How tequila is made
A blue agave plant takes years to mature, and then workers cut off its leaves to leave a pineapple-shaped heart.
- stations
- 7
- things upstream
- 25
- raw sources
- 13
- steps from the ground
- 6
The short version
Tequila is made from the cooked heart of the blue agave plant. Harvesters called jimadores cut away the leaves, leaving the piña. Slow baking turns its starches into simple sugars, and the baked piñas are shredded and pressed to release the juice. That juice ferments, is distilled at least twice, and is bottled clear or aged in oak.
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Trim the agave hearts
Jimadores check each plant for ripeness and cut away its leaves with a long-handled knife called a coa. What is left is the piña, a heavy core that looks like a giant pineapple.
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Bake them slowly
The piñas are baked in ovens to break their complex starches down into simple sugars, mainly fructose. The slow cook also gives the sweet, caramelized flavor.
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Shred and squeeze out juice
Baked piñas are shredded or mashed under a heavy stone wheel called a tahona. Leftover fiber, the bagazo, is reused as compost, animal feed, fuel or paper.
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Ferment in vats
The sweet juice goes into wooden or steel vats, with yeast added or left to arrive from the air. Mosto is the name for the weak alcoholic liquid that results.
about 20 hours to 7 days
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Distill it twice
The first distillation yields ordinario. A second run gives clear silver tequila. By law at least two distillations are required.
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Rest in white oak
Blanco is bottled with little or no aging. Reposado rests in oak for at least two months and añejo for at least a year. Extra añejo ages at least three years.
two months to three years
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Dilute and bottle
Water brings the spirit to a strength within the legal range, and it is bottled. Tequila must be between 35% and 55% alcohol by volume.
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Worth repeating
- More than 300 million blue agave plants are harvested each year in the region around the town of Tequila.
- Tequila is made only from blue agave, which sets it apart from other agave spirits such as mezcal.
- Pulque, brewed from agave sap, is fermented but not distilled, and was made for thousands of years before tequila.
- Every bottle carries a serial number, called a NOM, that identifies the distillery that made it.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and tequila starts as these 13 raw sources.
Everything it is made of See it on the map
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Sources
Cite this page: "How tequila is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/tequila