There’s a good chance you’ve seen a growing number of tequila and mezcal brands sitting on shelves, both at liquor stores and in bars. The popularity of these spirits has skyrocketed in recent years, as drinkers have started to discover the incredible flavors coming from Mexican agave spirit producers.

But many don’t know about the complex, nuanced, and labor-intensive process that goes into making these spirits. While they’re made in a similar way as other spirits around the world, they do have some key differences—from other spirits, and also from each other. Both tequila and mezcal are made from the agave plant—but agave has many different species, and that’s where the differences begin…

Tequila

For a spirit to be called tequila, it must be made with Blue Weber agave plants that are at least six years old. They must also be grown in one of Mexico’s designated areas for tequila. It’s the same idea as Champagne: for a sparkling wine to be called Champagne, it must come from the Champagne region of France. The same is true of tequila: it must be from Tequila, Mexico, in order to be labeled tequila.

First, the tequila producers harvest the agave plants from the fields by chopping off the tall, pointy leaves and getting to the center of the plant, which is a called a piña. Then they bake the piñas in a clay, brick, or stainless-steel oven for 2-3 days, in order to convert the plant’s raw starches into sugars that can be fermented.

Next, they mash the piñas into a pulp to extract their rich juices. This is traditionally done with a large stone wheel, called a tahona, which is pulled by mules over the agave to crush it until the juices run free.

The agave juices are added to a fermentation tank with the addition of water and yeast, where it ferments to a liquid that’s about 4-10% alcohol. This fermented liquid is transferred to a still where it is distilled to a concentration of about 55% alcohol.

The distilled tequila is aged in barrels to give it flavor and color, with different types of barrels lending unique flavors to the spirit. Blanco tequilas are not aged at all, and therefore do not pick up any color, while reposado and añejo tequilas develop golden and amber colors depending on their length of aging.

After their appropriate amount of aging, the tequila is bottled up and shipped to stores to be enjoyed.

Mezcal

Mexicans have been making mezcal the same way for hundreds of years, and in fact, tequila is a type of mezcal. But while tequila must be made from the Blue Weber agave, mezcal can be made from dozens of agave varieties, and each one lends a different character to the final product. The terroir and production method also impart a great deal of flavor to the mezcal as well, and it’s said that mezcal is a pure expression of the land.

First, the agave plants are harvested by hacking away the leaves to reach the piñas in the center, the same way as with tequila. Then the mezcaleros dig a large pit in the ground, light a fire inside it, and heat rocks over it. They layer the piñas on the rocks and cover them with soil, to slowly roast the agave for about a week, which gives mezcal its characteristic smoky flavor.

Once the piñas are roasted, they are mashed into a juicy pulp and usually crushed under a tahona, like in the tequila-making process. There are several other methods of mashing the piñas though, depending on the mezcalero’s decision for each batch of mezcal.

Next, the mashed agave pulp is put into wood barrels to ferment for about four to ten days. The agave liquid is then distilled, either in clay jugs according to the traditional method, or in copper stills which is a more modern process.

Once distilled, the mezcal is bottled right away at full strength. Most mezcal is not aged in barrels the way tequila is aged, although some producers do use the same aging process as tequila. For the most part, mezcal fans say the flavors are complex enough that oak barrels will mute the flavors, so it is most often bottled without any barrel aging.

Join us in Las Vegas for Wally’s Tequila & Mezcal Festival on Saturday, May 14th, where you can sample over a hundred of the finest agave spirits from Mexico. Click here to get your tickets!