How Agave Spirits Are Made
Tequila and mezcal start in a field that took years to be ready.
By TMOWSA · 2026-09-20 · Reviewed 2026-09-20
The plant
Agave is a succulent, not a cactus. The part used is the piña — the heart of the plant, once the leaves are cut away. Agave takes years to mature before it can be harvested, which is why supply in this category moves slowly and why agave pricing swings hard.
Cooking
The carbohydrates in raw agave are not directly fermentable, so the piñas are cooked to convert them into fermentable sugars. Method matters enormously to flavour: brick ovens, autoclaves, or, in much traditional mezcal production, an underground pit lined with hot rocks and covered with earth. The pit is where a great deal of mezcal's smoke comes from — it is a product of the cooking, not an added flavouring.
Milling and fermentation
Cooked agave is crushed to extract the juice, historically with a stone tahona wheel, now often with mechanical mills. The juice ferments, sometimes with cultivated yeast, sometimes with whatever is in the air and the room.
Distillation and ageing
The wash is distilled, commonly twice. Unaged spirit is sold as blanco or joven. Time in oak produces reposado and then añejo categories, with the ageing windows defined by each spirit's regulations.
Denominations of origin
Tequila and mezcal are protected designations produced in defined regions of Mexico under their own standards, including rules about which agave species may be used and how the spirit is classified. A spirit made from agave outside those rules is sold under a different name.
Why the timescale matters
If you are wondering why an agave brand cannot simply make more when demand rises: the answer was planted in the ground years ago.
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