2020 Q3 Iowa Spirits - 45

FEATURED
SPIRIT

equila, North America's oldest distilled spirit, is derived from the blue
agave plant of Mexico. The drink was
first produced by Spanish conquistadors 400
years ago near the city of Tequila. The Aztecs
had been fermenting agave for millennia by
this time, but their drink, pulque (also called
octli), was not distilled. Pulque was made
exclusively from the sap of the agave plant,
and it had a much different look and flavor-
milky white with a sour, yeasty taste.
The first mass-produced tequila emerged
in the early 17th century. Don Pedro Sanchez
de Tagle, the Marquis of Altamira, set up a
factory in Jalisco, and he's now considered
the Father of Tequila. In 1795 the Cuervo family was given an official permit from King
Carlos IV of Spain to commercially produce
tequila.
In 1906, they were the first to bottle the
spirit-previously, it had only been sold in
barrels. The first shipment of tequila was
exported to the US in 1873, where it was
called "mescal brandy."
The spirit quickly became an international
hit. During Prohibition, tequila was the drink
of choice for Americans of the southwest.
Today there are more than 150 tequila distilleries in Mexico, which produce about 1,400
different brands.
The manufacture of tequila is strictly regulated. According to Mexican law, to be
labeled tequila a product must come from the
state of Jalisco, namely
from the city of Tequila or
specified sites in the surrounding area.
Up until 2004, the Tequila
Regulatory Council of Mexico wouldn't

permit flavored drinks to carry the name
tequila, and even today 100% agave tequila
is prohibited from containing any added flavors. Tequila can be divided into many distinct
categories, but for simplicity's sake there are
four basic types:
*Blanco (or silver), which is unaged and
bottled within two months of distillation.
*Oro (also called gold) which is typically a
silver with added coloring and grain
alcohols.
* Reposado (Spanish for "rested"), which
is aged in wooden casks for two to 12 months
*Anejo (meaning "aged"), matured in small
barrels for one to three years.
Although most of the tequila sold today
comes from huge corporations, the cultivation
of agave is still carried out by hand. The jimadores, who harvest the plant, pass down their
knowledge, materials and techniques from
generation to generation. Altogether, they
reap more than 300 million agave plants
annually.
Distillers can't use a blue agave plant to
make tequila until it's 10 years old. At that
time, the leaves are cut away until there's just
a massive pit left, called the pina (Spanish for
pineapple). The pina, which can weigh as much
as 200 pounds, is removed, heated and
crushed. The resulting agave juice is then fermented and distilled into tequila.
Tequila can be enjoyed many ways-as a
shooter, mixed in cocktails, or served straight
up. In Mexico it's quite common to drink it
neat. Tequila has come a long way in the last
400 years.
National Tequila Day is celebrated on July
24, and Jalisco in now a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. Over a million people come
here every year to see the origins of tequila
and to discover the history behind their
favorite spirit.

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2020 Q3 Iowa Spirits

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