Tuesday, April 23, 2024

What Us Tequila Made Of

Buy Tequila Online Casa Mexico Reposado Tequila

How Tequila Is Made

If youre looking at Casa Mexicos Reposado Tequila, you can buy tequila online through this page. The sweet and subtle ginger notes followed by a slight oak finish and hints of cinnamon delightfully awaken your palate. Its suitable for sipping or as the foundation for your favorite tequila-based cocktail.

Harvesting The Blue Agave

An agave plant usually takes between 8 -12 years to grow to its full size and weighs approximately 40-100 Kg. The Jimador who is a Mexican farmer specialising;in the harvesting;The blue agave plant is actually a succulent of the agave plant He uses a coa to harvest the agave by first cutting away the outer leaves of the agave, leaving only the centre;fruit known as the;Piña .

At;La Alteña;to this day, every step from harvesting the agave to bottling, is done by hand, in the most traditional way.

The Jimador harvesting the agave plant cutting away the outer leaves

The;Piñas are then taken back to the distillery and axed in half and a V shaped bitter wedge is removed from near the root . Many of the more modern distilleries use chain/rip saws or different machinery in order to save time and lower costs of;manpower.

Halving the piñas by hand at Distileria La Alteña

Bartendings Love Affair With Agave

From the humble pulque to todays craft tequilas, bartenders around the world are taming the humble agave nectar into more than simple Margaritas and Tequila Sunrises. In 2009, Phil Ward opened Mayahuel, celebrating the current state of fantastic tequila and mezcal available in the U.S. . The bar helped popularize tequila-fying classic cocktails like the Oaxaca Old Fashioned. Since then, multiple noteworthy bars across the country have arrived, including 400 Rabbits in Austin, Texas. Most recently, Ivy Mix, who was named the Best American Bartender at this years Tales of the Cocktail, opened Leyenda, a Mexican-inspired watering hole serving tequila cocktails that would make the Olmecs raise a glass in wonderment.

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Ever Sip On A Margarita And Wonder What Is Tequila Made From We Break Down What You Need To Know About Mexico’s Most Famous Spirit

In a cocktail, as a shooter or as a spirit to sip on, tequila in all its forms remains super popular. Its not hard to find a good tequila, either. But theres more to tequila than meets the eye. You might be surprised to learn how tequila is made and what types of tequila you can buy.

Mix yourself a margarita on the rocksits time to learn all about tequila.

More About The Tequila Matchmaker Nom Database

Tequila Serving Tray is made from an Authentic Bourbon ...

Our list of brands is slightly different than what appears within the CRTs published spreadsheets because we take a curated approach by consolidating brands when appropriate. For example, in the CRT spreadsheet, Siete Leguas appears as SIETE LEGUAS; 7 LEGUAS; DANTAÑO; ANTAÑO; 7 LEGUAS; SIETE LEGUAS. We clean this up and list them all under a single brand name with several products.

The CRT regularly updates their list, including tequila brands and distilleries that are in active production. Once a tequila brand, or a distillery, stops producing, it is dropped from their list. Thats where we come in. This historical information is recorded, curated, and made available to search within the Tequila Matchmaker app. So, if you find an old bottle, you can still search its NOM number to see where it was made.

There are 1,716 brands included in the Tequila Matchmaker database, but only 1,196 of them are currently listed in the most recent update of the CRTs NOM database. These brands come from 138** different active distilleries in Mexico.

Our NOM database is usually updated within a few hours of the CRTs release of new information.

The Tequila Matchmaker app is free, and is available for iPhone and Android devices.

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The Town And The Beverage

The beverage called tequila is really a variety of mezcal, made wholly or mostly from the blue agave plant. This plant is native to the Tequila area so this version of mescal was named after the town. Use of the agave plant goes far back into the pre-Hispanic period. The “piña” or heart of the plant was used by the indigenous peoples cooked as a sweet, and as the base for a fermented alcoholic beverage. This beverage was called mescal by the native people and was much like what is called pulque today. By the time the Spanish arrived, the natives had begun to cultivate the plant. The Spanish first considered taking the plant back to Spain but decided to develop it and its product in Mexico.

The Spanish introduced distillation to turn the native fermented mescal into what is now known as tequila. The first large-scale distillery was created in 1600 and over the colonial period demand for the drink resulted in some of the oldest, still-operating enterprises in this area such as: “La Rojeña”, founded in 1795; “El Tigre” founded in 1823; Destiladora de Occidente founded in 1840; La Perseverancia founded in 1873; El Llano founded in 1876; La Mexicana founded 1879.

In 1873, the “Mezcal wine” from the region of Jalisco was officially named “Tequila”, in order to distinguish it from Mezcal spirits produced in the south of Mexico, such as those produced in Oaxaca.

Cuervo Was The First Producer Of Tequila In The World

Jose Antonio de Cuervo y Valdes obtained land from the King of Spain in 1758 and began producing tequila all before Mexico became an independent republic. In 1795, his son, Jose María Guadalupe de Cuervo, began selling the very first Vino Mezcal de Tequila de Jose Cuervo after receiving the first official charter from the King of Spain to produce tequila commercially.

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They’re Produced In Different Regions

While there is some geographical overlap, tequila and mezcal primarily come from different regions of Mexico.;According to;McEvoy, tequila is produced in five places:;Michoacán, Guanajuato, Nayarit, Tamaulipas and Jalisco, which is where the actual town of Tequila is located.

Conversely, mezcal is produced in nine different areas of Mexico. The include include;Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, Michoacán, Puebla and Oaxaca, which is where upwards of 85 percent of all mezcal is made.

Is One Oven Better Than The Other

HOW TEQUILA IS MADE

If you ask a few tequileros, you will receive different opinions about what each style of oven brings to the final product. It is a great debate; some people will compare the modern autoclave to a microwave and the brick oven to using a traditional oven in your kitchen. Do tequilas from an autoclave have a diminished flavor.

This single step does not consign one to a bad tequila. Instead, it is the culmination of every step in the tequila-making process, from the agave to the barrel, that will affect the final product’s quality.

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Labeling And Bottling By Hand At La Altea

From planting the hijuelos to labeling the bottles, every step at La Alteña Distillery is done by hand. This is what makes Villa Lobos;tequila so beautiful;and unique. Each bottle is inspected;, signed and numbered by hand by the bottling line manager of the day.

Each and every detail is carried out by hand

Cooking The Blue Agave

The piñas are then placed into large brick or stone horno ovens where the raw agave is steamed at low temperatures for between 22 and 56 hours. Historically, the process took place in earthen pits. Yet, this is rare for tequila and is usually used for making mezcal instead.

Contrary to popular belief, the blue agave piñas are not baked or roasted. By using steam, the piñas become soft and the fructan and inulin are converted to fructose.

Some modern operations may use autoclave pressure ovens. However, although larger and much faster, the higher temperatures arent as effective at removing bitter flavours. Nevertheless, while less authentic, professionals claim that it can proposer cleaner flavours.

In any case, these arent quite as poor as diffusers, which work on an industrial scale to chemically extract juice from the agave.

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Why Is Tequila A Depressant

Despite the fact that you may have seen people drinking tequila get raucous and overly-energetic, it is a depressant. This is because it is a form of alcohol, or ethanol, which is the same intoxicating ingredient in wine, beer, and other liquors. The alcohol molecule is the same in all types of alcoholic drinks.;

You may see it implied that there is something about tequila that makes people act differently that when they have a few beers or drink wine. This just isnt true, the alcohol in beer, wine, and tequila all affect the brain in the same way. However, how you drink these beverages can play a huge part in how you behave. For example, when someone drinks tequila its often in the form of shots, taken in a fairly short succession, but when someone has wine, its often sipped over time as means to relax.;

What Is The Difference Between Tequila And Mezcal

TEQUILA

Belly up to your favorite bar, and youll encounter craft cocktails serving mezcal.

But have you ever asked yourself, what is mezcal?

Mention Mexican spirits and most people think of tequila; understandable since the U.S. boasts the largest global market . But tequilas edgier cousin has been around for centuries and were here to tell you all about it.

From its deep ties to Mexican culture to how to make it and the difference between mezcal and tequila, we’ve got you covered.

Read on so you can navigate the spirit like a pro the next time you;travel to Mexico:

First, What Is Mezcal?

Let’s start that any spirit distilled from the agave plant is considered a mezcal. As in, it is the mother term under which other distilled agave spirits like tequila, sotol, bacanora, and raicilla reside.

Were talking only distilled agave spirits, so, the fermented agave alcohol pulque is excluded.

Now for the spirit’s origin story. In addition to introducing wheat and domesticated animals, the Spanish conquistadors brought distillation when they;arrived in Mexico. They took the agave and started distilling it and, as such, mezcal was the first distilled spirit made in the Americas.

The Difference Between Mezcal And Tequila

One of the most popular Google searches is the difference between these two spirits and there are many.

Finally, the ratio of agave in each spirit differs. A true mezcal is made with 100% agave, while tequila only requires 50% agave content.;

The Various Types

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Does Tequila Have A Worm In It

Bex Walton, CC2.0

It is a common misconception that you can find a worm at the bottom of a tequila bottle. Indeed, the Mexican Normas Oficiales prohibits adding any insects or larvae to tequila!

In fact, its mezcal, which may occasionally have a creature in the bottle. However, its never a worm but a Mariposa moth larva.

Also known as gusano de maguey, the larvae are known parasites that feed off agave. There are two varieties of gusano de maguey. The gusano de oro simply eats the agaves leaves. Meanwhile, the gusano rojo will live in the heart.

Since its more than likely that the occasional larva got accidentally roasted with the piñas, its possible that producers felt that their presence even enhanced the flavour.

Nevertheless, the practice wasnt particularly well known until the late 1940s. In fact, its believed that it was used as a form of marketing so mezcal could differentiate itself from tequila.

It was argued that the meatier gusano rojo that lived off the heart would add flavour as well as promote virility. Furthermore, it was suggested that it showcased the mezcals purity if the larva didnt disintegrate.

Can You Eat The Tequila Worm

Fried Gusano de Maguey

Not only are gusanos edible but they are a delicacy in Mexico! As the larvae are quite scarce, theyre quite expensive and usually enjoyed but a wealthy minority.

Usually, the worms are carefully harvested from the heart of agave after rainy seasons. Only a few can be extracted at a time or the plant may die. Typically, the gusanos rojos are fried and served in tacos.

Therefore, you can rest assured that the so-called tequila worm is perfectly safe to eat. Buen provecho!

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Extracting The Sweet Agave Juices

Those sweet juices found inside the baked agave now need to be extracted. Just like every other step in the process, tequila distilleries employ different methods.

The majority of the time, mechanical shredders are used to pulverize and separate the agave fibers, allowing the sweet juice, or mosto, to be collected for fermentation. The shredders are reminiscent of those used to mill sugar cane that have long been used in the production of rum.

A handful of tequila distilleries choose to;do it the old-school way, with a tahona, a large wheel often made from volcanic rock that rolls around a stone pit, crushing the agave and extracting the;juice;as it goes. Using the tahona wheel is a very traditional method and it was originally pulled by horses, mules, or oxen. Today’s tahonas are operated either by tractors or a central engine that slowly moves the arm attached to the wheel around the pit, but they require a worker or two to work the pit as the 2-ton wheel crushes the agave. Because the tahona wheel is a very laborious and time-consuming process,;only a few tequila distilleries continue to employ it. Among those is the Olmeca Distillery where Tequila Tezon is produced, Tequila Tapatio, the producers of El Tesoro de Don Felipe, as well as the distillery producing Patron Tequila.

The Necessary Ingredient In Tequila

how tequila is made

Tequila is made from the blue agave plant, a member of the succulent family, native to Mexico . The plant grows particularly well in dry soil at an altitude of 5,000 feet or higher and is pollinated by bats .;

People who harvest agave are known as jimadors and they are considered specialists in their field who pass down agave knowledge through the generations . The tequila-making process begins with the core or piña of the plant, which is revealed when the agave’s spiky leaves are stripped away by the jimadors.;

The core of the plant is referred to as the piña because it resembles a huge pineapple. Each piña can weigh between 80 and 300 pounds . The piñas are juiced by first heating and then crushing them, and the liquid that is extracted is fermented and distilled to become tequila . To produce one liter of tequila, around 15 pounds of piña is used.

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A Brief History Of Tequila

Tequila first came about in the 1500s near the;modern-day Mexican;city of Tequila. In pre-Columbian central Mexico, there was a;fermented beverage;from the agave plant known as;pulque. When;Spanish;conquistadors;ran out of their own;alcohol, they started to distill the agave plant.

A few decades later,;the Marquis of Altamira started to mass-produce tequila at his factory in Jalisco. A few centuries later, in the late 1800s, tequila;would be first exported to the United States.

The drink soon became a smash hit and now there are hundreds of companies that produce their own tequila.

The Margarita Is Invented

As was the case with rye whisky from Canada during Prohibition, tequila also found a home among American scofflaws. Unable to get their hands on much beyond second-rate whiskey and bathtub gin, drinkers in the U.S. began taking advantage of Mexicos sweet agave nectarnot to mention the more than one hundred bars in Tijuana that were plentiful with drink and easy to access.

By the time 1936 rolled around, it was once again legal to drink in the States and going to Mexico for a good time was no longer requisite. But a newspaperman named James Graham and his wife took a trip to Tijuana, where they wound up in one of the surviving bars run by an Irishman called Madden, who was known around the area for his Tequila Daisy. Though Madden admitted that the creation of the drink was a lucky mistake, its become one of the most celebrated in the U.S. . When was the last time you celebrated Cinco de Mayo without one?

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Find The Right Tequila For You With Saucey

Now that you know everything there is to know about tequila, its time to put that knowledge to use and pick out some new tequilas to try. The best place to get your tequila delivery is from Saucey. We have hundreds of different tequila brands and varieties to try. We even have several types of mezcal as well. No matter what kind of tequila you like to drink, weve got it.;

If you are unsure of which brand to buy, no worries. We know it can be overwhelming at times to choose from all of those options! To make things easier, we have created a list of a few different brands that are very popular. While you dont necessarily need to choose the most popular tequila to choose the best one, sometimes its helpful to know what a majority of people like when it comes to alcohol.

The Cuervo Family Method Is Unmatched

How Authentic Tequila is Made

Jose Cuervo has been making tequila for over 250 years with the same experience, handcraftsmanship, and recipes that have been handed down generation through generation. Carefully choosing the best agaves, meticulous fermentation and distillation, and final processing result in the worlds finest tequila.

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Tequila Is Made From Blue Agave

Real tequila is made from a plant called Blue Agave. Only the Agave Azul Tequilana Weber variety can be used for tequila. Classified by German botanist F. Weber in 1905, Blue Agave is commonly mistaken for a cactus, but its really a relative of the lily family. Blue Agave is sometimes known as maguey, mexic, pita and teometl.

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