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by Chris Raven
A loud bang is followed by a muffled groan. I swing my legs off the bed and listen intently, silence. The person in the next room is either now dead or in a complete daze. Showered and dressed, I grab my guidebook and skip down to reception where Lula welcomes me with a radiant smile. Lula is in her sunset years and has worked at this popular hotel in Guadalajara for over three decades. "I have never taken a day off!" she proudly beams. I'm convinced Lula is the most chilled out human being in the whole of Mexico, even the world. She goes at her own pace and meditates every morning at sunrise. I mention the loud bang from the room next door, but Lula laughs and casually waves her hand in the air as if you say "don't worry about it." She asks what my plans are for today and I sing 'Tequila town!' She nods, that’s her response, a slow nod of acceptance.
I leap aboard a bus and greet the cheerful driver, who has a bruised eye. Crunching the gears, we roar out of Guadalajara and eventually the chaos of the urban jungle is replaced with blue agave plantations that kiss the horizon and cling to the slopes of Volcán de Tequila. Here is where it all began. This actual volcano and the surrounding soil gives the blue agave its full intake of volcanic minerals, and the sweet smell of the nectar is strong and smells almost stale. Two hundred years ago, the Toltec Indians first made candy from the agave sugars and 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 and roughly 60km from the city of Guadalajara. Named “Pueblo Mágico" (Magical Town) by the Mexican federal government, Tequila is a World Heritage Site and was founded in 1530 by Franciscan monks. I arrive at the Jose Cuervo's La Rojena distillery housed in a beautiful restored building, with curved arches and a statue of a Raven at the entrance. Knocking back a shot of Platino, the peppery liquid hits the back of my throat and powers me through to the tequila-making process. 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. Afterwards, the tequila is 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. 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 bar stool and watch her pour the Jose Cuervo Gold, Cointreau, and lime juice into a shaker. A couple of ice cubes and a good shake before she pours the liquid into a cocktail glass with salt around the rim. It tastes delicious. Katerina explains the harvesting process, in which the 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. They trim the leaves that protect the piña and extract it 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 tequila, and over three hundred million agave plants are harvested in their plantations each year.
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 now know where and how Tequila is made.
More books by Chris Raven
by The Raven Brothers
Out of shape and unprepared, The Raven Brothers return to the road in a collection of ten quests to travel to their dream destinations against all odds! After two decades pioneering new routes across the globe, you would expect the authors of 'Driving the Trans-Siberian' to be hotshot explorers, with a sixth sense and an ability to survive in almost any situation. Think again! With virtually zero knowledge of the workings of the internal combustion engine and very limited skills of wilderness survival, Simon and Chris struggle into their hiking boots and power across three continents by river, tarmac and trail.
Venture to the top of Norway, cruise the road to Damascus, hike the Camino trail into Spain’s Wild West, row the Ganges, explore Frida Kahlo’s world in Mexico City, hangout with the dead in Sicily’s eerie catacombs, crawl deep inside Bolivia’s notorious silver mine, seek lions in Gujarat, wellness in Berlin and journey into the Naga Hills where tribal kings still rule.
Noted by Lonely Planet for their talent to portray an “accurate view of what to expect”, 'Hike, Drive, Stayin’ Alive!' signals a return to the duo writing “buttock clenching” travel comedy with the first in a series of candid stories of adventure by The Raven Brothers.
by The Raven Brothers
On Amazon >
Ever had the desire to jump in your car and keep driving; to wave goodbye to routine and commitment, to drive into the unknown hungry for adventure? Well, that is precisely what overland travel writers, Chris Raven and Simon Raven, decided to do whilst stacking boxes of frozen oven chips in a -30 degrees freezer. Not being petrol heads and having zero knowledge of the internal combustion engine, the brothers fired up their rusty Ford Sierra Sapphire and headed east.
After clocking up over 11,000 miles, quite literally living in the car, the pioneering duo miraculously arrived in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok in Siberia on the Sea of Japan. What they had in fact done was to drive the entire length of the new Amur Highway before it was finished, which crosses Russia and the notorious Zilov Gap in a 6,200 mile swath of cracked tarmac and potholes. Along the way our trusty heroes drink vodka with Chechen criminals, escape highway robbery, trade banana flavoured condoms with Russian cops, meet the eccentric and plain weird at truck stops in darkest Siberia, endure torturous road conditions and have a race to the finish with the Germans. Surviving this insane journey by the skin of their teeth the brothers are forced to confront their worst fears in this toe-curling comedy of extreme road trip adventure.
Ever had the desire to jump in your car and keep driving; to wave goodbye to routine and commitment, to drive into the unknown hungry for adventure? Well, that is precisely what overland travel writers, Chris Raven and Simon Raven, decided to do whilst stacking boxes of frozen oven chips in a -30 degrees freezer. Not being petrol heads and having zero knowledge of the internal combustion engine, the brothers fired up their rusty Ford Sierra Sapphire and headed east.
After clocking up over 11,000 miles, quite literally living in the car, the pioneering duo miraculously arrived in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok in Siberia on the Sea of Japan. What they had in fact done was to drive the entire length of the new Amur Highway before it was finished, which crosses Russia and the notorious Zilov Gap in a 6,200 mile swath of cracked tarmac and potholes. Along the way our trusty heroes drink vodka with Chechen criminals, escape highway robbery, trade banana flavoured condoms with Russian cops, meet the eccentric and plain weird at truck stops in darkest Siberia, endure torturous road conditions and have a race to the finish with the Germans. Surviving this insane journey by the skin of their teeth the brothers are forced to confront their worst fears in this toe-curling comedy of extreme road trip adventure.
by The Raven Brothers
Overland travel writers, Chris Raven and Simon Raven, embark on a new comedy adventure that leads them to the wild and colourful continent of South America. From bull's testicles in Buenos Aires to bums and boobs on the beaches of Brazil, the Raven brothers put their dream plans into action and traverse the Trans-oceanic highway from the Pacific to the Atlantic Coast of South America.
Pioneering a new frontier over the Andes and through the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, the bizarre and the beautiful cross their dusty path as they seek inspiration for a new book and go in search of the ultimate carnival. Not always getting it right, Simon and Chris tango through the Argentinean vineyards, cycle to the Moon in Chile, lose themselves in the mysterious world of the Inca Empire, swim with caiman in the Madre de Dios, experience panic in the Pantanal, The Rolling Stones in Rio and conclude their journey in Olinda at the carnival of the soul.
Living the Linger
by The Raven Brothers
On Amazon >
The sudden break-up with Emily Willow finds Simon Raven, ex-amateur rock god and bored internet producer, on a Boeing 747 bound for Seattle. Led by his twin brother, Chris, who is more than happy to exchange a career in fashion photography for the open road, they embark on a buttock-clenching journey of paranoia and self-doubt, as they traverse Interstate 15 across backcountry America.
The sudden break-up with Emily Willow finds Simon Raven, ex-amateur rock god and bored internet producer, on a Boeing 747 bound for Seattle. Led by his twin brother, Chris, who is more than happy to exchange a career in fashion photography for the open road, they embark on a buttock-clenching journey of paranoia and self-doubt, as they traverse Interstate 15 across backcountry America.
Along the way the hapless duo bumble through bear infested wilderness, meet the eccentric and plain weird on the American freeway, escape a bullwhip wielding maniac in Missoula and survive the evils of Las Vegas. Testing their friendship to the limit as they battle to reach their nirvana, which exists in the form of the bikini beaches of California, the brothers find inspiration on a journey that exposes the stark truth about work and relationships and which asks the question - what do you really want to do with your life?
The legends of Jason and the Argonauts, Noah’s Ark and a tribe of fierce female warriors known as the Amazons all originate from the Black Sea. Gripped by curiosity, Simon and Chris fire up their twenty year old Volvo that looks, as rustic and weather-beaten as a Cold War tank and embark on a quest to drive full circle around this ancient body of water at the birthplace of civilisation.
In the shadow of rising tension in Ukraine, the brothers get up close and personal with the fascinating people who inhabit the six nations that surround these colourful shores. Living on the road like the nomadic horse bowmen who once ruled the steppe grasslands, they explore Crimea, the Caucasus region of southern Russia’s “Wild West”, the Georgian kingdom of Colchis, Turkey’s Pontic coast, the megacity of Istanbul and complete their journey in Romania at the outfall of the mighty River Danube.