Tequila

Everyone is familiar with Tequila. But the quality and range of flavours it represents is often underestimated. Styles vary greatly from producer-to-producer and region-to-region. Each one offering a specific combination of fruity, spicy and herbal characteristics derived from the heart of the agave. Buy Tequila

All tequila begins with a field of blue agaves and a team of skill farmers known as Jimadors. When the plants are mature and ready to flower they are fill with the sweet fermentable sugars. Needs to make alcohol. Working with specialise tools. The Jimadors cut the agaves from their roots and strip them of their leaves to expose the piña at the centre – so call because it resembles a pineapple.

The piñas is then cook to develop the sugars inside and make them more easily fermentable. Traditionally this is done in an oven call a ‘horno’ though modern steam cookers are also use.

The cook piñas are then crushed to extract the sweet juice within. Crushing is done either with a mechanical press or a tahona – a stone wheel, some of which are still turned by donkeys. This juice is then left to ferment. Yeasts convert its sugars into alcohol and produce many of the flavour compounds that will make up the character of the finished Tequila. Buy Tequila

Once fermentation is complete, a process that can take anything from several days to more than a week, the agave juice now somewhat resembles the pulque drunk in the region thousands of years ago. The alcoholic liquid is then distilled to produce spirit. Traditionally, this means double distillation in copper pot stills – a similar process to single malt whisky. However stainless steel pot stills and industrial column stills are also permitted.