Agave tequila plant. Description of blue agave: benefits and applications

What is the basis of Mexico's super popular national drink? Blue agave, of course! What is agave liquor? Definitely tequila! The agave plant plays a very important role in the local industry. Rope, ropes, rugs and other coarse fabrics are made from Mexican agave. And not only. An agave washcloth is what tourists from Mexico bring as a souvenir to their loved ones and acquaintances. After all, magnets nowadays are already too annoying a souvenir. Moreover, agave washcloth is a natural product. And we can also say that any production related to the processing of agave is practically waste-free; all unnecessary residues from the plant are used to make, first of all, wrapping paper.

But the Mexican agave drink includes more than just tequila, but also drinks like pulque and mezcal.

1. Pulque is a sweet, low-alcohol Mexican drink, which is obtained by fermenting agave juice, without distillation. Its strength is small - just 6 - 8%.

2. Mezcal is a traditional Mexican alcoholic drink made from fermented agave juice. But unlike tequila, no sugar is added when agave juice is fermented, and the strength reaches 38 - 43%. Mezcal is made from five types of cultivated agave, while tequila is made only from blue agave.

It is from blue agave that a wonderful drink is distilled. Blue agave tequila can be divided into two groups:

1. "100% Agave", or "100% pure de agave". This means that blue agave tequila is made exclusively from blue agave juice without any additives.

2. “mixto” or “mixed”, where 50% is blue agave juice, and the rest is other sugar-containing products, namely wheat, corn, etc.

Agave flower and agave oil are used in medicine. The leaves of this plant contain steroid saponins, which are used to enhance the effectiveness of steroid hormonal drugs.

All these plants are similar to each other, have a short stem and very thick, fleshy leaves. Leaves may be grey, blue, green or variegated. The tip of the leaf of each type of agave is pointed and divided into many spiny teeth. There are approximately 136 varieties of agave growing in Mexico. Some species of this plant can be used to produce alcoholic beverages, but still the pride of Mexico is one species - the blue agave. Blue agave is what makes the best agave drink.

The blue agave is distinguished by its fleshiness, and its shape resembles a huge rose; it is a blue-green plant, hairy, tall and with huge, hard leaves, at the end of which there are sharp needles. Only one Mexican region is perfect for growing this type of agave - Tequila; the area of ​​land planted with this plant is about 209 square kilometers. The fields where agave grows are raised to an altitude of approximately 1500 meters above sea level. The soil on such plantations has special properties necessary for good agave growth. The lands here are very rich in iron, sand and other minerals. There are many poems and legends about the flowering of agave, in which you can often hear that agave blooms only once in a lifetime. These lines are not a poetic exaggeration; agave actually blooms once in its life, after which it quickly dies. But flowering does not occur once every 100 years, as can be understood from the same poems, but at about 25 years of age of the plant.

The agave flower is an incredibly beautiful sight. From a rosette of huge long leaves, reaching a width of 3 meters, comes a simply gigantic flower, up to 12 meters long, on top of which a magnificent inflorescence is formed in the form of a spike, consisting of thousands of yellow inflorescences. It takes 8-10 years for agave to fully ripen, after which it can be used to produce tequila. Over such a long period of time, blue agave accumulates a huge amount of carbohydrates and, of course, fructose. When the agave plant fully ripens, it produces abundant inflorescences, which signal that the plant's life is coming to an end. If you do not have time to harvest before the flowers fully bloom, the inulin content will drop very sharply, and such a plant will no longer be suitable for the production of good Mexican tequila. Harvesting agave is not at all easy, because the production of the Mexican drink from agave - tequila - requires only the core of the plant, which contains all the necessary sugar reserves. The picker has to cut off the plant's prickly leaves with special devices so as not to get hurt when digging the middle part of the agave out of the ground. Then it is necessary to remove the upper part from the fruit, leaving only the head, which has the shape of a pineapple and weighs several tens of kilograms. This process is quite labor-intensive; specialists usually use very sharp devices with long handles called “soa”. The art of agave harvesting is typically passed down from generation to generation. When it comes to growing agave, everything is quite simple.

Agave is an unpretentious plant, it likes to grow in the sun, although for
For smaller species, diffuse lighting is desirable. Almost all varieties of Mexican agave are desert plants, so they like it when day and night temperatures are very different (19-20 degrees during the day and 10-13 degrees at night). Agave does not need watering, since it is a desert plant; heavy rain can lead to the death of the agave. However, it is necessary to carefully monitor the “health state” of the plant, prevent diseases in a timely manner and clearly control the growth of the agave. Agave is grown from sprouts obtained from older breeds of this plant that have reached a height of 50 centimeters. Then they must be dried thoroughly. To do this, the sprouts are cut and left on the field for a month. After this period, they are collected and sent to special laboratories (nurseries), where they ripen before being planted on the field. It is customary to plant ready-made cuttings before the rainy season, so they will take root in the ground faster.

Blue agave, used in the production of the famous Mexican tequila, requires frequent trimming of excess leaves so that the core, which accumulates the most sugar and other necessary elements, becomes larger in size. And when it stops growing, acquiring a brownish-red hue, and bright red spots appear on the leaves, the blue agave is considered to be fully ripe.

And finally, I want to make it clear that agave cactus is far from blue agave. Do not be confused, blue agave belongs to the lily family, and has nothing to do with the cactus. And a photo of a blue agave will help you figure out once and for all that an agave cactus is not a blue agave.

Mexican tequila- one of the most popular strong alcoholic drinks in the whole world, and we want to tell you about its production and about the amazing plant from which this legendary vodka is produced - blue agave ( Agave tequilana) . It is one of more than one hundred and thirty varieties of agave growing on the Mexican Peninsula. It is a common misconception that blue agave is a cactus. In fact, it is a distant relative of the lilies and amaryllis so beloved by our florists, a succulent (having special tissues for storing water) herbaceous plant from the Liliaceae family. Wild blue agave grows in the western part of the country in a dry, hot climate, at an altitude of about one and a half kilometers above sea level. It is difficult to confuse this majestic plant with anything, with thick, arrow-shaped leaves growing in all directions and about 2 meters long. After five years, the agave grows a five-meter sprout, on which bright yellow flowers bloom, pollinated at night by bats. After the seeds ripen, the plant dies. To produce tequila, a domesticated variety of blue agave is grown, which lives much longer (up to 14 years). This occurs due to the fact that the shoot with inflorescences is removed and planted separately.

How is tequila made?

The largest region in Mexico for growing blue agave and producing tequila is the mountainous state of Pulque (previously, the country even had a special law prohibiting the preparation of tequila in other places). Here blue agave is grown in special gardens (potreros). To obtain juice, the core of the plant is used (the spherical part weighing from 35 to 150 kg). In this case, the plant itself must reach at least eight years of age, otherwise the process of fermentation (fermentation) will not occur in its juice. The cut cores are first softened with steam and then pressed to extract the juice. After this, water is added to it in large containers, followed by yeast, and left to ferment for one to two weeks. Next, the resulting liquid is subjected to double distillation.

Types of tequila, or a note for gourmets

After this, the drink can either be bottled immediately (white or silver tequila; silver) or left to age in wooden, usually oak, barrels (here the following categories are distinguished: plata or blanca - aging for no more than two months; Joven - without aging, usually painted; gold - the same silver, tinted to match the color of the aged one; reposado - aged for about a year; extra añejo - aged for over three years).

Other agave drinks: mezcal and pulque

In addition to tequila, another strong, but somewhat less common drink is made from agave - mezcal. The difference between the two is that, unlike tequila, mezcal is made from the juice of five different types of agave and is distilled only once. This drink has a sharper taste and aroma. Manufacturers sometimes put a special type of caterpillars and worms in bottles with it, but this is done solely for marketing reasons and has nothing to do with the process of making mezcal. Another traditional Mexican alcoholic drink is pulque- obtained by natural fermentation from the juice of six types of agaves. Therefore, pulque is not as strong as tequila and mezcal - it is a low-alcohol, white drink with a strength of 6-8 degrees, with abundant foam and a unique aroma.

The agave plant has been known to Europeans since the discovery of the New World. Its homeland is the central part of the American continent: Mexico, the southern part of the USA, Latin America.

The indigenous inhabitants of the New World noticed the healing properties of the juice of agave leaves. From it they learned to make medicines that help fight mainly skin diseases, and can also eliminate some internal problems.

Europeans managed to domesticate the plant. Initially, it was bred for decorative purposes on the street, but over time, miniature varieties appeared that anyone could grow on a windowsill.

Agave is an inhabitant of dry lands. It has juicy, fleshy leaves in which it accumulates large reserves of moisture. Most plant species lack a stem completely. And only in some it can be found in a shortened version.

Agave is a powerful rosette that spreads above the ground. Wild plant species can reach a diameter of up to 2 meters. Agave leaves are long, elongated, of varying green shades. Spikes or hairs grow along the edges of the plate. The leaf ends with a thin point.

In nature, flowering species are mainly found. Of the ornamental species, not every plant blooms.

After about 15-20 years of continuous growth, the agave throws out a long (up to 15 meters) peduncle, on the top of which tens of thousands of small flowers bloom. Subsequently, the adult plant dies, leaving behind several basal shoots.

People have long learned to use agave. Entire plantations are sown for cultivation on an industrial scale. Alcoholic drinks are obtained from the juice of the plant: tequila, mezcal, pulque. From the rough shell of the leaves, ropes, cords are woven, and wrapping paper is made. The juice of the plant is used in folk medicine for the preparation of internal and external remedies.

Agave species

Agave is represented by a wide variety of species. Plants differ in size, rosette density, shape, and leaf color. Many wild species are cultivated and have compact varieties for indoor cultivation.

Agave americana- the most common type. A tall spreading plant reaching up to 3 meters in length. The leaves are pale green with a yellow edge. Along the edges there are quite rare, but long and sharp thorns. The rosette is loose, laid out in layers. There are decorative varieties.

Agave blue- has economic importance. It is grown in large plantations in Mexico for the production of alcoholic beverages. The plant is distinguished by a dense rosette with thin, long, bare leaves of a bluish color. Cultivated blue agave differs significantly from the wild species.

Agave compressed– often used for decorative purposes. Forms very dense spherical rosettes. It is regularly updated, growing basal shoots. After the mother plant dies, several new ones form in its place. Agave leaves are compressed, thin, fleshy, needle-shaped.

Agave drawn got its name from its external features. Its leaves are gathered around a low stem, as if bent back. The leaf blade is wide, thin, bright green with a whitish tint at the base. The leaves are smooth and have no thorns or hairs.

Agave filamentosa– an ideal plant for the home. It has modest dimensions (up to 20 cm in length) and an attractive appearance. White fibers separate from the edge of each leaf and bend to form curls. The leaves of this type of agave are thin, hard, matte with a spike-like process at the top.

Queen Victoria Agave- one of the favorite plants of gardeners. It is perfect for growing on a windowsill. Doesn't require much space. It grows only up to 15 cm. The leaves are fleshy, smooth, densely planted, and have only one spine at the top. It is easy to extract juice from this plant to make home remedies.

To successfully grow a plant, you need to know where it comes from and what conditions are typical for its natural habitat. Agave does well at home and does not require special care. However, like any indoor crop, it has its own growth characteristics.

Lighting

Agave tolerates direct sunlight well and does not like shaded areas. With a lack of light, its leaves stretch out and the rosette becomes less dense. The best placement is windows facing south.

In winter, during the dormant period, agave can do without bright lighting, but if the plant has been in the shade for a long time, it should not be suddenly exposed to light. He needs to be accustomed to sun exposure gradually.

Temperature

The optimal temperature for growth is 23-28˚С, but this is in the summer. In winter, the plant enters a dormant period, during which cool conditions are required (not higher than 16̊ C). Agave can be left all winter in well-lit, frost-free rooms at 8-10˚C.

In summer, it is advisable to take the plant out into the air. During warm nights, agave can be kept outside constantly. If this is not possible, then you should at least put the flower on the balcony or thoroughly ventilate the room.

Watering

The plant can tolerate drought for a long time. In summer, it should be watered no more than 1-2 times every two weeks, focusing on the condition of the soil. The top layer should be dry, but not dried out. In winter, agave can go without watering for a month or more.

Care should be taken when irrigating. Agave does not tolerate the accumulation of water in the depths of the rosette!

Humidity

Agave does not require moisture. The level that develops in our apartments is quite enough for her. The plant does not need to be sprayed. But dust removal should be done regularly, since dirt accumulates on the wide sheet plates, preventing air and moisture exchange.

Top dressing

During the period of active growth, the plant requires additional nutrition. Fertilizing can be done with nitrogen-free fertilizers intended for succulents.

The ideal time of year is summer. Nutrient mixtures are applied at the root up to twice a month.

The soil

In nature, agave is undemanding to the substrate. It can take root in depleted sandy soils. The main thing for it is high-quality drainage, so when planting, use a mixture of sand, turf and leaf soil in equal parts, or purchase ready-made substrates for yucca, palm trees or succulents.

Experienced gardeners believe that agave loves loose topsoil. Therefore, brick chips or pebbles are added to it for drainage.

Rest period

This time for agave occurs every year from autumn to spring. During the dormant period, the plant practically stops its growth. Ideally, agave needs to be provided with a temperature of 0 to 10˚C. It is advisable to leave the illumination at the same level.

At low temperatures, the plant may not need to be watered throughout the winter. But if it is not possible to provide it with ideal temperature conditions, the soil must be irrigated occasionally to avoid drying out.

Transfer

The plant needs to be replanted only as it grows. The root system of a young agave is actively developing, so every year you have to select a new tub for it.

After 3-4 years, you can stop replanting and change the pot as it becomes small. For agave, it is better to select shallow but wide containers. Agave, like any other type of plant, is replanted in the spring.

Reproduction

There are two planting options: seeds and suckers. The first one is more troublesome. Agave planted from seeds grows very slowly.

For planting, select a moist sandy substrate. Seeds are immersed to a depth of no more than 1 cm, creating greenhouse conditions. You can use a jar for this. The temperature is maintained between 20 and 25˚С. The first true leaf appears 15-20 days after germination. Another plate grows approximately every 2-3 weeks. The rosette begins to form after the fourth true leaf.

The best way to grow a new plant is to separate the formed baby or offspring. They are carefully cut off with a sharp blade and transplanted into a prepared pot. The cutting area must be dried before planting. The first watering should be done only on the third day. The new plant does not need frequent irrigation. Before rooting, you should avoid waterlogging the soil to avoid rotting of the offspring.

Pests and diseases

The most common disease for agave is rot. This problem occurs in conditions of low temperatures and high humidity. The formation of rot can be caused by the absence or poor quality of drainage.

The plant should not be over-watered, as it will be extremely difficult to get rid of rot later. First of all, the disease is indicated by dullness and lethargy of the leaves. Both the root zone, trunk, and parts of the rosette can rot.

As for pests, agave is practically not affected by them. Occasionally, scale insects, aphids, thrips or spider mites appear on it. If a pest is detected, it must be removed from the plant with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol or soap solution.

Tequila in some way represents Mexico. We say its name - mind you, we don’t even drink yet - and a picture immediately forms in our imagination: scorched salt marshes, giant cacti, smugglers. Although, I must admit, we discovered this drink quite recently, when the Soviet generation of national alcohol lovers was gradually replaced by others, ready for new sensations. So what exactly is a world famous brand?

Tequila is the youngest representative of a very ancient family of Mexican drinks. Just as, according to apocryphal legend, “before Eve there was Lilith,” so before tequila there was mezcal. And before mezcal - the native octli, or pulque.

The Aztec Indians drank this intoxicating brew for many centuries and would have drank just as long if the Spaniards had not appeared in the New World in 1520. The conquistadors found the state of local alcohol production depressing. The Indians did not know grapes; they extracted sweet juice from a strange plant by piercing the wild fruit with a reed, after which they allowed it to ferment. This foaming drink with the strength of beer was consumed by both young and old during religious ceremonies. The plant itself was considered a gift from heaven and a tree of miracles, the personification of the early incarnation of the goddess Mayahuel, who had 400 breasts to feed all her four hundred children.

The Spaniards needed a strong degree not so much because of the harshness of their natures, but because of their habit of not trusting water. If it was necessary to drink water, for example, in the absence of wine, it was disinfected by adding strong alcohol, barrels of which were kept on ships precisely as Lysol, and not as fuel for pirate feasts. Here in a foreign land, the Europeans had no choice, and a few years after landing on the Aztec coast, the low-alcohol local pulque began to be distilled to increase its strength. The resulting drink was given the name of a local plant, which the Spaniards reshaped in their own way and began to call “mezcal wine,” or simply “mezcal.”

Thus, the fusion of two cultures created a new drink - from a local plant and European experience. And if you don’t forget that the Arabs taught the method of sublimation to the Spaniards, then to all three civilizations.

There was one step left to tequila - refined, sophisticated mezcal, but it was only possible to do it three centuries later. In the second half of the 19th century, a product from the area around the city of Tequila in the state of Jalisco, “Tequila mezcal” began to be simplistically called “tequila,” just as brandy from the famous region of France became simply cognac. The first written mention of tequila belongs to the French traveler Ernest de Vigneaux. However, several decades passed before the common noun came into widespread use.

Spike in the heart

There are 136 species of agave growing in Mexico, only one of them, the blue one, is used to make tequila. To ensure that its reserves do not dry out, succulent plantations are constantly renewed. Agave is a succulent, not a cactus, as many people believe! The main difference is that the plant stores moisture in the leaves, and not in the stems, like a cactus. Before the rainy season, small shoots obtained from adult plants are planted in rows in cultivated gardens - potreros - 3-4 thousand per hectare.

But before the core of the agave, the lance, shaped like a pineapple, ripens and fills with juice, it takes 8 to 12 years. To make it more massive, flower shoots are cut off during the flowering period - this way nutrients are not spent on the formation and ripening of seeds. According to manufacturers, this “operation” is economically beneficial, but, from the point of view of biologists, it causes double harm: the population of long-nosed bats that pollinate agave flowers is reduced, which, in turn, reduces the number of wild plants necessary for technical needs .

The appearance of reddish spots on the leaves of the agave is a sign that the fruit has accumulated a sufficient amount of sweet juice, and the chimadors, the harvesters, can begin to work. They chop off the leaves and then use long “koas”—sharpened shovels—to cut down the fruit. By the way, not everyone can work as a jimador: only physically strong men, because one lance weighs up to 100 kilograms, and in a day you have to process and drag up to a ton of fruits into a tractor. Himadors never sit idle. The harvest is harvested all year round.

Then the fruits are taken to the factory, where ovens await them. Halved or quartered peaks are placed in ovens or autoclaves, where they are simmered at 60-80°C for 12 to 72 hours. This process is necessary to break down inulin into fructose and glucose, which are easier to ferment, dissolve in water and, therefore, are more easily removed from the fibers. However, speeding it up is dangerous - high temperatures can cause the agave sugar to begin to caramelize. After this, the pieces of agave are allowed to cool (in industrial production only a short time), they are crushed in special mills, the pulp is squeezed out, and then the juice, containing about 12% sugar, is placed in steel fermentation tanks (handicraft factories sometimes leave the pulp unseparated). 7-10 days of fermentation at a temperature of 30-40°C turns the sweet mass into a kind of pulque with an alcohol content of 4-7 degrees. From this brew, as in the times of the conquistadors, “mezcal wine” is distilled.

Tequila, unlike mezcal, undergoes a mandatory double distillation, and from the second distillation only the middle part of the sublimated product goes into production - the so-called “el corazon”, the heart. Sometimes triple distillation is carried out, but many experts are against “over-purification”, believing that it leads to a thinning of the agave’s aroma.

Under the statue of the Himador
The town with the once meaningless name Tequila has become an open-air museum. Now the tourist “Tequila Express” runs here from Guadalajara. As you enter the city, you are greeted by a statue - not a girl with an oar, but a jimador with a koa shovel in her hand. Here, the drink's producers hospitably opened the doors of their museums, which also serve as tasting rooms.

There is no end to the variety of the drink of the same name in Tequila. On the last day of November, the National Tequila Fair opens in the city, which is an endless festival for the public with cockfights, Mexican rodeo - charreadas, fire shows and serenades of traveling troupes. But the main “center of gravity” of the town with a population of 35 thousand people is located outside its borders. Here, on the slopes of the extinct Tequila volcano, more than half of all Mexican agave grows - after all, Tequilana weber azul loves heights. It reaches its maximum size and ripeness at an altitude of one and a half kilometers above sea level.

A subject of national pride

Not only local performers in wide hats, but also rock bands, such as The Eagle, dedicated poetry and poems to tequila. Surrounded by such attention, she was simply doomed to become a Mexican legend, which also generated increased demand. If you multiply the hectares of land given over to agave plantations by the average planting density, it turns out that for every resident of the country there are at least 2-3 blue agaves, growing in anticipation of the hour when they will become the national drink. And if you remember that several bottles of tequila are obtained from one peak (the calculation is as follows: 7 kilograms of fruit pulp gives a liter of tequila), it becomes clear that production has long acquired a scale that extends beyond the country’s borders.

This is especially noticeable in Guadalajara, the capital of the state of Jalisco. Almost every resident is associated with the production of the local drink. In total, in Mexico, one way or another, 300 thousand people “work for tequila”. Even the local university has opened a department that trains tequila distillation engineers. This faculty is like a reciprocal sign of gratitude, because 200 years ago it was the tax that the local government imposed on mezcal factories that allowed this university to open.

The popularity of tequila, which has spread beyond the country's borders, has led to the need to protect both the name and the methods of production of the drink. This is what the Mexican government did in the 70s of the last century. Moreover, growing agave and making tequila from it was allowed only in 5 states: Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Nayarit and Tamaulipas.

Today, just over fifty tequila distilleries are open in these states. On the label of each bottle they put the CRT (Council for the Supervision of Tequila) and the abbreviation NOM (National Quality Standard of Mexico) with the number assigned by the chamber of commerce to a specific enterprise, which is a guarantee of the quality of the product.

In addition, the brand name must indicate tequila (not spirit of agava) on the bottle and indicate its type: blanco (plata), joven (gold), reposado or anejo. Tequila made exclusively from blue agave will have 100% agave on the label. If there is no such inscription, this is mixto tequila. And the finishing touches: Hecho en Mexico means that the product was produced and bottled in its historical homeland, Mexico. This requirement does not apply to mixto varieties. The inscription Hecho a mano - “handmade”, artisanal, production - speaks of a traditional, unreduced production cycle. The taste of tequila from a bottle with such a label will certainly be rich, and this will certainly affect its price.

Drink varieties
Blanco, or plata (silver)- pure tequila, bottled immediately after distillation or aged in barrels for up to 30 days. The basis of all other types of drink. It conveys the aroma of agave to the greatest extent, especially if it is 100% agave.

Joven abocado(“spilled young”), also known as oro (golden) - a bestseller all over the world, including Russia - flavored, with the addition of caramel to add color, mixto tequila. An extremely successful move by marketers - and a good start to getting to know the drink.

Reposado- tequila, which after distillation is placed in wooden barrels (usually oak) for several months to add additional aroma and color. Many manufacturers use whiskey or brandy barrels. The taste of reposado tequila is sharper, more peppery. Some drinkers believe that the aroma of agave is hidden in tequila. The most popular variety of tequila in Mexico.

Anejo(“añejo”, that is, aged), tequila stored in oak barrels is usually from one to ten years. Since long-term storage of tequila in barrels carries the risk that the wood will overpower the original taste of the agave, after several years the tequila is poured into stainless steel containers. The taste of anejo tequila is rich, woody, “smoky.” When choosing a tequila variety, perhaps the main thing is not the age and type of production, but the percentage of agave raw materials. Tequila made from agave without any added sugar, as it is more authentic, should be called the best choice. However, tequila, like 99% chocolate, needs to be approached gradually. Mixto varieties, in which the taste of agave is muted by other sugars, mainly cane, are more accessible to the untrained palate. It is mixto varieties that tequila owes its rise in popularity in the United States in the 1980s. It owes much to the flexibility of the Mexican Bureau of Standards (Normas Oficial Mexicana), whose specialists, meeting the wishes of the market, in 1978 lowered the minimum content of agave juice from 70 percent (the 1964 standard) to 51.

North American experts recommend storing the contents of a once-opened bottle of tequila for no more than 1-2 months, otherwise it will begin to lose its taste. Since it is difficult to suspect a Russian citizen of such inhuman self-control, we advise you not to drink a bottle of tequila at once and alone. Firstly, even tequila, made exclusively from agave and undergone double distillation, does not differ in hangover syndrome from whiskey or gin, and secondly, this drink, as the poet Alvaro Mutis wrote, was created for a friendly dialogue that does not tolerate haste.

Tequila and mezcal: what's the difference?
Despite the fact that tequila is a more refined alcoholic drink, mezcal continues to hold its ground today. It is still popular among Mexicans. Its adherents claim that it better conveys the aroma of the plant. Local variations of mezcal are known, made from different types of agave: sotol, bacanora and others, and in rural areas you can still try pulque. Since the mid-20th century, companies specializing in mezcal began to bottle the drink in squared bottles with bright labels to attract the attention of customers. Many people sell them complete with a bag containing a mixture of salt and powder made from the dried caterpillars of Bombix agavis and Hypopta agavis that live in the agave shoots. This mixture is used before drinking mezcal. Or even cooler - they put a caterpillar carcass in a bottle. During life, it is painted bright red, but when preserved in alcohol it quickly discolors. According to mezcal drinking etiquette, the caterpillar is divided equally among all participants drinking the bottle. The basic principles of distinguishing peasant mezcal from noble tequila are as follows:
1. Mezcal is made from different types of agave, which ripen faster, while tequila is made only from blue ones.
2. The fruits undergo heat treatment in ovens of different shapes and using different technologies, mezcal in narrow underground ovens, tequila in round ovens located on the ground.
3. Tequila is a product of double, sometimes even triple, distillation, while mezcal is a product of single distillation.
4. Mezcal is usually slightly stronger than tequila - up to 40 degrees.

Hot cocktails

You don't have to go to Mexico to taste tequila. In any bar in the world since the 1980s - the time of rising interest in this drink - you will always be served golden tequila mixto. Cocktails based on it are especially popular: the very fact that they contain a sultry Mexican drink gives them “drive.” The most famous cocktail is Las Margaritas, the immortal and unchangeable Margarita. The classic recipe looks like this: tequila (usually mixto tequila) with lemon juice and orange liqueur. Although it may be slightly different in different bars around the world.

On the American continent, a strong Mexican drink is often served with “Sangrita” - a non-alcoholic cocktail made from a mixture of tomato and orange juice. They also drink tequila in its pure form, although with some “frills” contained in the formula: “salt - tequila - lime”. There is a legend about where this came from. In 1930, when influenza was raging in northern Mexico, a local doctor prescribed tequila with salt and lemon as a remedy for a deadly influenza epidemic. Most likely, the doctor himself tried this pleasant combination on himself more than once and wanted to use it to maintain the taste for life in his patients. We must not forget that in the old days, when tequila was still mezcal, its taste was rougher and its strength was higher than today. Therefore, salt and lime were intended to distract the taste buds from the sharp taste of alcohol. The recipe caught on.

There are also many tequila connoisseurs who are convinced that salt and lime, like ice, grapefruit juice or a cigar, only distract from the true taste of the drink, which should not be drunk in one gulp, not obscured by ingredients, but savored, like cognac and old wine. “100 percent agave. Everything else will be superfluous,” is the slogan of people who have devoted decades of their lives to understanding the taste of the legendary tequila.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “tequila”? Most often the words are “vodka from cacti”, the birthplace of the drink is Mexico and dressed up cowboys. But for some reason, never huge plantations of bluish plants, reminiscent of both aloe and giant 90-kilogram pineapples.

Blue agave is truly the pride of Mexico. The history, culture and way of life of the country, from the ancient Aztecs to the present day, are permeated with traces of this amazing plant. Even UNESCO included its plantations in the List of World Heritage Sites!

Agave tequilana

Blue agave, also known as tequila agave, is a plant that grows in large quantities in a dry tropical climate, at an altitude of 1500 meters above sea level. Like any self-respecting drought-resistant plant, it prefers red soils with a lot of sand. Outwardly it looks like a mixture of porcupine and aloe; bluish fleshy leaves stick out imposingly in all directions. The core of the plant, when the leaves are trimmed, resembles a giant pineapple.

Blue agaves are conventionally divided into two types: wild and domesticated. These plants bloom only once in their life. At the end of the life cycle of a wild agave, which lasts on average 5 years, it grows a shoot about five meters long, with flowers on it. At night they are pollinated by Saussure's long-nosed bat, a native species of bat. After pollination, the mother plant, alas, dies.

Domesticated blue agaves are very different from their wild relatives. It’s worth starting with the fact that such a plant lives on average 12 years - exactly as long as it takes for it to collect the maximum amount of juice in its core. Such longevity is achieved by removing shoots with nascent buds from a young agave, which allows it to grow and gain mass further. And the removed shoot is planted in the ground for further germination. This propagation method is beneficial to everyone, except for one big problem: new blue agaves grown by such a transplant are essentially clones, which makes all domestic agaves genetically uniform. And breeders could not easily get away with interfering with the natural process of evolution, which is why domesticated blue agaves are now susceptible to a large number of diseases. Since 2000, about 30% of plants have been affected by TMA syndrome ("Agave death and wilt", a common name for a group of diseases). The reason for the problem lies in the fact that due to cloning, blue agaves have ceased to develop evolutionarily and acquire protective mechanisms against new diseases. But let's not talk about sad things.

Why is it needed?

Agaves (and there are about 300 species of them) are generally very useful plants. Their tough fibers are used to make ropes, coarse cloth and wrapping paper. Some species are indispensable in folk medicine due to the rich range of vitamins and nutrients in the juice. In terms of their use in folk medicine, agaves are very similar to aloe, which, by the way, is their distant relative.

As for blue agave specifically, the list of its healing properties is not so long. These are mainly gastroenterological diseases. But the people of North America loved and love this plant not for its healing properties. The Aztecs also realized that if you chop the core of an agave plant and squeeze the juice out of it, the resulting nectar can be consumed internally, while receiving incomparable pleasure. They nicknamed this drink “octli”. Later, after the arrival of the Spaniards in the New World, octli received a new name - “pulque”.

Pulque was made from agave juice by simple fermentation, like wine. However, the Spaniards were not satisfied with such a small degree of strength (from 6 to 18%), since to disinfect water - and strong alcohol in those days was most often used for this purpose, not like now - something more serious was needed. This is how mezcal was born - a distillation product of pulque. The strength of such a drink was then about 25%. Now Mexicans often carry out double distillation, which raises the degree of the drink to 28-43%. It is worth noting that mezcal fermentation is a natural process, without added sugar. For this reason, mezcal retains a lot of the taste and aroma of the asparagus plant, which some connoisseurs love.

But Mexico is not famous for pulque or mezcal alone. Her main pride is...

Tequila. "Vodka from cacti"

As you already understand, tequila is not vodka made from cacti. This widespread opinion grew out of the stereotype that in Mexico there is nothing but cacti. Tequila is made from the heart of the blue agave plant through distillation. This drink got its name from the city of Tequila, located in the west of the Mexican state of Jalisco. It was in the vicinity of this city that this product began to be produced.

The path from blue agave to tequila begins with plantations. The plant is grown by waiting for red spots on the leaves - signs that the core has accumulated enough juice. Then the chimadores, workers on the plantations, using koa or coa, special axes, cut off all the prickly leaves of the plant, and then the rhizome, leaving the most valuable thing - the core. After this procedure, a core weighing from 20 to 90 kg (sometimes more), similar to a bleeding pineapple, is brought to the factory.

Photo: domenicocz.blogspot.com

There it is cut into several parts and subjected to heat treatment: placed in an oven for 12–72 hours at a temperature of about 70°C. After this, the pieces of agave are crushed using special mills, and the resulting mass is thoroughly squeezed, thus obtaining juice with a strength of 12-13%. It is then placed in steel or wooden fermentation tanks for 7-10 days. Here lies the first main difference between tequila and mezcal - sugar is often added to the fermentation tanks to speed up the process. The output is sweet molasses with a low alcohol content (about 4-7%), from which tequila is produced using the old sublimation technology. The second main difference is that the juice undergoes a mandatory double distillation before becoming tequila, with only the middle part of the distillate being used the second time to improve the quality of the final product.

It is legal to grow blue agave and produce tequila from it only in five states: Jalisco, Michoacan, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas and Nayarit. Due to the great popularity of the drink, the majority of the population of these states is somehow involved in the production of tequila. In Mexico, there is an official declaration, from which it follows that only products made in one of five states and certified by the government can be sold under the name “tequila”, a state standard regulating the labeling, bottling and production of tequila, and even a special organization designed to monitor its execution. All this perfectly shows Mexico's attitude towards its main pride.

Tequila is different

According to standards, all tequila is divided into two large groups:

– Tequila 100% Agave, or premium tequila. As the name suggests, this tequila is made entirely from agave juice. This group is the most refined, but getting to know it for an uninitiated person may not be the most pleasant due to its extremely specific taste, which it is advisable to get used to gradually.

– Tequila Mixta, also known as “standard”. By law, this type of tequila must contain at least 51% sugar derived from blue agave; for the rest, substitutes (for example, cane sugar) can be used. Tequila Mixta, due to sweeteners, can vary greatly in taste, which, coupled with the price, has made it popular all over the world.

Now let's look at the varieties of tequila. There are four main ones:

– Silver (plata or blanca). Tequila without impurities, consisting of 100% agave. Aged in barrels for no more than two months.

– Gold (joven). Mixto tequila, bottled without aging, with caramel added to add color. It is this tequila that has gained worldwide popularity.

- Reposado. Aged in barrels for up to a year. To change the taste, manufacturers use barrels from other alcoholic beverages, such as whiskey. Reposado is the most popular variety of tequila in Mexico itself.

– Anejo. Aged in barrels for one to three years. It has a refined “woody” taste. Since 2005, they began to produce Extra anejo - tequila kept in barrels for up to 10 years. Such a long shelf life threatens the taste of the product, since the tree can overpower the taste of the agave, so every few years the tequila is transferred to a new barrel.

In general, don’t insult agave anymore by calling tequila cactus vodka!