How tequila is made, from field to bottle.
Tequila is distilled from the fermented juice of a single plant, Agave tequilana, the blue agave. Each plant takes 8 to 12 years to mature before it can be harvested.
- The blue agaveMexico is home to well over a hundred agave species. Only one may be used for tequila.
- Planting & harvestingEach plant is grown from a cutting and tended for 8 to 12 years before a jimador harvests its heart.
- Roasting & millingThe agave hearts are cooked to turn their starches into sugar, then milled to extract the juice.
- Fermentation & distillationYeast turns the sugars into a low-alcohol wort, which is distilled at least twice.
- AgeingTime in oak turns a blanco into reposado, añejo or extra añejo.
- Bottling & labellingFinally the tequila is cut to strength, bottled and labelled under strict official rules.
The basics
At its heart, making tequila comes down to four transformations. Cooking breaks the agave's stored inulin down into fructose. Milling separates that sugary juice from the fibres. Fermentation, usually with a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, turns the sugars into ethanol and the aroma compounds that give tequila its flavour. Finally, two distillations concentrate the spirit.
From there, oak takes over. Rested (reposado), aged (añejo) and extra aged (extra añejo) tequilas spend at least 2, 12 and 36 months in barrels respectively.
Categories of tequilaMixto or 100% agave, the five official classes, cristalino, and what may be added.