Finding the Essence of Sun and Earth in Every Shot of Pain and Gladness
Jan 04 '02
The Bottom Line I love good tequila, and half the enjoyment comes from appreciating the history and hard work that goes into every single bottle. Here's what I mean...
Like Humphrey Bogart in the cinematic masterpiece Casablanca, I'd probably tell someone I was drunkard if I was forced to reveal my nationality. And as Claude Rains so astutely observed, that would make me too a citizen of the world.
I like that sentiment. I like it almost as much as I like having a drink in the evening. And like many of the best writers in the epinions gourmet section, I like sampling different things all the time, and I like seeing and doing things when I travel that relate to learning more about good food and good drink.
While I've spent most of my adult years trying different beers and visiting breweries everywhere I travel, I've also taken time out here and there to check out wine and wineries, and spirits and distilleries. They're all fascinating places with great people and delicious offerings that make it seem like no part of your body is half as interesting or important as the tongue (okay, okay, so there might be one or two parts more interesting, but I'd kinda like to keep this "G" rated, okay??)
Anyway, the world of alcoholic beverages often splits into camps dedicated to particular drinks, but there's really so much in common between them all that it helps to kind of draw parallels and contrasts between them to better understand how things work in a greater world.
Agave and the Roots of Tequila
Some drinks -- especially wine -- are closely tied to agriculture, whereas others -- like beer -- are tied to technology. Much of the differences between different wines is due to differences in growing conditions and methods. Vintners sometimes refer to this association as terroir, and so do tequila producers. This close association between agriculture and production is much different from the situation with drinks like beer where the production of the raw materials is significantly removed from the quality of the final drink. Distilled spirits are generally more like beer than wine in this respect. It is largely the technical production skills of the producers that determines how the final product will be perceived.
Tequila is the only spirit I know of where technology and agriculture are like a yin and yang in the same way as they are in the wine industry -- except that tequila growers aren't dealing with growing grapes, they're growing the blue agave plant, which is botanically referred to as tequilana weber.
Jose Cuervo was the first distiller to recognize this tight coupling, and Cuervo's cultivation of agave was one of the most significant steps forward in modern tequila production. Of course agave growers have far different concerns than do grape growers, but I still find it fascinating that tequila distillers and wine makers talk more about growing conditions and climate than do brewers, or say, distillers of rum.
I've heard some tequila afficianados talk about the differences between "highland" and "lowland" tequilas in just the same way that whisky afficianados discuss the highland and lowland scotches, although these terms are not widely used in Mexico and don't, to my knowledge, appear on any labels. I can tell you that Don Julio and El Tesoro de Don Felipe are two brands that definitely use pure "highland" grown agaves, but I don't know of any specific brands that are pure "lowlands" that you could use for comparison and contrast.
But back to the growing for a second: There's an entire culture and tradition behind agave growing, and I don't really want to get into all of that, although if you ever get a chance to visit the town of Tequila Jalisco, you can see jimador demonstrations at Cuervo or Sauza and learn more about how the agave are grown over a period of 5-7 years and then harvested using tools and techniques unique to the tequila industry.
Once the agave plants are harvested, the tequila production process begins. The part of the agave plant used in tequila is the center core, called the pina. A typical pina weighs 100 to 200 pounds.
How Tequila Is Made
Let's follow the path that a typical batch of tequila takes on its way from big round pina to smooth clear elixir of the Gods...
Roasting the Pinas
When the pinas are taken to the distillery, the first step in their long trip to your glass is the roasting oven. Historically, the pinas were roasted under hot coals in deep pits, but today, cavernous ovens are used to heat the huge pinas. The point is not to cook the pinas, but rather to warm them to a temperature that lets natural enzymes in the pinas break down complex starch chains into fermentable sugars. This step is equivalent to the mashing process that you'd see in a beer brewery or whisky distillery. The long roasting process does change the flavor of the juice to some degree, caramelizing some sugar types.
The roasting process is done differently at different distilleries, with the artesanal distilleries having the most interesting, photogenic, and traditional ovens and methods. Modern pressurized ovens can complete the roasting process in as little as 12 hours, while artesanal distillers may roast the pinas as much as four times longer!
Crushing
After the pinas are roasted and allowed to cool, they are crushed in order to obtain the sweet juice. Pinas are a little bigger and tougher than grapes, so you don't find distillers and jimadors stomping the juice out of the little buggers. This is a job for heavy equipment!
Historically, the crushing was done using a huge stone wheel called a tahona that rolled in a circular pit full of pinas, crushing their juices from them. A few artesanal distillers still use traditional stone tahonas, but the big distillers use industrial crushers.
During or after the crushing, the pulp is rinsed with clean water to rinse as much of the valuable sweet juice out of the fruit as is practical.
Fermentation
The extracted juice is pumped into huge vats where yeast will be added and the juice allowed to ferment, producing alcohol. Actually, it's not just juice in most cases. Most distillers will evaluate the quality of the agave juice and will add water and other sugars to the juice.
That tequila must be produced from at least 51% agave juice has been repeated so often that many people don't realize that the Mexican government has actually been increasing quality standards in recent years, and today, even the worst tequila must contain at least 60% agave. As I mentioned, most distillers add water and sugars to make up the remaining 40%. It's common to use cane sugars, such as piloncillo, which is a dense brown sugar, or corn syrups. The juice or blend that is to be fermented is called mosto, which is simply spanish for "must" -- the common term used in the wine industry for the equivalent source liquid before fermentation.
Yeast used for fermentation varies by distillery, with each claiming to have the "best" house strain. Tequila yeast has an alcohol tolerance somewhere between typical beer and wine yeasts with some strains slowing down at as little as 5% alcohol, while others continue producing up to the 10% level. All of these strains derive from naturally occurring yeast strains in the Jalisco area, and some distilleries even avoid adding yeast, instead, leaving the must to naturally ferment in much the same way that Belgian breweries near Brussels ferment their lambic style beers.
Fermentation typically takes 5 to 10 days to complete.
Distillation
Fermented agave juice is called pulque, and is a drink that has been consumed in Mexico for some 10,000 years. (Yes, you can still find places in Mexico that serve pulque, if you care to give it a try.) The pulque doesn't become tequila though until its alcohol is concentrated using a still.
Tequila distillers remind me a lot of whisky distillers in their affection for big old copper pot stills, and in their sense of tradition and consistency. Nonetheless, big industrial distillers tend to use modern stainless steel stills -- but you can still find copper stills in artesanal distilleries.
The distillation is done twice in order to remove impurities and produce a more pure spirit. After distillation, the tequila has an alcohol level in the 60% range.
Resting and Aging
While much of the tequila produced today is sold as young tequila (basically all of the clear tequilas plus those labeled as simply "gold"), other tequilas are stored in oak barrels and allowed to mellow and mature over time.
There's a lot of room for variation and creativity in the maturation process. What kind of barrels do you use? New local oak? Used whisky barrels? Barrels prepared for the wine industry? How long do you age the tequila? A few months? A year? Two years? Three??
The label tells you a little bit about the aging processing. Reposado means "rested" and must be less than 1 year old (typically more like 6 months). Anejo means "aged" and must be more than 1 year old.
Packaging
Finally, the finished tequila is evaluated and adjusted to meet consistency standards and is then bottled and shipped for sale to thirsty imbibers the world over. Distillers that age full-strength tequilas dilute the tequila with filtered spring water to bring it to the desired 40% alcohol level that is commonly sold to consumers. To improve product consistency, barrels from different batches are blended together to decrease the noticeable variations that naturally aged drinks invariably have between barrels. Color can then be adjusted using caramel additives so that one batch looks just like the previous one.
All in all, the packaging process is a little more involved than many people realize and it incorporates several steps to ensure product consistency. Even if you never trek out to Tequila, you can see this packaging process take place at the Sauza bottling plant in downtown Guadalajara (yep -- free tequila too!)
Tequila, the Law, and What it Means For You and Me...
A couple months ago, epinions' Top Reviewer in Gourmet, 4-1-1, posted a review on Porfidio tequila. In that review, Tom stated that Porfidio was closed down by the Mexican government for violating government-imposed industry standards. Since then I've seen some articles about this incident that makes it sound like a convoluted can of worms, but Tom's basic thrust was right and it shows just how serious the Mexican government is about maintaining high quality standards throughout the industry.
The laws are strict, the standards well-defined, and enforcement is consistent. This tells me that any bottle of tequila I buy is going to be a fairly decent product. And indeed, that is the case. You might not realize it if you've read some of the reviews here. Epinionators like lirubis are serious and well-informed, but they are very hard on all but the best tequilas. I don't have a problem with that, since their reviews reflect their own opinions, but I would probably be a little more gentle and fair with some of the young tequilas, which are actually better products than you might be led to believe. I would probably go so far as to say that it is hard to buy a really bad bottle of tequila today, just as it is hard to buy a bad bottle of scotch.
Let's talk about the laws for a sec. First off, the basic law governing the tequila industry is called NORMAS (Norma Oficial del Tequila). This defines how tequila can be produced, where it can be made, and it establishes minimum quality standards. Anybody selling a drink called "tequila" that does not conform to these standards is in violation. Mexico asserted its rights to be the sole owner and authority on tequila, and has negotiated treaties with the United States, the European Community, and other nations to recognize this. This is a very good thing for consumers in most of the world since unethical distillers in countries like Spain and South Africa used to sell cheap rotgut swill that they labeled as "tequila". With most nations banning the sale of anything labeled "tequila" that does not originate in Mexico, consumers can be assured that they are probably getting the quality they pay for.
A quasi-independent industry body called CRT (Consejo Regulador del Tequila) was established to supervise production and certify distillers who comply with standards. Certification numbers are often printed on bottles (they look something like NOM-1011-CRT and the number identifies a specific distillery).
The bottom line for you and me is that the Mexican government has taken a lot of effort to set firm guidelines and quality standards for tequila, and has been vigorous about getting foreign bootleggers put out of business. Whereas 20 years ago it was easy to find cheap off-brand tequilas that really weren't even tequila at all, today, that's tough to do. Even the cheapest generic liquor-store brand tequila must actually be made in Mexico from at least 60% blue agave and must conform to at least the minimal standards enforced by CRT for young tequilas.
Again, it's tough to buy a truly bad tequila today, and my head will be glad for it tomorrow morning...
Related Reviews:
How to evaluate and choose tequilas:
http://www.epinions.com/content_2434310276
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