Drinking tequila in Tequila

I knew little about how Mexico’s top liquor was made, until I visited the town of Tequila Saturday. Although tequila is made in four Mexican states, mostly in the country’s central-Pacific mountain valleys, Tequila in Jalisco – about 90 minutes outside Guadalajara –  is the heart of the industry, home to Jose Cuervo and more than 100 smaller distilleries.

As part of the SATW conference, our group toured La Cofradia, a distillery and plantation of blue agave fields.  There’s also a boutique hotel on site, where for $110 per night, you can tour the distillery, visit the on-site tequila museum and even help out in the fields (although after seeing how much work it takes to make tequila, I say you’d be better off lying by the pool, guzzling down margaritas).

Once our bus cleared the extended Guadalajara suburbs, Jalisco turned rural, with fields of agave plants lending the Highlands a gray-green hue. While there are more than 200 different species of agave plant in Mexico, tequila can only be made from blue agave, and the plant is revered throughout Mexico. This part of Jalisco is a pretty countryside, dominated by a dormant volcano also named Tequila. As of 2006, the area is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, bearing the impressive title, “The Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila.”

At the distillery, our buoyant guide Shelly walked us through the tequila making process. The plants are ready to harvest when they are between 7 – 10 years old, and the leaves start to brown. The workers, known as jimadors, cut off the spiny leaves with a sharp – and heavy – shovel-like instrument known as a coa. This reveals the pina, or heart of the agave, which looks a little bit like a super-sized pineapple.

The shorn hearts (which are quite heavy – the ones we saw were about 80 pounds) are then transported to the distillery where they are chopped in half and steamed in ovens to turn the plant’s carbohydrates into sugar. Cooking also softens the plants so that their juices are released faster.

 We had a chance to eat pieces of baked agave – it was a little woody but otherwise tasted like dried apricots. Here’s fellow SATW member Jessica of Ski Utah  enjoying a big hunk of agave.

Once the pinas are baked, they are crushed, releasing the plant’s sugars. The liquid is then put into vats for fermantation. Notice the picture of Our Lady of Guadaloupe in the background.

 After the liquid agave is good and fermented, it’s distilled twice. At this point, the liquid is clear. Finally, the tequila is matured in white oak barrels for different lengths of time, depending on the taste the distiller is trying to achieve. Generally, the longer a tequila is aged, the darker is will look (although some producers add caramel coloring to their tequilas).

Not surprisingly, we drank quite a bit of tequila on our tour. First our guide offered us a shot of fresh tequila that, at 120 proof, is considered too strong to be sold legally (most tequila runs about 70 proof). The sip I took burned my throat for about 10 minutes after drinking.

Later, after listening to folk tales about the drink’s origin, we sampled three types of tequila – a triple distilled white tequila (Blanco) that is not aged; a Gold reposado aged at least two months in oak barrels, and an Anejo (Aged) that has been in the barrel at least one year. I’m no expert, but the tequilas did taste smoother the longer that they were aged, and the Anejo had a nice smoky taste. I bought a bottle to take home to my husband.

After making our purchases, our group headed into the town of Tequila, about five minutes away from the distillery. The town has a nice-sized plaza, with a Colonial cathedral and some other historic buildings.

We didn’t see many other American tourists,but our guide said that Tequila is also a tourist destination for other Mexicans.

Our day finished with a Mexican buffet and performances by traditional Mexican dancers and mariachi bands.

A quincinera was also about to take place at the distillery garden, so we had some additional guests watching the fun.

If you get a bunch of travel people in a room with bottomless margaritas, not to mention cervezas grande, things can get a little out of hand. Shots were drunk, there was a yipping contest and the Mararena was danced – many photos have been withheld to protect the guilty. This expression from the Mexican teens says it all: