The main ingredient of tequila is tequila. Tequila is a plant native to Mexico, with a large stem. A mature tequila stem usually weighs 100 kg. Locals usually call the stem of tequila "heart". The "heart" of agave is rich in juice and sugar. The main raw material for brewing is the sugar in the juice of this grass heart (bulb).
According to Mexican law, tequila must be made from blue Webb tequila, which contains at least 5 1% tequila when distilled, and the sugar content does not exceed 49%. This produces two kinds of tequila: 100% tequila and mixed tequila, which is made of tequila with sugar. Mixed tequila is made of glucose and fructose, and is usually flavored with sucrose, caramel pigment and glycerol.
Second, how is tequila brewed
1, pick up the goods
When the agave is ripe, the wine farmers will come to the planting area. They will dig out the whole agave with a long-handled round knife, and then remove the thick sword-shaped leaves and roots of agave to get the roots of agave.
Step 2 steam and bake
The roots of agave will be sent to the brewery and then cut in half for steaming. The winery uses steam chamber or "Honore" Shi Zhuan furnace for steaming and roasting (the advantage of using stone furnace for steaming and roasting is that the original flavor of agave can be maintained), and the root and stem materials are slowly cooked and softened, and the whole process needs to last for 50-72 hours. In this steaming process, the plant fiber of agave will slowly soften and then release natural juice, but pay attention to the steaming firepower. Because if the firepower is too strong and too fast, it is easy to scorch the agave roots, make the juice bitter and waste its precious fermentable sugar.
3. Grinding and desizing
When the rhizome of agave is cooked, the winery will let it cool for 24-36 hours, and then grind it to remove the pulp. This process is very distinctive, because after the roots of agave are completely softened and cooled, workers will take out a sledgehammer to break it, and then put the broken material into a huge mill called Tahona, and push it with a donkey or a cow to grind it, so that the juice of agave will flow out. After mixing some pure water, the workers put the juice into a barrel for fermentation.
Step 4 ferment
Fermentation is usually carried out in wooden barrels or stainless steel tanks. Different tequila manufacturers will use different yeasts, and mixto will use commercial yeasts, and then ferment 1-3 days. Agave 100% agave will use pure natural yeast, and the fermentation time needs more than 10 days. After all, the longer the fermentation time, the better, so different fermentation time will eventually affect the final flavor of tequila.
5. Distillation
When agave juice is fermented, the base wine with an alcohol content of about 5%-7% will be obtained, and then it will be distilled twice by copper pot rectifier in traditional wineries and continuously by stainless steel distillers in modern wineries. Tank distiller can make the alcohol content of distilled liquor reach 30% for the first time and 55%-60% for the second time, but it will be controlled above 40% in some top wineries, so as to retain more flavor positions. The use of continuous distillers is more suitable for mass production, so the distilled tequila will lack aroma or flavor.
6. Aging and mixing
Although tequila belongs to the category of spirits, it is a "fragile" foreign wine, because the flavor of tequila itself is easily replaced by other flavors (such as oak barrel flavor) in the aging process. Therefore, the aging time of tequila should not be too long, and it should be carried out within five years at most. Most wineries use American oak barrels for aging, and the alcohol content of tequila after aging can be between 35% and 55%.