state of Jalisco and limited municipalities in the states of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas.
International agreements also prevent the sale of "tequila" produced outside Mexico. The drink is recognized as a Mexican designation of origin product in more than 40 countries. It was protected through NAFTA in Canada and the United States until July 2020 and through bilateral agreements with individual countries such as Japan and Israel, and it has been a protected designation of origin product in the European Union since 1997.
Tequila is commonly served neat in Mexico and as a shot with salt and lime around the world.
History
Early history
Before the production of tequila or mezcal, pulque had been brewed from agave sap for thousands of years. Pulque is fermented, not distilled. The distillation technology to produce mezcal from agave heart juice was first introduced by Filipino sailors and migrants into the coastal regions of what was then Nueva Galicia (present-day Aguascalientes, Colima, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Nayarit, and Zacatecas). Mezcal distillation spread into the highland valleys of Amatitán, Tequila, Magdalena, and El Arenal in the mid-1700s. The distinctive mezcal produced in these regions became known as "tequila".
Spain's King Carlos IV granted the Cuervo family the first license to commercially make tequila. Don Cenobio Sauza, founder of Sauza Tequila and Municipal President of the Village of Tequila from 1884 to 1885, was the first to export tequila to the United States.
The first tequila distillery in the United States was opened in 1936 in Nogales, Arizona by Harry J. Karns, former Arizona state senator and Nogales Mayor.
The Mexican government declared the term "tequila" to be its intellectual property in 1974.
Recent history
Although some tequilas have remained as family-owned brands, most well-known tequila brands are owned by large multinational corporations. Over 100 distilleries make over 900 brands of tequila in Mexico and over 2,000 brand names have been registered (2009 statistics). Due to this, each bottle of tequila contains a serial number (NOM) denoting in which distillery the tequila was produced. In many cases, multiple different brands come from the same manufacturer.
In 2003, Mexico issued a proposal that would require all Mexican-made tequila be bottled in Mexico before being exported to other countries.Tequila Sparks U.S.-Mexico Flap . Associated Press. CBS News. 2003-09-25. The Mexican government said that bottling tequila in Mexico would guarantee its quality. Liquor companies in the United States said Mexico just wanted to create bottling jobs in their own country, and also claimed this rule would violate international trade agreements and was in discord with usual exporting practices worldwide.Salt, tequila, trade agreement . MSNBC News Services. NBC News. 2006-01-17. The proposal might have resulted in the loss of jobs at plants in California, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kentucky, because Mexican tequila exported in bulk to the United States is bottled in those plants. On January 17, 2006, the United States and Mexico signed an agreement allowing the continued bulk import of tequila into the United States.Viva Margarita! US, Mexico Ink New Tequila Agreement . CalTrade Report. 2006-01-23.Agreement Between the Office of the United States Trade Representative and the Secretaría de Economía of the United Mexican States on Trade in Tequila (pdf). 2006-01-17. The agreement also created a "tequila bottlers registry" to identify approved bottlers of tequila and created an agency to monitor the registry.
The Tequila Regulatory Council (Consejo Regulador del Tequila – CRT) originally did not permit flavored tequila to carry the tequila name. In 2004, the Council decided to allow flavored tequila to be called tequila, with the exception of 100% agave tequila, which still cannot be flavored.
A new Norma Oficial Mexicana (NOM) for tequila (NOM-006-SCFI-2005) was issued in 2006 and, among other changes, introduced a class of tequila called extra añejo or "ultra-aged", which must be aged a minimum of three years.
A one-liter bottle of limited-edition premium tequila was sold for $225,000 in July 2006 in Tequila, Jalisco, by the company Tequila Ley .925. The bottle that contained the tequila was a two-kilo display of platinum and gold. The manufacturer received a certificate from The Guinness World Records for the most expensive bottle of tequila spirit ever sold.
In June 2013, a Chinese ban on the importation of premium (100% blue agave) tequila into China was lifted, following a state visit to Mexico by Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping. The entry of premium tequila into the country was expected to increase tequila exports by 20 percent within the decade above the 170 million liters in 2013. Ramon Gonzalez, director of the Consejo Regulador del Tequila, estimates that each of the top 16 producers of tequila had invested up to $3 million to enter the Chinese market. On 30 August 2013, the first 70,380 bottles of premium tequila from ten brands arrived in Shanghai. The arrival happened during an event held at the House of Roosevelt, a well-known club located on The Bund – an area with a long tradition of importing alcoholic beverages in China.
The latest version of the tequila standard (NOM-006-SCFI-2012) updated the standard to specify that the silver class of tequila cannot contain additives, to allow the aging time for the ultra-aged class to be displayed on the label, and to prohibit the selling of bulk tequila through vending machines, and required registering the agave during the calendar year of its plantation and required annual updates.
In 2018, the Mexican government approved a proposal to celebrate the third Saturday of March as National Tequila Day.
Economy In 2024, the government reported that international sales of tequila from Tequila municipality reached approximately US $572 million. The majority of sales are to the United States, the top destination country in 2024.
Production
Tequila is made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the town of Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands (Los Altos de Jalisco) of the central western Mexican state of Jalisco. Aside from its geographical distinction, tequila is differentiated from other varieties of mezcal in that all of the agave used in tequila is blue agave, and the methods of production are different.
The red volcanic soils in the region of Tequila are well suited for growing the blue agave, and more than 300 million plants are harvested there each year. Agave grows differently depending on the region. Blue agaves grown in the highland Los Altos region are larger and sweeter in aroma and taste. Agaves harvested in the valley region have a more herbaceous fragrance and flavor. Due to its historical and cultural importance, the region near Tequila was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006, the Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila.
Planting, tending, and harvesting the agave plant remains a manual effort, largely unchanged by modern farm machinery and relying on centuries-old expertise. The people who harvest it, the , passed down the knowledge of how the plants should be cultivated from generation to generation.
By regularly trimming any (a stalk at the center of the plant that could grow several meters high if not cut back), the prevent the agave from flowering and dying early, allowing it to fully ripen. They also determine when each plant is ready to be harvested, and using a special knife called a (with a circular blade on a long pole), carefully cut away the leaves from the (the succulent core of the plant), which can average around in the valley and in the highlands. If harvested too late or too early, the will not have the right amount of carbohydrates for fermentation.
After harvesting, the are transported to ovens where they are slowly baked to break down their complex fructans into simple fructose. Then, the baked are either shredded or mashed under a large stone wheel called a . The pulp fiber, or , left behind is often reused as compost or animal feed, or can be used as fuel or processed into paper. Some producers like to add a small amount of back into their fermentation tanks for a stronger agave flavor in the final product.
The extracted agave juice is then poured into either large wooden or stainless steel vats for several days to ferment, resulting in a wort, or , with low alcohol content. This wort is then distilled once to produce what is called , and then a second time to produce clear "silver" tequila. A minimum of two distillations is required by law. A few producers such as Casa Noble (for their "Crystal" expression) and Corzo (for their expression) have experimented with distilling the product a third time, but this has not caught on as a trend, and some have said it removes too much of the agave flavor from the tequila. At this point the tequila is either bottled as silver tequila or it is pumped into wooden barrels to age, where it develops a mellower flavor and amber color.
The differences in taste between tequila made from valley and highland agave plants can be noticeable. Plants grown in the highlands often yield sweeter and fruitier-tasting tequila, while valley agaves give the tequila an earthier flavor.
Fermentation Unlike other tequila production steps, fermentation is largely outside the control of human beings. Fermentation is the conversion of sugars and carbohydrates to alcohol through yeast under anaerobic conditions, meaning that oxygen is not present during the process. Fermentation is also carried out in a non-aseptic environment, which increases the bacterial activity of tequila. The participation of microorganisms from the environment (yeasts and bacteria) makes fermentation a spontaneous process that gives rise to many byproducts that contribute to the flavor and aroma of tequila.
During the fermentation process, inoculum is added to the batch to accelerate the rate of fermentation. When inoculum is added, fermentation can take approximately 20 hours to 3 days. If inoculum is not added, fermentation could take up to 7 days. The rate of fermentation is a key factor in the quality and flavor of tequila produced. Worts fermented slowly are best because the amount of organoleptic compounds produced is greater. The alcohol content at the end of fermentation is between 4% and 9%.
Organoleptic compounds