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Agave: tequila and mezcal
Where tequila and mezcal come from, and the one thing to check on a label.
5 min read
Agave is not a cactus. It's a succulent, and the part that matters is the piña - the dense core left when the spines are cut away, which looks like a pineapple and weighs as much as a person. A blue agave takes six to eight years before it can be harvested. No other major spirit waits that long before fermentation even starts.
The sugar in agave is stored as inulin, which yeast can't eat, so the piñas are cooked to break it down. How they're cooked is the main difference between tequila and mezcal. Tequila steams them in ovens or autoclaves. Mezcal roasts them in a pit lined with hot rocks and covered over, which is a hangi by another name, and which is where the smoke comes from. It is not a peat-style drying step, it is the cooking itself.
From the plant to the pit
| Term | Means |
|---|---|
| Blanco / silver | Unaged, or under two months. The clearest view of the agave. |
| Reposado | Two months to a year in oak. Softer, faint vanilla. |
| Añejo | One to three years. Darker, closer to a whisky in feel. |
| Extra añejo | Over three years. Sipping territory. |
| Joven / oro / gold | Usually a blanco with caramel in it, coloured to look aged. Occasionally a real blend. |
| Cristalino | An añejo filtered back to clear. You pay for the ageing and filter out some of what it did. |
| 100% agave | What you want. Anything not saying this may be up to 49% other sugars. |
Tequila is a denomination: it can only be made in Jalisco and a few neighbouring municipalities, and only from blue agave. Mezcal covers a much wider area and around thirty permitted agave varieties, so it's a far broader category. All tequila would technically qualify as mezcal if the producers wanted the label.