Elaboration
The elaboration process, both for tequila, mezcal and raicilla, have similarities, while the three come from the spirit of Mexican agave and maguey. The main process is basically the same: harvest, jima, cooking, maceration or milling, fermentation and distillation.
It is important to mention that the maturation time of an agave or maguey plant is around seven years.
The difference are that tequila can only be from the Blue Weber Tequilana Agave and has a designation of origin, occurs in the towns of Tequila, Amatitán, Arandas and Atotonilco el Alto, as well as in some parts of the State of Nayarit and Guanajuato. Mezcal comes from more tan forty varieties of maguey and from various regions of the country, such as Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas. The rootlet, finally, is only produced in the state of Jalisco and the type of agave is Maximiliana, Inaequidens, Rhodacanta, Valenciana, Angustifolia.
The Tequila
"Drink me like tequila... in one shot and without thinking about it."
The tequila, once the agave is cut, is placed in stainless steel containers to cook with high pressure steam for a total of approximately 18 hours. It is then passed through a harrow and then passed to a mill. When the juice is obtained, yeast is added to ferment and subsequently distilled to pass it to different types of barrels in which it is allowed to stand, the time and the wood of the barrels gives different characteristics to the tequila. A tequila master is the one who supervises the entire process of making tequila.
For the elaboration of the mezcal
For the elaboration of mezcal, the pineapples are cooked in a cone-shaped underground oven, covered with volcanic rock and the fire is fed with oak wood. This process takes several days, until the pineapple is cooked and caramelized. Underground baking is what gives it its flavor. Once they are cooked and unearthed, they are crushed with a “tahona”, that is, a horse of donkey that pulls a large stone wheel around a circle. The process is supervised by a master mezcalero. The profile of flavors is different between each harvest, each year and each teacher.