In Jalisco a sea of blue agave covers the hills for as far as the eye can see.
But for me, the plant behind the drink, the blue agave, adds even more fascination to the liquor.
To deserve the name, it must be distilled only from the sap of the Mexican blue agave plant.
The most familiar perhaps to U.S. shoppers is the organic blue agave sweetener.
The blue agave plant ( agave tequilana) grows for about a dozen years before harvesting from the harsh Jalisco soils.
In particular, the tough, fibrous leaves of the blue agave plant.
Following up on my post about the Science of Tequila, I contacted Mexican botanist and author Ana Valenzuela Zapata on the broader applications for blue agave cultivation.
Both offer tours, tastings and the chance to smell the sweet nectar of the blue agave plants -- the source of tequila -- as they are slowly cooked in huge ovens.
To be sold as tequila in the U.S., the booze must be distilled from fermented liquid that is at least 51% the juice of the blue agave plant grown in the southwest Mexican state of Jalisco (and a few other areas).
Made from personally selected blue agave plants, multiple distilled with pure spring water, it gets its platinum color from ultra-modern filtration, and is finished by hand with an extra anejo tequila which has rested in oak barrels for five years to enhance the flavor.
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In her book, Tequila: A Natural and Cultural History which she co-wrote with Gary Nabhan, she detailed her concerns that the demand for tequila and the industrialized approach to production have exposed the blue agave to dangers that could potentially lead to crop failure.
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