🌵 Agave: tequila and mezcal

Agave spirits are distillates of fermented agave juice, the best known being tequila and mezcal from Mexico. Mexican standards allow a strength of 35–55 % vol. at 20 °C; tequila must contain at least 51 % sugars of blue Weber agave, and the wording “100 % agave” means only its sugars.

The agave hearts, the piñas, are baked or boiled and crushed, and the juice is fermented and distilled. For mezcal the standard distinguishes three categories — mezcal, artesanal and ancestral — according to the oven, the mill, the fermentation vessels and the type of distillation; ancestral means a pit oven, a hand or stone mill and distillation in clay vessels.

Tequila by ageing: blanco or joven, reposado (at least two months in oak), añejo (at least a year in a barrel of up to 600 litres) and extra añejo (three years or more). For mezcal: blanco or joven, madurado en vidrio (over 12 months in glass), reposado (2–12 months) and others.

Tequila was added to the EU list of geographical indications in 2019; US rules recognise tequila and mezcal as “distinctive products of Mexico”: the name is possible only for a drink made in Mexico under its laws.

Why it matters to you. Look for “100 % agave”: without it, up to 49 % of the sugars may not come from agave. The mezcal category tells you the production method, the class tells you the ageing. Agave is not a cactus. WHO: no safe level of alcohol exists.

Other sections of this topic: Rum and sugarcane spirits; Whisky; Grape brandies; Milk-based and rare distillates; Asian spirit traditions; Vodka and grain spirits; Liqueurs; How spirits are made; Label, law and health. All sections are gathered on the “Spirits” page.