Tequila is the distilled version of a drink originally made by the Aztecs in Mexico called pulque, which was made whit the fermented sap of the maguey plant. Spanish conquistadors didn’t much like pulque, so they introduced the Aztecs to the art of distilling. The first spirit to be produced from the maguey plant was called vino mescal and today the overall category to which tequila belongs is known simply as mescal.

Tequila is the distilled version of a drink originally made by the Aztecs in Mexico called pulque, which was made whit the fermented sap of the maguey plant. Spanish conquistadors didn’t much like pulque, so they introduced the Aztecs to the art of distilling. The first spirit to be produced from the maguey plant was called vino mescal and today the overall category to which tequila belongs is known simply as mescal.
Early mescal was most likely a fairly rough spirit, not much better than pulque, just higher in proof. By the late eighteenth century, mescal production was centered around the town of Tequila, where experimentation with different maguey types eventually led to the selection of the variety classified as Agave Tequilana Weber, known today as blue agave . Pulque, by the way, is still made in certain parts of Mexico by the ancestors of the Aztecs. Tequila, however, is produced only in and around the town of Tequila, in Mexico’s Jalisco province. Mexican law decrees that in order to be classified tequila, the spirit must be produced from blue agave plants grown within a delineated region in the five Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Mishoacan, Guanajuato and Tamaulipas.
Tequila falls into two main categories: mixto and 100 per cent blue agave. Mixto is made from a mush of no less than 51 per cent blue agave, with sugars from cane or other sources added during fermentation, and is often shipped in bulk and bottled elsewhere. Tequila designated 100 per cent blue agave is distilled from the fermented sugars of the blue agave plants only, and it must be aged and bottled in Mexico. According to Mexican law, there are four types of tequila: blanco, joven abocado,reposado and anejo. Blanco, also known as white, silver or plata, can be mixto or 100 per cent blue agave that is aged less the sixty days in wood and is usually stored in stainless-steel tanks during its resting period. this is the most common style of tequila.Tquila stamped joven abocado, also called gold, is a sort of non-category. it is almost always mixto tequila, whose colour does not come from ageing, but from the addition of colour and flavour, usually caramel. Reposado tequila, which means ‘rested’ in Spanish, can also have colour and flavour added, and is aged by law at least sixty days and up to a year in wood. Anejo, or aged, tequila is aged in wood for at least a year, more often longer.The best anejos, complex and elegant, are sometimes compared to fine Cognac. The journey from mere plant to Cognac-like elixir begins with the heart, or pina, of the blue agave plant, which when separated from the outer leaves can weigh between twenty-five and fifty kilos. The pinas, full of sweet juice called aguamiel (honey water), are steamed or roasted in brick or concrete ovens for twenty-four to thirty-six hours to extract their valuable sugar. The pinas rest and cool for another twenty-four hours, then are ground up to milled and washed to remove the remaning aguamiel for fermentation. During fermentation, the sugar level is tested and the important decision is made whether to add additional sugars to make mixto or to produce a 100 per cent blue agave tequila. Distillation then takes place in either a pot still or a column still. depending on the producer, though handmade 100 per cent blue agave tequilas are often distilled at lower temperatures in a pot still. Regardless, by law the tequila must pass through the still twice, the product of which result in a spirit with 55 per cent alcohol that is ready for ageing and subsequent rectifying with pure water to bring it to commercial proof, usually 80 proof.
Tequila is extremely favorable for mixing, also can be drink clean, chilled in shots with lemon slice and salt or orange and cinnamon.

MESCAL
Mescal is the Mexican spirit that was bottled with the infamous worm, in the bottom of the bottle. Mescal is produced mainly around the city of Oaxaca. Recently several premium and super-premium mescals have been introduced to America, including Encantado and the Del Maguey viilage mescals.
Mescal is made from a different type of agave, than tequila, the primary source is the espadin species. But several other varieties of maguey are also used pulque moguey and two wild varieties called maguey silvestre and maguey tobaia.
The word mescal is used to define the overall category, and so tequila is a type of mescal, but mescal is not tequila. Production of mescal is almost the same as for tequila, with the exception of the cooking of the pinas, in mescal production, the heat for the cooking comes from wood charcoal. And although the pinas do not come in direct contact with the charcoal, they are impregnated with the smoke during the baking process, which is a flavour that is apparent in the final product.