Tequila was first produced in the 16th century near the location of the city of Tequila, which was not officially established until 1666. The Aztec people had previously made a fermented beverage from the agave plant, which they called octli—later called pulque—long before the Spanish arrived in 1521. When the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill agave to produce one of North America’s first indigenous distilled spirits.
Some 80 years later, around 1600, Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle, the Marquis of Altamira, began mass-producing tequila at the first factory in the territory of modern-day Jalisco. By 1608, the colonial governor of Nueva Galicia had begun to tax his products. Spain’s King Carlos IV granted the Cuervo family the first license to commercially make tequila.
The style of tequila popular today was first mass-produced in the early 19th century in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Don Cenobio Sauza, founder of Sauza Tequila and Municipal President of the Village of Tequila from 1884–1885, was the first to export tequila to the United States, and shortened the name from “Tequila Extract” to just “Tequila” for the American markets. Don Cenobio’s grandson Don Francisco Javier gained international attention for insisting that “there cannot be tequila where there are no agaves!” His efforts led to the practice that real tequila can come only from the State of Jalisco.
Recent history
Blue agave fields and ancient distilleries near Tequila are recognized as part of the World Heritage List. Since the late 1990s, the spirit’s worldwide popularity has led to some important developments:
- The purchase of Herradura by Brown-Forman for $776 million in September 2006.
- A new Norma Oficial Mexicana (NOM) for tequila (NOM-006-SCFI-2005) was issued in 2006, and among other changes, introduced a category of tequila called extra añejo or “ultra-aged” which must be aged a minimum of three years.
- The purchase of the Sauza and El Tesoro brands by massive holding company Fortune Brands
Although some tequilas have remained as family-owned brands, most well-known tequila brands are owned by large multinational corporations. However, over 100 distilleries make over 900 brands of tequila in Mexico and over 2,000 brand names have been registered . Due to this, each bottle of tequila contains a serial number (NOM) depicting in which distillery the tequila was produced. Because only so many distilleries are used, multiple brands of tequila come from the same location.
The Tequila Regulatory Council of Mexico originally did not permit flavored tequila to carry the tequila name. In 2004, the Council decided to allow flavored tequila to be called tequila, with the exception of pure agave tequila, which still could not be flavored.
A one-liter bottle of limited-edition premium tequila was sold for $225,000 in July 2006 in Tequila, Jalisco, by the company Tequila Ley .925. The bottle which contained the tequila was a two-kilo display of platinum and gold. The manufacturer received a certificate from The Guinness World Records for the most expensive bottle of spirit ever sold.
In 2008, Mexican scientists discovered a method to produce tiny, nanometer-sized synthetic diamonds from 80-proof (40% alcohol) tequila, which has the optimal range of water to ethanol for producing synthetic diamonds. This process involves heating the tequila to over 800 °C (1,400 °F) to break its molecular structure and be vaporized into gaseous hydrogen, carbon, and various simple molecules. The carbon molecules are then settled upon steel or silicon trays to form a thin and pure uniform layer. Extremely cheap to produce and far too small for jewels, the results are hoped to have numerous commercial and industrial applications such as in computer chips or cutting instruments.
2006 Tequila Trade Agreement
In 2003, Mexico issued a proposal that would require all Mexican-made tequila be bottled in Mexico before being exported to other countries. The Mexican government said that bottling tequila in Mexico would guarantee its quality. Liquor companies in the United States said Mexico just wanted to create bottling jobs in their own country, and also claimed this rule would violate international trade agreements and was in discord with usual exporting practices worldwide. The proposal might have resulted in the loss of jobs at plants in California, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kentucky, because Mexican tequila exported in bulk to the United States is bottled in those plants. On January 17, 2006, the United States and Mexico signed an agreement allowing the continued bulk import of tequila into the United States. The agreement also created a “tequila bottlers registry” to identify approved bottlers of tequila and created an agency to monitor the registry.
NOM
The Norma Oficial Mexicana (NOM) applies to all processes and activities related to the supply of agave, production, bottling, marketing, information, and business practices linked to the distilled alcoholic beverage known as tequila. Tequila must be produced using agave of the species Tequilana Weber Blue variety, grown in the federal states and municipalities indicated in the Declaration.
Furthermore, the NOM establishes the technical specifications and legal requirements for the protection of the Appellation of Origin of “Tequila” in accordance with the current General Declaration of Protection of the Appellation of Origin of “Tequila”, the Law, the Industrial Property Law, the Federal Consumer Protection Law and other related legal provisions.
All authentic, regulated tequilas will have a NOM identifier on the bottle. The important laws since 1990 were NOM-006-SCFI-1993, the later update NOM-006-SCFI-1994, and the most recent revision in late 2005, NOM-006-SCFI-2005.
The number after NOM is the distillery number, assigned by the government. NOM does not indicate the location of the distillery, merely the parent company or, in the case where a company leases space in a plant, the physical plant where the tequila was manufactured.
TMA
TMA (tristeza y muerte de agave) blight has reduced the production of the agave grown to produce tequila. This has resulted in lower production and higher prices throughout the early 21st century, and due to the long maturation of the plant, will likely continue to affect prices for years to come.