Hola a todos,

We have a question for you, what is the most famous drink from Mexico? Correctly!

Tequila!

But what is it actually and where does it come from and what does it have to do with this blog? Well, let us explain to you. First of all, as some of you probably know already, Tequila is hard liquor made out of the heart of the blue agave plant. This is actually also the main difference to its brother Mezcal, which can be made with more than 40 species of agave. Along with the fact that Tequila is baked in above-ground ovens, while for Mezcal the agave is roasted in a more traditional handcrafted way, with wood inside pits and rocks in the walls, which gives it more of a smokey flavor.

Tequila on the other hand is sweeter. After the steaming process for about 24h, the heart of the plant is pressed and squeezed through a mill to get all the liquids out of it. Those liquids will further be fermented and later distilled 2-3 times. Afterwards, just put it in an oak barrel and you will be ready to get drunk. Some people say that if you drink a Tequila made 100% out of agave, you can have as much as you want without a hangover the next day.

But now, who came up with the name Tequila? And why is a whole town called like that? Our tour guide told us, the town Tequila is located at an ancient volcanic eruption site and it was full of scattered Obsidian stones which are quite sharp and spiky. One can imagine walking over them as a very unpleasant experience. So when the ancient indigenous people of the region were walking around barefoot and stepped on them they would scream “Tecatlis“ referring to the obsidian stones, later on, these stones were used to make spears or tools for hunting and cutting. And the person making those tools with the “Tecatlis“ was named “Tecuilo“, with time, the place was called Tecuila and when the Spanish conquerors came they butchered the pronunciation of the indigenous word and voila, the known name and writing Tequila was created.

As for the invention of the drink tequila, the legend says it was discovered during a storm, when a lightning stroke on an agave field (being wild plants back in the days) that started a fire, and as the agaves heated up, honey of sweet taste and pleasant aroma emerged from them and caught the attention of the natives; who later discovered that when left sitting long enough, the honey had relaxing powers and euphoric effects after drinking it, so they thought of it as a gift from the gods. After the Spanish arrival, the distillation in alembics started, and with it, the Tequila as we know it today.

And now you might ask yourself, why do they tell me all this boring trivia about some booze? Well, the town Tequila is in the state of Jalisco and just one hour drive away from Tlaquepaque, so we decided to take a day trip there on Saturday because once you are in the region you should definitely check out this awesome place. It is also the only place where legal drinking on the streets is allowed in Mexico. Well, this is a law nobody really follows anywhere else anyways, but here at least is the official exception.

This exception should already give you an idea of the place because it is a never-ending party town. The streets are full of drunken people dancing with live music and every few meters you have the opportunity to buy yourself a drink. I mean, it is pretty obvious that the town called Tequila celebrates its heritage, and it does it very well, just mix it with the Mexican culture, and what you get is a neverending fiesta. There are tours you can book which pick you up in Guadalajara at your hotel, bring you to a train with all-inclusive drinks, and then once you arrive you get into a party bus, which is specially built to look like barrels, guitars, or chilies. Well, that is the tour of “Jose Cuervo” one of the most famous distilleries in Mexico, but it is also very pricey, they say it is around 3,000mxn but we are not sure.

We didn’t take that tour, we were lucky to have Linette and his boyfriend as our tour guides of the state, and they showed us the best way to explore, so they drove us to Tequila and right when we were parking the car in a random parking lot somewhere in the center of the town, a guy approached to us offering different tour options, we wanted to see the famous chili bus, so we booked our tour with “La Rienda” distillery for 350mxn per person. The funny thing is the word chili can also be used in a dirty context, so the slogan of the company is quite hilarious “ride the chili bus”.

Those buses take you to different locations like agricultural fields where they grow the agave plant and most importantly tequila distilleries. These obviously include a sighting of the manufacturing process and a tasting. Finding a tour in the town is no problem at all, the whole town is full of promoters of these tours and you will be asked if you are interested. Once you book one you get a sticker on your shirt so nobody will bother you with offering tours anymore.

We decided to go to a distillery where you can see the whole progress quite nicely, even though you don’t get so much tequila to taste. Anyways, in one of the chili buses we had a blast, we were rolling through the little town with a ton of tipsy passengers and loud party music playing while random people walking by the street dance and sing to the music of the bus as they are being cheered by the more and more intoxicated guests of the tour, it is really fun to witness and of course, you also get in the mood to sing and dance.

The first stop was an agave field, put up mainly for the tourists to take pictures and buy drinks, of course Yannick got a drink because everybody says that if you go to tequila and don’t get drunk you didn’t really go to Tequila. Naturally, the drink contained Tequila, but also other things. One of the most common ways to drink Tequila in Mexico, apart from shots with salt and lemon, is to mix the alcohol with the popular soda “Squirt”. It is somewhat of a sweet lemon taste drink which goes perfectly with the other ingredients of the mix, lemon, orange+grapefruit juice, salt, and ice. It is all mixed in a clay jar known as “Jarrito”, which you can either bring yourself or buy at the store. The top of the jar is decorated with a ring of sweet chili paste. It tastes pretty good but is more of a Leilanis than Yannicks thing.

After taking some pictures and getting a drink we were a bit late to get back to the bus and cached it barely on time (apparently our thing is to catch buses late) and continued with the tour. The next stop was the distillery “La Rienda”, we were forced to put on face masks and were guided inside. After a short break, we started with a walk around the facilities. Our first stop was about the history of Tequila. We learned that Tequila is legally only allowed to be produced in some states of Mexico, if it is produced anywhere else, then it is not legal Tequila. That might also explain the awful tequila experience one has had with the cheap ones available in Germany. The difference in taste is quite significant, the original Tequila tastes way better. It has some sort of a sweet taste and is quite smooth to drink. That sweetness is all around in the air during the tour in the distillery by the way. After looking at some old paintings, distillation devices, and tools we continue to visit the agave ovens.

We took some pictures and went to the most interesting part of the tour, the open fermentation tanks, where we could have reached inside the tanks with a hand if we wanted to, but hesitated because it looked boiling. Well, we were also told not to touch anything since it was not allowed. After going through the most aromatic part of the whole tour, the smell was delicious by the way, we went on to check the barrel storage. It is a nice little basement full of barrels, just like one would expect it. The tour ended with a little tasting of some tequila and we learned a trick to drink it properly. To avoid the feeling of razor blades going down the throat and making funny faces, one just has to breathe in deeply, hold it for a split second, drink, pass the tequila through your palate, and then breathe out as you swallow down. With that, Leilani discovered drinking Tequila wasn’t that bad and she is eager to try out the new trick soon.

After the tour ended we just waited for our chili bus to pick us up, we had some snacks in the meantime and once the bus arrived we blasted with full speakers back to town, making random “borrachos” (the Mexican word for drunken) dance in the streets to popular Mexican party music. Once we were back downtown we went to the “Josè Cuervo” house. In there we had a little tour through the public available spaces and their store with tons of expensive souvenirs. Soon a familiar feeling in our stomachs made itself noticeable and after passing a public wedding parade we headed to a restaurant to have some food.

Our stay in Tequila (town) ended with some purchase of Tequila (drink) to bring to Germany for Yannicks family, since he said a visit to the place where Tequila was born is not worth it without bringing some back home. And maybe after trying real Tequila the bad fame of the drink in Germany will fade. Yannick for example is liking it more and more, either because the way is mixed in Mexico makes it more appealing or because every time we visit Leilani’s grandparents, Opa Alfonso gives Yannick either a Mezcal or a Tequila shot.

After one hour drive home our trip to Tequila ended. The next day we walked around Guadalajara downtown, saw the most popular buildings, had some food, and bought Yannick an Ukelele. Later we went bowling and after being defeated by Linette’s boyfriend we left.

Our time in Guadalajara was lovely, we surely enjoyed it greatly, thank you, Linette. On Monday we drove back home on a bus, we were picked up at the station by Elva again and with cataclysmic Tacos for dinner another wonderful week in Mexico ended.

Bis zum nächsten Mal,
Leilani & Yannick

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