Cooking With Fire - an MJM Grande Enterprises Ltd. Production

How Tequila is Made
February 9th, 2010

Tequila is made from distilled sap from the hearts or “pinas” of the agave or maguey plant. Once harvested, the heart is cut into four or five pieces and then baked or steamed in a huge above-ground oven or autoclave for hours to obtain softness and sweetness.

The cooked agave is transported to the mill (similar to sugar cane mills) where the juice is extracted several times from the agave fibers. The agave juice is than pumped from the mill into special fermentation tanks where yeast is added to react with the juice to produce an alcoholic mixture.

The final product of fermentation then goes to distilling tanks to separate water from the tequila. Tequila is double distilled and a few brands even boast triple distillation. Distilling has a dual purpose: separate water from the alcohol, and separate any toxic substances and impurities from the final product. After this process, tequila is treated in different ways to obtain several varieties.