by Chris Raven
I'm awoken by a loud bang followed by a muffled groan. I swing my legs off the bed and listen intently; silence. The guy in the hotel room next to me is now either dead or in a daze. Showered and dressed, I grab my guidebook and skip over to Lula sat behind the reception desk. Lula is in her sunset years and beams a radiant smile. She has worked at the hotel for over thirty years and never taken a day off. I'm convinced Lula is the most chilled out human being in the whole of Mexico. She goes at her own pace. I mention the loud bang coming from the room next door. Lula laughs and casually waves her hand, as if you say "don't worry about it". She quickly changes the subject and asks me where I'm going today. I sing 'to Tequila town!' She nods, that’s her response, a slow nod of acceptance.
Arriving at the terminal, I leap aboard a rather tired looking bus and greet the cheerful driver who has a bruised eye. Crunching the gears, we zoom out of the city and pass through Zapopan where I see the Volcán de Tequila (Tequila Volcano) looming in the distance. Blue agave plantations cling to its slopes and kiss the horizon. Here is where it all began. This actual volcano and the surrounding soil gives the blue agave its full intake of volcanic minerals. The rather sweet smell of the nectar in the air is surprisingly strong, and smells almost stale. Two hundred years ago, the Toltec Indians first made candy from the agave sugars and then this gave the Spanish the brilliant idea of turning it into alcohol.
The bus arrives in Santiago de Tequila, a town in the state of Jalisco, about 60km from the city of Guadalajara. Named “Pueblo Mágico" (Magical Town) by the Mexican federal government, Tequila is a World Heritage Site founded in 1530 by Franciscan monks, and a small town where the lives of 27,000 residents revolve mostly around the production and sale of tequila. I wander around the sweet-smelling streets lined with colourful buildings and tourist shops selling over-priced souvenirs and, of course, bottles of tequila. Before long, I arrive at the Jose Cuervo's La Rojena distillery near to the Church of Santiago Apostol. It's housed in a beautiful restored building, with curved arches at the entrance and a huge statue of a Raven (Cuervo’s trademark). I step inside an ‘Americanized’ gift shop that is full of Jose Cuervo merchandise. Knocking back a free shot of “Platino”, my eyes somersault in their sockets, as the peppery liquid hits the back of my throat. There is a pleasant citrus taste with flowers, most enjoyable.
After watching a short promotional video, my bilingual guide hands me a hair net and leads me through the tequila-making process. Due to the dangerous levels of alcohol vapors in the air, we are told to turn off our electronic devices for fear of the place exploding into a fireball. The production of tequila is divided into seven steps: harvesting, cooking, extraction, fermentation, distillation, ageing and bottling. First, the raw material is steamed for 36 hours, so the nutrients can crystallize into sugars, and then a mechanical crusher separates the fibre from the juices. It is then fermented for seven to twelve days in stainless steel tanks and distilled and purified until the sugars are transformed into alcohol. The tequila is then stored in white oak barrels and the amount of time it ages will determine the tequila’s characteristics, type, odour and taste. The longer the tequila ages, the more colour and tannins the final product will have. It’s then bottled and distributed around the world. My guide explains the differences between the various types of tequila, from Cuervo Black sitting in charred barrels to Especial Silver where the barrel process is skipped for a crisper taste.
We arrive in the tasting room, where Katerina shakes me up a margarita. Flicking on a sombrero, I jump onto a barstool and watch her pour the Jose Cuervo Gold, Cointreau, and lime juice into a shaker. A couple of ice cubes, a good shake before pouring it into a cocktail glass with salt around the rim. It tastes amazing. Katerina explains to me about the harvesting of the tequila. The heavy blue agave core or heart called ‘piña’ (Spanish for pineapple) is the raw material for making tequila. The skilled harvester or “Jimador” spends hours in the plantations removing the agave leaves with a sharp curved tool called a Coa; not an easy job. They then trim the two hundred plus leaves that protect the piña of the agave until the whole heart is extracted from the ground. Only the heart of the blue agave plant is used to make tequila. Fifteen pounds of blue agave piñas are required to produce one litre of delicious tequila. She tells me that as many as three hundred million agave plants are harvested in their plantations each year. That is an astounding amount, and each bottle is handmade, numbered, dated and sealed in wax. She offers me to taste the amber agave nectar. It looks like slices of fudge and tastes of caramel. I wonder if using this nectar is healthier than sugar. I wash the sweet nectar down with some margarita, and thank Katerina for making such a fine cocktail.
With a skip in my step, I return to the gift shop and buy a bottle of Platino on my way out, and restrain myself from purchasing a Jose Cuervo t-shirt. Despite the rather Americanized feel, it has been an interesting experience learning about Jose Cuervo’s seven stages of making tequila. Until recently, I didn't even know there was a town called Tequila. So, the next time you are enjoying a shot of the hot stuff in some bar or sipping a margarita on the beach, be proud in the knowledge that you know where and how Tequila is made.
