Day 123: Tequlia - from field to flavors
Cycled to Tequila today. Want to focus this entry on Tequila so I have no more to say about cycling other than lots of climbing again today and still worried about my gearing but decided to keep going to Guadalarja and fix it there.
Found a really nice guy called jose on who owns a tequila operation and offers tours and tasting and camping for just 400 pesos. Perfecto.
Jose dropped so much info on us that I will struggle to remember it all but will get down what I found the most interesting.
What is the link between the Obsidian and Tequila? Obsidian is volcanic glass common in volcanic regions and was incredibly useful for cutting and making tools due to its sharpness. The local indigenous people believed that it was a gift from the gods that lived on a volcano overlooking the town. The town became known in the local language as the place where obsidian is cut or something like “tequillan”. Over the years and especially after the Spanish arrival, the name of the town was shortened to Tequila. And the drink from here carries the same name.
Jose is one of just 372 people licensed to make Tequila. Unlike Mezcal, tequila has so many rules and regulations around its creation with governing bodies and legislation. It is created from the blue agave plant which must be grown in the region for the resulting drink to be called Tequila.
The blue agave plant takes 9 years to reach maturity. Or at least it does when done in a natural chemical free way that Jose grows it. He is very passionate about tequila. He grows own plants and bottles and ages all in house. He refuses to use plants grown by other growers. He explained that bigger, more popular tequila brands use chemicals on the plants and soil and harvest after just 5 years which results in a bad smell and “fire in the neck” that I have always associated with tequila. Spoiler alert, his tequila actually tastes good. Didn’t know that was possible for tequila.
We had a tour of some blue agave fields. I Saw some agave plants ready to harvest with a hearth of roughly 110kgs. That means that that one plant would produce about 14 bottles of Tequila!
We got a tour of the distillery facilities too. I won’t embarrass myself by trying to describe this process. The think that stood out to me was the following. Normally during the fermentation process, alcohol beverage brewers will use an accelerator to speed up the process of turning sugar into alcohol by the yeast. This accelerator gives a much more rapid fermentation but leads to less fine grained control and causes harsher flavors in the finished product. It may also cause the production of unwanted byproducts like Methanol which contributes to worse hangovers. He said for this reason, he doesn’t use accelerators during fermentation meaning fermentation takes 7ish days for him where his competitors can take just hours. He later showed us a trick to detect Methanol in your drink. Simply place the drink up to you eye where the glass fully covers you eye. If this stings or you begin to cry, there there is Methanol in the drink and it is of poor quality.
Tequila is officially categorized by its composition (category) and aging (kind). Composition is one of 4 which are 100% Agave, a mixture containing 51% agave and 49% other Sugars, as well as 2 other bullshit categories that are more flavored/infusions with Tequila or liqueurs of tequila with much lower agave percentage. There are 5 kinds which are Blanco which is the unaged clear strong agave flavored Tequila. Then there is Joven, Reposado, Añejo and extra Añejo which are aged in oak barrels from Canada for 6 months, 1 year, 3 years and up to 10 years respectively. The aging in oak Barrels gives a smoother, less strong taste with vanilla undertones as well as darkening the liquid. Turns out I am quite partial to the Añejo tequila!
Jose also explained the boost in tequila sales after the war in Ukraine and the resulting impact on the global spirit industry. The sanctions on Russia resulted in notable shifts away from Russian vodka which benefited the Mexican Tequila industry greatly.
He also discussed the commodity cycle, though he didn’t call it this. A shortage of the plant caused the price to surge causing everyone to plant loads of the plant causing the supply to increase rapidly causing the price to plunge causing the cycle to continue. Such is the case with all commodities I believe. He highlighted that he isn’t really affected by this as he is fully vertically integrated so doesn’t need to buy agave from the market.
I was struck by the economic density of the blue agave plant. While true that you can only harvest every 5-10 years, one plant can produce many many bottles of tequila. I am sure it must be much more profitable than the staple crops. For this reason and because the plants must be grown in only this small region, there are so many agave plants everywhere. Often I would see a random strip on the side of the road planted with agave plants. I asked if there was any knock on effects from such economic density. For example, does the blue agave plant “crowd out” other crops like wheat and beans causing this state to need to import more of the staple crops. He recons that this must be the case.
We ended the tour chatting over 4 different tequilas. One clear, and then one of each aged for 6 months, 1 year and 3 years. These were by far the nicest Tequilas I have ever had. And no hangover the following morning!
This is the his instagram link if you are interested in seeing more. He has some cool videos there. https://www.instagram.com/casapuntualtequila?igsh=cnFkamRmeWs5aGhm
