Just the other day, action movie star Dwayne Johnson followed the team to China to promote "Fast and Furious: Special Operations". During this period, when he sent a Vlog to greet the newly circled Chinese fans, he always held a colorless glass of wine in his hand, whether it was showing his wedding ring in front of the camera or hearing his wife's urging, this glass of wine never left his hand.
Johnson was holding a strange spirit with little recognition in the country, Tequila. In fact, Johnson has always had a fondness for this drink, whether it is a colorless version or an amber version. One of his mantras on Vlog and social media is: "This tequila is not bad!" ”
Last year Johnson also tried to create his own tequila brand. Although this plan was abandoned because the trademark registration could not be passed, it still shows from one side that Hollywood, the bellwether of the North American trend, is pursuing this drink. In fact, not only the entertainment industry, tequila has long become a party essential in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and can compete with whiskey and vodka.
But wait, tequila... As if Mr. Lu Xun once mentioned it?
When The cabbage from Beijing is transported to Zhejiang, it is tied with red head rope and hung upside down in the fruit shop, revered as "jiaocai"; the wild aloe vera in Fujian is invited into the greenhouse as soon as it arrives in Beijing, and it is called "agave". - "Mr. Fujino"
So isn't that what aloe vera juice is made of? In fact, things are not so simple.
<h1>One-man tall aloe vera?! </h1>
Calling this mysterious drink tequila is, in addition to being nice, but also to avoid misunderstandings. Although the plants used in tequila and aloe vera are in the same category, and at first glance they are a bit similar, they are not the same. Commonly used in China for ornamentation and face dressing is a variant of aloe vera. It has always been one of the most popular succulents in the country.
The most respected tequila is the local Mexican variety represented by blue tequila. If you want to say that the blue agave is special, the first thing is the big - this "Mexican aloe vera", growing to a person tall is a common thing.
What's even more special is that while blue agave is also a serious succulent, it is not its leaves that are used to make tequila, but the bulb (known locally as piña) that the workers are digging. This part looks a bit like a pineapple from a distance, but it is much larger than a pineapple. The blue agave specially bred in these winemaking parks still weighs 70 to 110 kg after the bulbs have been shoveled off the leaf roots. The shovels used for harvesting are all open-edged, otherwise they can't really be dug.
To reduce the bitterness, workers cut the roots of the leaves with a shovel after harvesting; to facilitate baking and fermentation, they chop a whole bulb into several pieces—a process that involves not a knife but a large axe:
This raw material of tequila is really a bone surprise. In contrast, its brewing process is very "ordinary".
<h1>Undisturbed or striving for excellence? </h1>
The process of making tequila is ordinary because in addition to the East Asian shochu represented by liquor, the other spirit processes in the world are actually similar, nothing more than saccharification, fermentation, distillation, and aging. But the spicy flavor of blue agave still makes the process a little different.
First, the minced agave bulbs are placed in the oven and steamed, then crushed and crushed, and finally made into a pulp to destroy the starch as much as possible to obtain small molecule sugars suitable for yeast growth.
These syrups are added to the yeast and stirred evenly, and it enters the fermentation process. After fermentation for 72 hours, the alcohol content is about 5°. The pulp at this stage is called "Pulque" and can be bottled individually as a drink, which is also the oldest alcoholic beverage in the Americas.
This is followed by distillation. Since the Middle Easterners first used distillation for winemaking, this process is the only way to make spirits, which can be said to be the distillation of martial arts in the world. Tequila coincides with Beijing Erguotou in this step, which takes the second distilled liquor as the distillation pulp, and the alcohol content is about 55 °. At this time, if the pulp is directly diluted and bottled, it is the colorless wine in the hands of Dwayne Johnson at the beginning of this article, which is known locally as "Blanco" or "Silver" (Plata) tequila.
Since the degree of distillation of tequila is not high in distilled spirits, it retains a lot of the original taste of plants, which is spicy, a little choking, and has a slightly bitter plant aroma. At this time, the wine is relatively rushed, so many nightclub regulars and tough guys like Johnson are good at this sip.
If you want the wine to be richer and softer, it involves aging in oak barrels. Tequila pulp cannot be stored for too long (usually not more than five years) due to its low strength.
Aged for 2 to 12 months, it is called "Reposado" (rested), more than one year is called "Añejo" (aged), and more than three years is called "Extra Añejo" to show the hard work of workers and brewers. As time accumulates in oak barrels, the color of the wine also becomes darker and darker.
From left to right are plata, reposado, añejo
Tequila's real name Tequila also has its own specialty - similar to the conservation model of cognac and champagne, it can only be called Tequila if it is made locally in Mexico and only made with blue tequila, otherwise it can only be called Mezcal, which refers to various distilled spirits in the local area.
In addition to being "serious" Tequila, some wineries will also "peel" and add a worm associated with agave to the wine, which is quite like China's medicinal wine or Southeast Asian snake wine. It's just that because of the "additive", it can only be honestly called Mezcal.
In short, although the production process is a bit mediocre, Mexicans have worked tequila, and the things they make are also very local: white tequila is like a Mexican version of vodka or two pots; aged tequila is Mexican whiskey; and some manufacturers like to add syrup extracted from another aloe vera plant yellow-edged agave to white tequila, which is probably Mexican rum.
Syrup of yellow-edged agave
<h1>Agave tonight and the past</h1>
Tequila in the modern sense was formed about three or four hundred years ago. But in fact, the indigenous people of North America have long discovered this wonderful use of blue agave, but at that time, people could not distill, so they only made turbid wines like Pulque.
Although not as strong as it was later, agave and the wine it brewed were relied upon by the ancient civilizations here. Like many ancient civilizations elsewhere, wine here is not only a drink, but is also seen as a gift from the gods and a psychic medium. This was the case with the once-prominent Aztec civilization, which not only quoted tequila turbidity on various occasions, but also regarded blue agave as one of its most precious resources.
But those days didn't last long. The arrival of the Spanish colonists changed everything. With their ascension to power, tequila also carries their nostalgia. The Spanish colonies at that time lacked the technical conditions to introduce European wine grapes, and the dry areas of Mexico were not as suitable for growing dried sugarcane as in the Caribbean, and the main grain at that time, corn, was more monotonous. So they had to learn or drive the locals, dig up blue tequila, and make Pulque.
But the Pulque is only about 5 degrees, similar to beer, and it is not exciting enough for a group of people who miss their homeland when they are full and have nothing to do. So distillation was logically introduced into the production of tequila. At the end of the seventeenth century, the Spanish nobleman Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle first began the production of distilled blue tequila, which was the birth of Tequila.
Don Pedro, Marquis of Altamira, known as the "Father of Tequila"
Since then, tequila has quickly become a local signature drink. Mexico doesn't just have Corona!
For many people, Mexican wine ≈ Corona
In fact, tequila can catch fire in Mexico, on the one hand, because the spicy taste is very compatible with the Habit of Mexicans who love to eat offal; on the other hand, the reason is that civilian-grade tequila is cheaper. Blue agaves are huge after a few years in the sand, even if there is no blue agave can be used to follow other varieties such as yellow-edged agave; americans next door to bourbon like to use new oak barrels, so the Mexican side just used a relatively low price to buy a "second-hand" oak barrel that has been filled with bourbon once.
Taken together, tequila is not as expensive as long as it's not a top brand and has been aged for years. For a troubled place like Mexico, people can use it to release stress and add to the mood. The process of tequila is similar to that of the second pot head, so at first glance, there are actually functions.
That's why tequila is popular in nightclubs
As for how tequila swept the United States where Dwayne Johnson was located, it was even more coincidental: during World War II, Americans found that European wine was not easy to buy, and their domestic production capacity could not be filled. So tequila from Mexico, like laborers from Mexico, quickly swept the U.S. market...
Tequila is also an important party wine in contemporary America
<h1>Drink alcohol and taste people</h1>
An unassuming succulent seems useless in the backcountry.
But people here have discovered the beauty of this plant, made tequila, and given tequila a distinct regional character – through it, we may be able to get a glimpse of how people in this country that has been oppressed by neighbors and gangsters for many years have faced difficulties and regained optimism. If you want to read the city and taste people, a good angle is to taste the wine.
So, come on, brave, dry this cup of aloe vera!