How Is Tequila Made? The 6 Steps of Making Tequila

Tequila is a distilled spirit made from the Weber blue agave plant. Tequila is a popular spirit used in many different cocktails, like the Margarita, Paloma, and the Tequila Sunrise. The Mexican government decrees that tequila is only allowed to be produced in Mexico, and only in certain designated regions, including: Jalisco, Nayarit, Guanajuato, Michoacán, and Tamaulipas

Tequila is made from the Weber blue agave plant, or agave tequilana, which is a large succulent with long, spiked leaves similar to aloe vera. Within the core of the blue agave plant is a bulb called the piña. This bulb is baked and juiced, and the juice is fermented with yeast in barrels to make tequila.

Around the year 250, the Aztecs made a drink called pulque—made from the fermented juices of a plant called the maguey, which is a cousin of the agave—which is considered a predecessor to tequila. Tequila as we know it today—which is distilled, unlike pulque—was likely first made by the Spanish colonists when they invaded South America. In the early 1600s, Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle began the first distillery in what is now known as Tequila, Jalisco.

In 1974, the Mexican government declared tequila the intellectual property of Mexico, and that tequila can only be produced in certain Mexican states: Jalisco, Nayarit, Guanajuato, Michoacán, and Tamaulipas. A tequila regulatory council (the Consejo Regulador de Tequila, or CRT) maintains tequila production standards (like agave content, ABV, aging time, and ingredients) and supports the tequila industry through promoting tourism to tequila-producing regions and supporting trade with other countries.

Tequila production can be broken into six stages: harvesting, baking, juicing, fermenting, distilling, and aging. Here is more information about each one of these steps:

1. 1. Harvest the agave. Modern tequila production begins with the traditional method of harvesting the blue agave plant. A special knife called a coa is used to cut the leaves on the agave plant away from the underground piña bulb.
   
2. 2. Bake the agave core, or the piña. The piña bulb must be baked in order to extract its fermentable sugars. Traditionally, piñas were baked in pits lined with rocks, but today, they’re baked in either clay and brick ovens called hornos, or large stainless steel ovens.
3. 3. Shred the piña and extract the agave juice. After the piñas are baked, they are crushed and shredded to extract the sweet juice inside, which is called mosto. Mosto is extracted in one of two ways: by using an industrial mechanical shredder (the most common modern way), or by the traditional method of using a tahona, a large stone wheel that crushes and juices the piña.
4. 4. Ferment the agave juice, or mosto. Next, the mosto must ferment into ethyl alcohol in order to become a spirit. The mosto is combined with yeast and water in large fermentation tanks. This process uses either large stainless steel tanks, or large wooden barrels.
5. 5. Distill the fermented mosto. The agave juices are then distilled, which purifies the liquid and concentrates the alcohol in the mixture. Tequila is typically distilled twice. The first distillation produces a cloudy liquid called the ordinario. The second distillation produces the clear silver tequila, which is then ready to be aged and bottled.
6. 6. Age the tequila. All tequila is aged for at least 14 to 21 days. Silver or blanco tequila is aged for the minimum time. Aged tequila comes in three types: reposado (“rested,” aged for two months to one year), añejo (“aged,” aged for one to three years), and extra añejo (aged for over three years). To produce a more aged tequila, the distilled blanco is put into aged oak barrels, which gives the tequila a golden color. There is also a fifth kind of tequila called joven (“young”) or oro (“gold”), which is a mix of silver tequila and reposado tequila.

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