Tequila!

Why did the Mexican push his wife off the cliff? TeQUiLA! (To kill her).  A cheapish tour (M$300/R250) took us to the infamous town known for it's little black-out inducing drink. We couldn't miss an opportunity like this, so off we went through the beautiful scenery 64km from Guadalajara to the quaint town of one of the nastiest, yet fun, booze ever!

A small selection of the tequilas available.

 Our tour lady was brilliant, she knew all the history and everything about Tequila. Before the Spanish arrived in 1521, the Aztec people would ferment the blue agave (tequila cactus) to make a little brew. Apparently, one day an indigenous person found a cactus that was struck by lightning, or burned somehow, tried it and liked it. They would then use the juices for their local drink, called Mezcal. When the Spaniards arrived, a brandy shortage lead one dedicated alcoholic to use the indigenous knowledge combined with the Old World knowledge of distillation & Voila! The first potent drink known today as Tequila was born.

The raven - the Mundu/Jose Cuervo mascott.

 We arrived in the agave plantations, and I see these plants in South Africa and want to rip them out and murder them so they don't destroy our beautiful country. But they are indigenous here, and despite the rows and rows of monoculture, it was quite a pretty sight. A man dressed in the most classic mexican cow-boy style showed us how they harvest the Tequila. He took his massive machete and zing zing zing gave it a little haircut, leaving only to core (pinas). I tried, and it wasn't as easy as it looked. Every single agave is hand harvested, so next time you have a tequila, think about all the hard work those buggers do to get the sweet nectar for your pleasure!

Using a rounded blade he chopped up that agave in no time!

Smile for the camera! The volcano in the background provides the perfect soils for the agave.

Off to the Town of Tequila we went, with a true wild west setting and men on horses in the streets. I couldn't stop hearing Marty Robbins in my head and wanted to badly to be in the Wild West with a pistol in a bar challenging people for a duel. Anyways, the roads were cobblestones, scared from wagons back in the day.  So amazing.

Tequila Town.

 The first commercial Tequila was made by Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle, with his Mundo Cuervo distillary. We went to the little 'museum' and got a free Margarita and was keen for some Tequila tasting. In the Mundo Cuervo distillary we got a little tour to see the production. It's really simple: After harvesting the plants, the piñas are burned in an oven at 98°C for 37 hours or something. The piñas are crushed, the juices extracted and fermented for 3-9 hours, distilled again to make a 55% brew, and flavourants etc added.

Tons of tequila stored in smokes oak barrels.

 We FINALLY got to the Tequila tasting. The distillary was hot and stuffy and I was so thirsty. A woman in the tour infront of me tasted a baby shot of Tequila and her face scrunched up like she swollowed her tongue eating a lemon. What a wimp I thought! Our turn was up, and having the ingrained 'get as much booze for free' student mentality, slammed a shot down - oh my sack! Disgusting!!!! Blah!!  I did the exact thing the lady did. What a loser.  Rob couldn't breathe, he hates this stuff. We had the 55% stuff, pure alcohol, with added sugar, aging or anything. Gross.

The Nectar of Doom.

 After gagging for a while, trying to act cool we went to the storage facility. They store the Tequila is smoked oak barrels, just like wine. It was like Asterix and Obelix, where the Romans bash barrels open to find the magic potion. So cool. More Tequila tasting was in store, and we wearily drank some. We had to force ourselves to drink it. Rob said next time we go anywhere, it'll be a beer factory. Hear, hear!

The tour ended and we had another margarita. Yum! The pure Tequila isn't sold everywhere in the world. It's expensive. We drink Jose Cuervo, which is 51% agave, 49% other sugars. Our tour gave us a 5% discount coupon for the fanciest restaurant in the place where one drink cost something stupid. Rob and I missioned around the streets to where the walls were cracked and locals hung out.

A sweet little restaurant, tucked away in the building was serving some lekker grub, so I pointed to whatever the lady was making and waited a while. Two delicious tostadas came out. Oh my god, fantastic! Just what we needed. Sitting on the plastic chairs across a cock-fighting ring, we saw the locals start entering to watch the chicken fight. It was so funny, we saw a car, beaten up bakkie, with 4 guys squeezed in the front, all drinking beer, blasting music looking rough around the edges. A moment later a shiny new 4x4, windows up, not a sound with 3 tourists looking lost, all buckled up sitting quietly in the car with aircon drove by. Ja, local is Lekker!

Delicious Tostadas!!

 A lovely tour, interesting and awesome to see how a small area produce all the Tequila in the whole entire world! Oh by the way - the worm in the bottle is a local trait in a town called Oacaxa, so no worm for us!