This post is dedicated to Robin, Jodie, Laurel, and Rico, for your love of tequila… we thought of you the whole time!

After Puerto Vallarta we said goodbye to the coast for a little while and headed inland, making a stop in Tequila. We took a really nice back road from Puerto Vallarta into Tequila that was recommended by a few different people. It was a small road that wound through the lush vegetated mountains. If you are in the area, there is no missing the town of Tequila, where “it” (meaning the beverage of tequila) supposedly all started and has given the town its fame. The story of this drink made from the Agave plant is more complicated and in reality it may date as far back as Mayan empire days, but we will talk about it when we get to Oaxaca.

If the agave plants dotting the hillside didn't clue you in to the amount of tequila here, the sign welcoming you into town will. I guess if a town was called Whiskey I would expect the same.

Driving into the town, all of the surrounding hillsides are covered in blue agave plants for as far as the eye can see. It is really quite beautiful for the blue hue the plants impart on the hillside.

All of the hills surrounding town have the blue hue of agave

The town itself is quite beautiful and even without all the tequila factories is well worth at least a day of walking around.  There is a really nice old church in the center of town and some nice plazas for people watching. For most people tequila is the real reason for visiting this city, and there are people offering tours of tequila refineries and the plantations bugging you as soon as you set foot on the plaza.  There are also liquor stores all over town selling everything from the best of the best of tequila, to big plastic jugs of what appears to be tequila (just looking at the plastic jugs gave us a headache!). We decided to do a tour of the Jose Cuervo distillery which is located just off the plaza. They had a bunch of different tours with the price going up for each “attraction” that was added, and we were a little skeptical at the quality of the tour we were buying, so we opted for the standard tour with a tequila tasting at the end.  The tour turned out to be well worth the price of admission and we got the low down on how tequila is made (we also got quite the buzz since you get to try the tequila at the different stages, and they are more than willing to refill). At the end of the standard tour we sat down to learn about the aging process of Tequila and the fine points of tasting. We did a taste of the Blanco, Reposado and the Añejo. All three tequilas were the same brand and same alcohol content, but it was pretty amazing at the differences in flavors. Our take on the explanation of the aging process is that Blanco is only aged for up to 3 months, the Reposado is aged for anywhere from 3 months to a year, and the Añejo is aged for more than a year. Or something like that, at this point in the tour we definitely weren’t paying attention to details. With aging the tequila starts to take on more of the flavor of the oak barrels it is in. We decided we liked the Reposado best, but the Blanco was good for shooting.  The Añejo had too much flavor for our buds. But, that is just our unrefined tastes talking. We’re more used to shooting tequila with lime and salt, not sitting down with a cigar with tequila in wine glasses and swishing it around while watching the legs form on the side of the fine crystal while sniffing the aroma and trying to guess what tonalities may be there.

How tequila is made, The Tour:

Before you can go inside the distillery you have to put these fancy hair nets on. With Tequila it is all about sanitation!

The agave plants are harvested and all of the blades are taken off. It takes 8 years for an agave plant to mature before it is ready to be made into tequila.

They randomly select some of the agave hearts for quality control testing. These numbers indicate the ones selected.

The tools used for harvesting and de-blading the agave.

The agave hearts are then roasted in big ovens. The roasting process brings out all of the sugars in the plant.

Roasted agave leaves out for us to taste. They are extremely sweet, they taste like the product of baking sugar cane... sweet and smoky.

The hearts are then mashed up and go through two phases of distilling in these big copper vats.

The tequila right after fermentation is 50% alcohol. It is surprisingly smooth, with a nice clean flavor. Care for a refill anybody?

The tequila is then aged in oak barrels in a climate controlled warehouse. The aging time depends on the type of tequila being made.

Other uses for agave and the fibers left over from distilling.

The amount of charring on the inside of the barrels the tequila is aged in gives the tequila different flavors. The barrels that are used in this factory come from Tennesse and France.

Tasting the aged tequilas. Where is my lime and salt? This guy kept the shots filled as long as you put the glass in front of him.

The final tasting after the tour. I think the camera is catching a buzz by this time too.