Tequila
Tequila is a distilled alcoholic beverage made primarily from the blue agave plant, with its roots tracing back to ancient indigenous cultures in Mexico, such as the Aztecs and Olmecs. The drink is most famously associated with the town of Tequila in Jalisco, Mexico, where the first commercial distillery was established in the early 1600s. Over time, tequila evolved from a local specialty into a globally recognized spirit, with a market value exceeding $1 billion in the 21st century. Approximately 70% of tequila produced in Mexico is exported, predominantly to the United States, which accounts for about 80% of these exports.
Tequila gained significant popularity in the U.S. during the Prohibition era when it was smuggled across the border. The classic margarita cocktail, which has become synonymous with tequila, originated accidentally in 1936. In response to the growing international demand, the Mexican government instituted regulations in the mid-20th century, stipulating that only tequila produced in Jalisco and made from blue Weber agave could bear the name. These regulations helped to protect the integrity and quality of tequila, ensuring that it remains a cherished part of both Mexican culture and the global beverage scene.
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Tequila
Tequila is a distilled (alcoholic) beverage made from the blue agave plant. It is most commonly found in the margarita cocktail. Most tequila is produced in the Mexican city of Tequila in the state of Jalisco. As of the twenty-first century, the global tequila industry's worth is more than $1 billion in US currency. Of every ten liters produced in Mexico, about seven are exported to places such as the United States, which consumes about 80 percent of Mexico's tequila exports.
Overview
Tequila is the first drink distilled in North America. It also is the continent's first commercially produced liquor. Its history dates back centuries when the native Aztecs of what became the country of Mexico fermented the sap of maguey (agave) plants into an alcoholic drink known as pulque around 22 C.E. It also is thought that the Olmec civilization used this process to make pulque even earlier than the Aztecs.
In the sixteenth century, the Spanish conquistadors distilled the pulque into a stronger type of alcohol. In the early 1600s, the first large-production distillery was opened in Tequila, Jalisco. This spirit later became known as tequila after the town where it was produced.
A man named José Antonio de Cuervo y Valdés became the first person to receive a license to begin commercially distilling tequila in 1758. Tequila did not attain prominence until the following century when Mexico achieved independence.
During the nineteenth century, other tequila distilleries such as Tequila Herradura and Sauza began to assert dominance. In 1893, the liquor was first introduced to Americans at the Chicago World's Fair. Its popularity in the United States grew, especially during Prohibition when people smuggled it into the country from Mexico and drank it in Mexican bars across the border. While numerous other distilleries had opened in Mexico by this time, Cuervo remained the largest manufacturer of tequila. The family had more than three million agave plants and was selling ten thousand barrels of tequila in Guadalajara by the early twentieth century.
The drink that became known as the margarita was invented by mistake at a Mexican bar run by an Irishman in 1936. It was called a tequila daisy; the Spanish word margarita means "daisy." It caught on and became the most popular drink made with tequila.
The demand for Mexican tequila increased in the United States during World War II when European spirits became difficult to retrieve. Around this time, the Mexican government decided to regulate the beverage. In 1947, the government decided that for a spirit to be called tequila, it had to be produced by distilling agave in the state of Jalisco. Other regulations, including the requirement that tequila be made from blue Weber agave, followed. In 1974, the Mexican government ruled that tequila must be made and aged in certain parts of Mexico and made it illegal for other countries to make and sell their own tequila.
Bibliography
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