The Production Process Of Tequila
1.Picking: After the agave is ripe, wine farmers will come to the planting area and use a long handled round knife to dig out the entire agave plant. Then, by removing the thick sword shaped leaves and roots of the agave, the agave's rhizome can be obtained.
2. Steaming and roasting: The roots and stems of agave are sent to a distillery and then cut in half for steaming and roasting. The distillery uses a steam chamber or a "Horno" stone brick oven for steaming and roasting (the advantage of using a stone oven for steaming and roasting is that it can maintain the original flavor of agave), slowly softening the rhizome ingredients, and the entire process takes 50-72 hours. During this steaming and roasting process, the plant fibers of agave will slowly soften and release natural juices, but attention should be paid to the heat of steaming and roasting. Because if the firepower is too strong or too fast, it can easily scorch the agave rhizomes, making the juice bitter and wasting its valuable fermentable sugar.
3. Grinding to remove pulp: After the rhizome of agave is cooked, the distillery will allow it to cool for 24-36 hours, followed by grinding to remove pulp. This process is very unique because after the roots and stems of agave are completely softened and cooled, workers will take out a large hammer to break them, and then put the crushed materials into a giant mill called "Tahona". Using a donkey or cow to push the stone mill for grinding, agave juice will flow out. After mixing some pure water, workers will put the juice into a bucket for fermentation.
4. Fermentation: Fermentation is usually carried out using wooden barrels or stainless steel tanks. For different tequila manufacturers, different yeast will be used, and Mixto will use commercial yeast and ferment for 1-3 days. Tequila 100% agave uses pure natural yeast, which takes more than 10 days to ferment. After all, the longer the fermentation time, the better, so different fermentation times will ultimately affect the final flavor of tequila wine.
5. Distillation: After the fermentation of agave juice, a base liquor with an alcohol content of about 5% -7% is obtained. Traditional distilleries then use copper pot rectifiers for two distillations, while modern distilleries use stainless steel continuous distillers for distillation. The use of a pot still can achieve an alcohol content of 30% in the first round and 55% -60% in the second round. However, for some top distilleries, it can be controlled above 40% to retain more flavor positions. However, using a continuous distiller is more suitable for mass production, so the distilled tequila wine may lack both aroma and flavor.
6. Aging and blending: Although agave belongs to the category of spirits, it is a very "fragile" foreign wine because the taste of agave itself is easily replaced by other flavors during the aging process (such as oak barrel flavor). So the aging time of tequila wine should not be too long, so it should be done within 5 years at most. Most distilleries use American oak barrels for aging, and the blending after aging can make the alcohol content of tequila wine between 35% -55%.
