The tequila agaveAgave Tequilana Weber Azul, often called blue agave, is an agave, a principal economic product of Jalisco state in Mexico due to its role as the base ingredient of tequila, a popular alcoholic drink.
The tequila agave grows natively in Jalisco, favoring the high altitudes (over 1500 meters) and sandy soil. Commercial and wild agaves have very different life cycles. Both start as a large succulent, with spiky fleshy leaves, which can grow to over two meters in length. Wild agaves sprout a shoot when about five years old which grows into a stem up to five meters tall and topped with yellow flowers. The flowers are pollinated by a native bat (Leptonycteris nivalis) and produce several thousand seeds per plant. The shoots are removed when about a year old from commercial plants to allow the heart to grow larger. The plants are then reproduced by planting these shoots; this has lead to a considerable loss of genetic diversity in cultivated blue agave.
Tequila is produced by removing the heart of the plant in its twelfth year, normally weighing between 35-90 kg. This heart is stripped of leaves and heated to remove the sap, which is fermented and distilled. Other beverages like Mezcal and Pulque are also produced from Blue and other agaves by different methods (though still using the sap) and are regarded as more traditional.
Over 200 million Blue Agave plants are grown in several regions of Mexico, but in recent years the ability of farmers to meet demand has been in question. Through poor breeding practices, Blue Agave has lost resistance to fusarium fungus and several other diseases which currently render 25%-30% of the plants unusable for consumption.
Tequila, a Mexican spirit distilled from fermented juices from the hearts of blueagave (ah-GAH-vay) plants grown in the Tequila region in the state of Jalisco, has been made there for more than 200 years.
Blueagave (agave azul tequilana weber) has long bluish-green spiny leaves with sharp points and a large heart (called piqa or pineapple).
It has the bouquet and flavor of blueagave and is traditionally served in a caballito, a 2-ounce glass.
BlueAgave, the tequilaagave of the Agave tequilana species is an agave that is an important economic product of Jalisco state in Mexico due to its role as the base ingredient of tequila, a popular alcoholic drink.
A fifty year old blueagave in Boston has grown a 10 meter (30 foot) stalk (requiring a hole in the greenhouse roof) and flowered sometime during the summer of 2006.
Over 200 million BlueAgaveplants are grown in several regions of Mexico, but in recent years the ability of farmers to meet demand has been in question.
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