60 Fun Facts About Tequila

Roughly how many agave plants are harvested each year in the region around the town of Tequila?

Each plant takes the better part of a decade to mature, so that harvest represents an enormous standing investment in the fields.

The town of Tequila sits in which Mexican state?

The town lies about 65 km northwest of Guadalajara, and its surrounding agave landscape is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Under Mexican law, tequila must be bottled at an alcohol content between what two figures?

That is 70 to 110 US proof; most export bottlings sit at the 40% floor common to other spirits.

A tequila labelled 'mixto' must contain at least what percentage of agave sugars?

The rest can come from other sugars such as cane, which is why the '100% agave' line on a label matters so much to drinkers.

The tequila class whose name means 'rested' must stay in oak for at least how long?

Reposado means 'rested'; it must stay under a year, or it moves into the añejo class.

An añejo tequila must be aged for a minimum of how long?

Añejo also has a ceiling of three years, above which the spirit becomes extra añejo.

The 'extra añejo' class, added in 2006, requires a minimum ageing period of how many years?

The class arrived with the NOM-006-SCFI-2005 standard as producers pushed tequila into whisky-style luxury territory.

What is a 'cristalino' tequila?

The process is similar to chill-filtering whisky and gives a barrel-aged spirit that looks like a blanco.

A 'joven' or 'oro' (gold) tequila is typically what?

Cheap gold tequilas often owe their colour to caramel rather than to any time in wood.

What are the workers who harvest agave plants called?

They use a long-handled blade called a coa to strip the leaves and free the heavy piña from the ground.

What is the harvested heart of the agave plant called, from the Spanish for a fruit it resembles?

A single heart can weigh 70 kg in the valley and around 110 kg in the highlands before it goes to the ovens.

Why are agave hearts baked in ovens before fermentation?

Yeast cannot ferment the long-chain sugars raw, so slow cooking is what makes the sweetness available.

What is the traditional large stone wheel used to crush cooked agave hearts called?

A handful of distilleries still turn a two-tonne volcanic stone through the pulp; most now use mechanical shredders.

By law, tequila must be distilled at least how many times?

Some brands distil a third time for smoothness, but a single pass is never allowed.

Roughly what alcohol level does the fermented agave juice reach before it is distilled?

That is beer strength; distillation is what concentrates it into a spirit.

What is the traditional narrow shot glass for tequila called, from the Spanish for 'little horse'?

The Tequila Regulatory Council also approved an official stemmed glass made by Riedel in 2002.

Which glassmaker produced the 'official tequila glass' approved by the regulatory council in 2002?

The Ouverture Tequila glass was meant to move sipping tequila away from the shot glass and toward the wine-tasting world.

What is the most traditional way to drink tequila in Mexico?

Salt and lime are a foreign habit; in Jalisco a good tequila is sipped, often alongside a chaser of sangrita.

The salt-lime-shot ritual nicknamed 'training wheels' has what Spanish name?

'Lick-sip-suck' is the other common nickname for the sequence of salt, spirit and citrus.

What is sangrita, the traditional companion to a shot of tequila?

Its name means 'little blood', and purists insist the real thing uses citrus and pomegranate rather than tomato juice.

What does Mexico's 'bandera' serving of lime juice, tequila and sangrita shots represent?

Green, white and red, in that order; the drinker sips across the row.

The 'worm' sometimes found in a bottle of Oaxacan mezcal is really the larva of what?

Producers only started adding it in the 1940s or 50s as a gimmick, and tequila regulations never allow one in the bottle.

What gives mezcal its characteristic smoky flavour?

Tequila producers bake in ovens or autoclaves instead, which is why the two spirits taste so different.

Roughly what share of Mexican mezcal comes from the state of Oaxaca?

Nine states hold certified mezcal areas, but Oaxaca dominates production.

The word 'mezcal' comes from a Nahuatl term meaning what?

Technically tequila is itself a kind of mezcal, one made only from blue agave.

Which agave species is most commonly used to make mezcal?

Espadín is Agave angustifolia, the 'smallsword' agave, and it accounts for the bulk of mezcal in Oaxaca.

Which pre-Hispanic agave drink is fermented but not distilled?

Distillation only reached Mexico with the Spanish and, according to some historians, Filipino sailors on the Manila galleons.

Which Spanish king granted the Cuervo family the first licence to make tequila commercially?

That was in 1795, after a period of prohibition under Carlos III, and Jose Cuervo remains the world's best-selling tequila.

Who is credited as the first person to export tequila to the United States?

Sauza founded his La Perseverancia distillery in 1873 and briefly served as municipal president of Tequila.

The first tequila distillery in the United States opened in 1936 in which state?

Harry J. Karns set up in the border town of Nogales; today the name is protected and any product sold as tequila must be made in Mexico.

In which year did the Mexican government declare the word 'tequila' its intellectual property?

The European Union followed with protected designation status in 1997.

The 'NOM' number printed on every tequila bottle identifies what?

Many brands share a NOM, which is how drinkers discover that two labels come off the same stills.

In what year was the agave landscape around Tequila declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

The listing covers the fields, old distilleries and the archaeological remains of the Teuchitlán tradition.

Which holiday did Mexico approve in 2018 for the third Saturday of March?

Bar calendars in the US celebrate a separate, unofficial National Tequila Day on 24 July.

Blue agave hearts are usually harvested when the plant is roughly how old?

That long wait is why agave prices swing wildly; growers cannot respond to a boom quickly.

Which animal is a key pollinator of blue agave flowers?

Cultivated agave rarely gets to flower, since the stalk is cut so the plant keeps its sugar in the heart.

In what year was blue agave first scientifically described as a species, by the botanist F. A. C. Weber?

That is why labels say 'Blue Weber agave': it honours the botanist, not a brewer.

How are cultivated blue agave plants normally propagated?

Cloning keeps the crop uniform but has stripped away genetic diversity, leaving fields vulnerable to disease.

Blue agave prefers to grow at altitudes above roughly what height?

The Jalisco highlands (Los Altos) sit at that height and are famous for sweeter, fruitier agave.

The IBA's standard margarita ratio of 10:4:3 refers to tequila, lime juice and which third ingredient?

Cointreau is the triple sec most bartenders reach for; the salted rim is optional.

The first known printed margarita recipe appeared in December 1953 in which magazine?

Competing origin stories place the drink's invention in Tijuana, Ensenada, Galveston and Acapulco.

Mariano Martinez introduced the dedicated frozen margarita machine in 1971 in which city?

His original machine, adapted from a soft-serve ice cream dispenser, now sits in the Smithsonian.

A Paloma is tequila, lime and which kind of soda?

In Mexico it is usually made with Squirt or Jarritos, and many bartenders rate it above the margarita as the country's favourite tequila drink.

The modern Tequila Sunrise was created in the early 1970s at a bar in which California town?

Mick Jagger tried one at a Rolling Stones tour party there in 1972, and the Eagles recorded a song of the same name the next year.

The original 1930s-40s Tequila Sunrise, from a Phoenix hotel, used which liqueur instead of grenadine?

That version was topped with lime and soda water and looked nothing like the layered orange drink of the disco era.

Which spirits giant bought Patrón in January 2018 for about $5.1 billion?

Patrón had been founded in 1989 by hair-care entrepreneur John Paul DeJoria and Martin Crowley.

Casamigos, the tequila co-founded by George Clooney and Rande Gerber, was sold in 2017 to which company?

The deal was $700 million up front with up to $300 million more tied to performance, and the name means 'house of friends'.

Which rock star sold an 80% stake in his Cabo Wabo tequila to Gruppo Campari for $80 million in 2007?

The brand grew out of the Cabo Wabo cantina in Cabo San Lucas that Hagar had opened with his Van Halen bandmates in 1990.

Herradura, founded in 1870 in Amatitán, takes its name from the Spanish word for what object?

Legend says a horseshoe was found on the hacienda; the company later became part of Brown-Forman in a $776 million deal.

Herradura is credited with introducing the first tequila of which class, in 1974?

Two decades later it launched the Selección Suprema, one of the first extra añejos.

El Jimador, launched in 1994 and often called Mexico's best-selling tequila, is named after whom?

It sits alongside Herradura in the Brown-Forman stable and was built for the domestic market first.

Don Julio González began distilling tequila in 1942 at what age?

His sons created the Don Julio 1942 expression for his 60th birthday, and the brand is now owned by Diageo.

The trapezoid-shaped bottle of 1800 Tequila is a nod to what?

The brand belongs to the Beckmann family, who also own Jose Cuervo, and its name marks the year tequila was supposedly first aged in oak.

Jose Cuervo's Reserva de la Familia was introduced in 1995 to mark what?

The first Cuervo tequila was made in 1795, making it the oldest continuously operating tequila producer.

The Champs' 1958 instrumental 'Tequila' won a Grammy in which category?

The only lyric is the title, shouted three times, and Pee-wee Herman danced to it on a bar-top in 1985.

The Tequila Express tourist train from Guadalajara has been running since which year?

The town itself was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2003 and holds its national tequila fair each winter.

The town of Tequila lies about 65 km northwest of which major Mexican city?

The other key growing zone is the Jaliscan Highlands, Los Altos de Jalisco, whose agaves are larger and sweeter.

What is the name of the long-poled, circular-bladed knife used to trim agave leaves?

A trimmed piña averages about 70 kg in the valley and as much as 110 kg in the highlands.

Which migrants first brought agave distillation technology to western Mexico?

The technique arrived in coastal Nueva Galicia and spread into the highland valleys of Amatitán, Tequila, Magdalena and El Arenal by the mid-1700s.

Which whiskey brand's used barrels are especially popular for ageing tequila?

The preferred oak is white oak from the US, France or Canada, often ex-whiskey casks.