It’s a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila,
40 miles Northwest of Guadalajara.
The red volcanic soils in the region of Tequila are well suited for growing the blue agave.
Mexican Laws state that tequila can only be produce in the state of Jalisco and limited municipalities in the states of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit and Tamaulipas.
Tequila was first produced in the 16 th century near the city of Tequila, which was not officially established until 1666. A fermented beverage from the agave plant known as Pulque was consumed in pre-Columbian central Mexico before European contact. When the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own Brandy, they began to distilled agave to produce one of North America’s first indigenous distilled spirit.
In 1600 Don Pedro Sanchez de Tagle & the Marquis Altamira began mass-producing tequila at the first factory in the territory of modern-day Jalisco. 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.
Don Cenobio Sauza, the Founder of Sauza Tequila and Municipal President of the village of Tequila from 1844-1885, was the first to export tequila to the United States.
