Good Pancho's Article

Sorry, the tequila news has been neglected. Here's a fresh article about a fucking kick ass tequila bar in Cabo San Lucas that I've drank at many times.



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Tequila's sun rises Lavish tastings let travelers savor Mexico's essemce By Elana Ashanti Jefferson, Denver Post Staff Writer

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico - Seated at a table swathed in bright woven fabric, facing a tiled bar where tourists ogle a vat of homemade rattlesnake tequila brewed from an Indian recipe once thought to cure arthritis and kidney problems, Armando Delgado could be mistaken for an old borracho were it not for his grandfatherly smile and the pen tucked into the pocket of his pastel golf shirt. Delgado is the tequilero at Pancho's Restaurant & Tequila Bar, a hangout founded by American cocktail connoisseurs who have amassed some 500 types of tequila and mescal. Pancho's once boasted the world's largest tequila selection, before similar bars sprouted up in the United States. Delgado sits in front of three bottles containing clear, gold and amber liquids. The tequilas - one blanco, one reposado and one anejo - are arranged near a green plastic gas can and smoothed wood platter where fresh-cut limes flank a mound of salt and four squat glasses. Mexico embraces travelers interested in learning to negotiate its national drink - tequila. While the American love affair with the potent nectar of blue agaves began about a century ago, the latest notch on tequila's bedpost comes from this country's culinary elite. Tequila-based cocktails such as tamarind, ginger and prickly pear margaritas - served in sleek barware instead of bulbous beach glasses - are becoming staples at trendy restaurants and nightspots. And that means Mexico's tequila tourism is as likely to lure travelers into a tasting at a restaurant in a largely English-speaking resort town like Cabo San Lucas as it is to reveal tequila's cultural legacy via tours of Mexico's famous distilleries. "Tequila is truly the 'essence of Mexico' reflecting its people's warmth, strength, and passion," writes John Bragg, Pancho's owner and original tequilero, in one of his many essays on the subject. "Tequila is not for the fainthearted, but is well-suited for (people) who are enraptured by the gusto of drinking, eating and living." Bragg's protégé, Armando Delgado, insists that anyone who buys Pancho's $45 tequila tasting have something to eat before the one-hour liquid tour. He begins the "Master of Tequilas" course by talking about the mural of Jalisco on the restaurant wall. Dotted with small, prickly, blue plants and cultural icons like mariachi singers and Spanish colonial churches, the mural indicates the dominant tequila production areas within Jalisco, Mexico's primary tequila-producing state. There, Delgado says, tourists can visit distilleries in and around the town of Tequila, which sits in the shadow of the Tequila volcano. "All of those names on that map are regions with tequilas," he says. Mature blue agaves are as tall as he his, the tequilero continues. Often confused with cactus, blue agaves are native to Mexico and grow wild, though only some of them are suitable for tequila. The Aztecs and their descendants once used a fermented beverage from agaves called pulque for medicinal and ritualistic purposes. But it was the arrival of the Spaniards that sparked the booming tequila and mescal industry in Mexico, which produces about 210 million liters a year, according to Newsweek. And Latin American scholar Ron Mader writes that more than a third of that tequila ends up in the United States. As the Mexican music streaming into Pancho's becomes a wee bit louder, Delgado places his hand on the plastic gas can on the table in front of him. "The green (agave) is mainly used to make the beverage we call mescal," he says. Pancho's distills its own tequila and mescal, serving the latter, a more primitive drink than tequila, from a gas can to underscore its fiery might. "It's like drinking gasoline," Delgado says with a smile. A native of Acapulco, this tequilero had his first brush with the American tequila romance as a boy when he sold Chiclets to tourists outside nightclubs in his hometown. Travelers who prefer to venture away from Mexico's beach towns and into the country's heartland can find numerous tequila tours. In Mazatlan, for instance, Vista Tours offers a five-hour trip to "La Vinata," the only distillery in the state of Sinaloa. The family-friendly Vallarta Adventures out of Puerto Vallarta offers a full-day tour of Tequila and Guadalajara, an area that fostered the original mariachi and boasts breathtaking 16th century architecture. And the National Chamber of Commerce of Guadalajara operates the Tequila Express, a one-day train trip that includes a walk through the Tequila Museum and two distillery tours. Tickets are available through several cultural agencies in Guadalajara, as well as through Mexico's Ticketmaster system. The most enriching tequila research most certainly happens right in the town of Tequila, where companies like Sauza, Don Julio and Jose Cuervo, which has been making tequila there since the late 17oos, offer tours of their distilleries complete with a peak at the blue agaves and tequila tastings. "They go all out," says Jose Lara, owner of the Denver tequila bar and restaurant Aztec Sol. Born in Guadalajara, Lara has family members who still work in the agave fields. He's also buying his own small tequila distillery. "They feed you, and they have a bunch of recipes for dishes made with tequila," Lara says of the distillery tours popular among his relatives. "For someone who's into tequila, it's great." Any attempt to understand tequila is also likely to debunk a few popular myths. Most tequilas, for instance, are never bottled with worms. Worms are more common in mescal, and those are edible. Another myth is that you get what you pay for. Certainly true when it comes to designer shoes but not necessarily the case with tequila. In Mexico, the country's top-rated brands generally sell for $20 to $30 a bottle. Back at Pancho's, Delgado discusses pictures of tended agave fields and the "jimadores" who chop away the plant's tough leaves to reveal its 100- to 150-pound, bulb-shaped heart. "The Indians used to dance on the top of the bulbs like grapes," he says. Then he talks about the way huge, heated rooms once served as distillery ovens before autoclaves became the dominant way to harvest the blue agave's rich sugars. The sugars ferment for several days to produce silver, or blanco, tequila, and age for anywhere from a few months to more than a year to make the reposado (rested) and añejo (aged) tequilas. The latter is often preferred by longtime tequila drinkers like Delgado, but preferences generally boil down to each person's taste, he says. Not that this tequilero sits around shooting back glasses of the stuff like an Old West gunslinger downing a bottle of whiskey. Those in the know sip and savor tequila. They never shoot it and rarely mix it. Delgado wraps up by pouring each of the three types of tequila on the table, along with Pancho's own brand of mescal. Here the class dissolves into a midday social as tequila novices sip the selections and the tequilero turns a tangent into an entire conversation about life and changes in Cabo San Lucas. At the end of the hour, Delgado's pupils leave the restaurant with red-trimmed certificates indicating each "completed the full course of requirements, which includes the consumption of large amounts of tequila." Their "Masters of Tequila" in hand, the tourists head back to hotels and villas to partake in another of Mexico's grand traditions - the siesta

Mexico Says Tequila Output Hits Record

Stolen from Forbes who took it from the AP.

Update 1: Mexico Says Tequila Output Hits Record

Production and exports of Mexico's most famous liquor reached record levels in the first half of the year, according to the tequila industry's regulatory council.

Overall production hit 110.2 million liters, up from 87.4 million liters for the same period last year and from the previous record, 95.8 million liters, in 2000. Of that, 60.8 million liters were exported, up from the previous record of 54.9 million liters for the same period last year.

The previous six-month production record appeared to be 97.6 million liters in the first half of 1999 as the industry headed for a record yearly output of 190.6 million liters.

The first half of 2005 also saw record production of premium, 100 percent agave tequilas: 37.2 million liters, a jump of 84.15 percent over first-half 2004's figure of 20.2 million liters. Exports of premium tequila hit 10.5 million liters, up from 7.4 million liters in the same period last year.

The Guadalajara-based council said the industry used 369,500 tons of agave plants in the first half of the year, just over half of it for 100 percent agave tequilas. It was the first time since 1999 that premium tequilas accounted for a majority of the agave used.

USA Consulate Visit to Casa Noble Distillery

Casa Noble hosts even for The Consul General and a number of diplomats from the Guadalajara Consulate, at Casa Noble Tequila Distillery


Tequila, Jalisco (PRWEB) April 27, 2005 -- The U.S. Consul General for Guadalajara, Ms. Sandra J. Salmon and her husband Mr. Lawrence R. Salmon, along with a distinguished group of the American Consulate in Guadalajara visited the Casa Noble Distillery. The tour began in the adjoining blue agave fields to distillery, where Quirino, the head “Jimador” (or agave harvester), made a demonstration on the harvesting technique. Some guests got involved firsthand and had fun learning how to perform this hard chore. After all the hard work in the fields it was time to visit the distillery, where the whole production process of Casa Noble Tequila was viewed and explained in detail: from the traditional cooking to the triple distilling. Next on the schedule was a mandatory visit to the Tequila Museum, where hundreds of pieces of Mexican art related to Tequila and a part of its history are on display. The final stage of the visit was in the barrel facility where a toast was made to Tequila and of course, a big toast to USA.

Ms. Sandra J. Salmon and the rest of the group were invited to join Jose Hermosillo and Carlos Hernandez from Casa Noble for lunch, where adorned tables with small Blue Agave plants and long white linens were set under the 100 year old mango trees, where traditional Mexican food was served accompanied by Casa Noble Tequila. The guests enjoyed the food and tequila along with Mariachi music and a show of skilled Charros and their horses.

The Casa Noble Distillery dates back to the 1700’s and is situated in the outskirts of the City of Tequila, in an area of more than 100 acres of beautiful trees and “Blue Agave”. The Distillery itself is set in the middle of this blue and green scenario.

About Casa Noble:For many years, our love, pride and passion in producing exceptional Tequila has been demonstrated in Casa Noble's quest for perfection. The result is a unique concept that blends originality in both the superior tequila and their decanters.

Casa Noble ultra premium Tequilas begin as carefully selected individual 10-year-old plants of Blue Agave. Each one must meet the strict requirements for water and sugar content. Then, slow-cooking for 38 hours in stone ovens is mandatory procedure. Using only the core and hearts of the agaves, we extract their potent juice. The fermentation process is 100% natural, followed by a triple distillation. The result is Tequila so pure and full of agave flavor that it has elevated the concept of tequila to new levels around the world.

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/4/emw233277.htm

Temequila part 2

Stolen from the Fort Wayne Gazzette. The source of all breaking news about tequila.

Roadblock for tequila firm California brewer faces Mexican trademark issue
By Andrew Wang (His names "Wang"...HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!)
Los Angeles Times

As trade squabbles go, it’s a tempest in a margarita glass.
But for Temecula, Calif., resident John B. Wagoner, the cross-border quarrel over his homegrown liquor business is turning into a major headache.
In October, when he finally perfected his recipe for an alcoholic beverage distilled from the “pina,” or core, of blue agave plants, he knew he faced a potential legal problem. Just as the French own the name champagne, the Mexican government holds – and vigorously protects – the rights to the name tequila.
So Wagoner, 44, came up with Temequila, a play on the name of his adopted hometown that he hoped would forestall a legal challenge.
The name “kind of flowed nicely,” said Wagoner, who plans to start selling his 100-proof concoction this month for $58 per 750-milliliter bottle.
But in Mexico, Wagoner’s wordplay is seen as a distinction without a difference.
A Guadalajara-based group that represents agave growers, tequila producers and distributors sent a letter in February that warned him to stop using the name or face legal action.
Making a spirit called tequila is “impossible to do in any other part of the world than Mexico – not in South Africa, not in Europe, not in the United States,” said Ramon Gonzalez, director of the Tequila Regulatory Council.
Temequila, he said, is “phonetically similar” enough to fool tequila buyers into thinking it’s the genuine, Mexican-made article.
The Mexican government, which contends that the name tequila is specifically protected by the North American Free Trade Agreement, is also weighing in.
“We don’t see it as a minor problem,” said Salvador Behar, general counsel for trade at the Mexican Embassy in Washington. “Whoever is trying to mislead the consumer is a threat, and we take it seriously.”
The small scale of Wagoner’s operation is not an issue, he added. “If it’s one bottle or 10,000 bottles, the problem is the same.”
More than 8.5 million cases of tequila were sold in the United States, last year, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. That was up 5.8 percent over 2003 – the fastest growth of any major category of distilled spirit. And nearly 78 percent of the 109 million liters of tequila that Mexico exported last year went to the United States, the tequila council reported.
“This is a very important matter for (Wagoner),” said Tom Pirko, president of Santa Barbara-based consulting company Bevmark. “But it’s much more important for Mexico.”
Wagoner, a Compton, Calif., native who owns a staffing agency in Long Beach that finds jobs for developmentally disabled people, was an unlikely candidate to start an international trademark dispute when he bought land in the rugged hills near Temecula in 1996. The divorced father of two was in search of fresh air and open spaces, which he found in southern Riverside County, about 50 miles north of San Diego. He also was looking for something to grow on his five-acre parcel, his motivation more aesthetic than agricultural.
Wagoner’s neighbors were partial to avocado or citrus groves, but he settled on the low-sprouting blue agave, a cousin of the wild variety that dotted the hills near his land.
“I didn’t want something that would block my view,” Wagoner said.
The prickly plant would thrive, he surmised, because the local climate, elevation and soil – a reddish-brown volcanic variety – were similar to conditions in the Mexican state of Jalisco, the center of the country’s tequila industry.
Wagoner at first considered selling his agave plants to Mexican tequila producers. Then he decided it would be more lucrative to make his own product.
After a few years of studying distilling texts, numerous visits to distilleries in the United States and Mexico, lots of Googling and dozens of test runs, Wagoner had his agave spirit. With money from his savings – he won’t say how much – Wagoner established Skyrocket Distillers.
Only the problem of the product’s name remained.
In 1974, “tequila” was the first trademark granted protection by the Mexican government as an appellation of origin, which said only agave spirits made in the city of Tequila in Jalisco state could bear the name. The designated area has since been widened to include the entire state, as well as 56 towns and villages in four other states.
Wagoner faces formidable foes in the tequila industry and the Mexican government, Bevmark’s Pirko said.
“I wouldn’t want to be a little guy fighting that,” he said.
Despite the tequila council’s threats, Wagoner, late last month, said he planned to stick to his mid-April launch date. To that end, he has just replaced his old 25-gallon still with a new 300-gallon version he designed himself, financed with money from outside investors. In February, 20,000 bottles arrived from a factory in China, squat, bell-shaped and painted red, white and blue with “Made in the United States” emblazoned on the front.
His goal for the first year is to produce 120,000 bottles, or 90,000 liters. (Jose Cuervo, Mexico’s oldest tequila maker, sold nearly 30 million liters in the United States in 2003.)

Philly Tequila Connection

His best shotCenter City restaurateur is out to craft a high-end, affordable tequilaBy TERESA PUENTEFor the Daily News

PHILADELPHIA RESTAURATEUR David Suro lays his hand on the side of the giant vats where raw tequila ferments with a special ingredient, a yeast normally used for French champagne. The tequila bubbles and pops to the baroque strains of Vivaldi and Mozart, which play 24 hours a day in the plant in Arandas, Mexico.
"It's alive," said Suro. "It moves to the music."

Suro, 43, is the owner of Los Catrines Restaurant and Tequila's Bar at 16th and Locust in Center City, where they serve more than 75 brands of tequila.

But this tequila connoisseur and his wife, Annette, have now founded their own boutique brand of tequila called Siembra Azul, or Blue Harvest, and they're spending three months a year in Mexico perfecting the drink to make it high-end - at accessible prices. Suro said he's not aiming for volume, but for quality.

Suro has returned to his home state of Jalisco, also the birthplace of tequila, to embark on this new venture. He travels back and forth from here to Philadelphia a few times a month for the three months to produce the tequila in Arandas, a small town two hours from Guadalajara. It is surrounded by fields of blue agave plants, which grow in the red earth of the region known as Los Altos de Jalisco.

He is one of the first Mexican immigrants to return to his homeland to produce an original brand of tequila, bucking a trend as many of the major tequila companies, previously owned by Mexican families, are now in the hands of multinational owners.

"Many of the big tequila makers have been sold off," said Sergio Vivanco Lozano, director of sales for Viva Mexico tequila in Arandas. Suro partnered with the Vivancos to lease their plant to make Siembra Azul for three months of the year.

Export of the tequila from Mexico to the United States is expected to begin by June. At first, the 750-milliliter bottles will be sold in a limited number of states, including Pennsylvania, New York, Nevada, Texas, Illinois and California. Suro also plans to serve it at his restaurant. The bottles will run $25 to $28 for blanco and $32 to $35 for the reposado.
"This is part of my culture, and I have dedicated more than 20 years to studying tequila," said Suro, who immigrated to Philadelphia when he was 23.

Suro's dream
It was amor that brought Suro, a native of Guadalajara, to the City of Brotherly Love. He fell in love with an Italian-American woman and Philly native while she was on vacation in Cancun. He soon followed her back to the United States. He was just a young man, but he had a dream to open a restaurant with Mexican dishes that go beyond the routine of fajitas and chimichangas, which are more Tex-Mex than Mexican.

"At that time there were only a few Mexican restaurants in the city [Philadelphia]," he said. "The city has been very generous to me. I've tried to create my own Mexico in Philadelphia."
His goal is to share more of the best of Mexico with his customers in the United States. Suro also aims to change the public's perceptions about tequila.

It's not simply a party drink abused by college students on Spring Break.
"I want to change the stereotypes that surround tequila," Suro said.
To do that, he enlisted the help of Leopoldo Solis Tinoco, considered Mexico's tequila "guru," and Rogelio Luna-Zamora, Mexico's leading academic expert on tequila from the University of Guadalajara.

Solis said quality tequila is a drink to be savored, much like wine. It's best to serve it in a globular or brandy glass and not a shot glass, he added.
To use a small shot glass is like tying a bouquet of flowers with a string instead of letting them breathe in a nice vase, explained Solis, who is the project director in charge of production on the ground in Arandas.
"The glass is key," Solis said.

It also isn't necessary to use salt and lime with tequila, or even sangrita, a tomato-based drink often served in Mexico. A good tequila should be smooth and there's no need to alter the palate with a dash of salt and lime. "Tequila is very fine and should be consumed in its natural state," Solis said.

In the garden of the distillery, Solis also demonstrates the proper way to smell and drink tequila. First, one should turn to the right and tilt the head upward to smell the tequila, then smell it at eye level and smell it again with your head tilted downward. Repeat the same on the left side. You should notice subtle differences in the smell.
One can also gently swirl the tequila by moving the glass from the base. A low-quality tequila will smell bitter and like acetone, he said. Siembra Azul should smell sweet with hints of chocolate and vanilla.

"This is what we call the prueba de fuego, or trial by fire," added Solis.
After sniffing and swirling your tequila, you are ready to drink it. There are five simple steps. First you should fill your lungs with air. Second, tilt the glass and sip about a tablespoon size in your mouth. Third, let the tequila roll over your tongue for about eight seconds. Fourth, exhale over the tequila, and fifth swallow. It should go down easy and leave one with a warm feeling in the stomach.

"A good tequila is like a good friend and always leaves you with a good taste in your mouth," Solis said.

A golden process
Tequila has been exported to the United States for more than a century, but over the last 25 years, tequila consumption has been on the rise. Sales in the United States grew by 1,500 percent from 1975 to 1995. Of the 98 tequila distilleries in Mexico, Jalisco is home to 96. Only five regions in the country are allowed to make government-certified tequila. Other countries have tried to make a tequilalike drink, but it's not tequila without certification from the Mexican government.

The workers who harvest the tequila are called jimadores, which comes from the indigenous word jima. Tequila is made from the blue agave plant and it must mature seven to 11 years before it can be harvested.

For Siembra Azul, they are selecting the best agave plants from the area fields, when most tequila makers harvest entire fields. The prickly blue leaves are cut off the agave and the plants, which can weigh nearly 100 pounds, are sliced up so they look like shaved pineapples. They then cut out the hearts from the agave, whose insides are whitish.

Next they go into an oven the size of a small bedroom, where they are vaporized for 24 hours. As the sweet juices cook in the agave, they change to a golden yellow color and become pulpy. The agave is sweet to the taste. Afterward, the ovens are cleaned before another batch is vaporized. This eliminates the bitter sugars left behind. Most other distilleries do not clean out their ovens, Suro said.

From there, the chunks of cooked agave are put on a mill, where they are ground up into pulp. The juice is then extracted into a large vat. From there it goes to the fermentation process for seven days in a huge tank.

From there it goes to the distillation process. They have designed special stills that bend at an angle to prevent impurities from seeping back into the product. The tequila then distills at a low temperature. Solis compares it to cooking a steak on a low-flame grill.

"What happens to steak if you cook it too high?" he asks as he walks through the high-ceilinged, red brick distillery. "It turns out hard and tough. We don't want that."
In all, the whole process, including two distillation steps, takes about a week and a half to produce tequila blanco, or white tequila. Siembra Azul also makes two other kinds of tequila. Reposado is aged a minimum of two months and anejo is aged a minimum of one year in sweet, smoky white oak barrels imported from the Ozarks in the United States.

Siembra Azul also is 100 percent agave, which means it is made from pure agave. If you are looking for a quality tequila, it's important to check for that 100 percent agave label.
This year they will produce 120,000 bottles of Siembra Azul to be sold in the United States. Suro hopes that eventually his tequila will reach the Mexican market on the shelves next to the famous brands of Cazadores, Herradura and Don Julio.

"Our desire is to be one of the very best tequilas," Suro said.
Suro also said that his tequila won't come with a nasty hangover.
Yes, he even recommends drinking an entire bottle at once. (This guy kicks ass!)

"I can guarantee that 100 percent," he said.

American Tequila?

Enough plants to make a business? I doubt it, but we'll see. I respect his drive and attempt to live the dream of us all. Courtesy of this rag, the AP , and of course 8zero8.

You like tequila? Try taste of Temequila, distiller urges Blue agave planted for landscaping may become U.S. liquor
By Daisy NguyenThe Associated Press



TEMECULA, Calif. - J.B. Wagoner planted blue agave around his 25-acre property as an inexpensive landscaping alternative to water-loving citrus or avocado groves.
But now he's found another use for the plants.
After years of research and experimentation, Wagoner plans to use the 1,000 agaves to produce tequila in hopes of cashing in on the distilled spirit's growing popularity.
"I figure in the worst case, I'll have a nice landscape," said Wagoner.
"In the best case, I'll create a new market for American-made tequila."
Tequila consumption increased 5.8 percent in 2004, with Americans downing 8.5 million cases or about $1 billion worth, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
Despite the demand, there is an obstacle to Wagoner's plan. Tequila is as sacred to Mexico as champagne is to France.
And international trade laws forbid use of the name tequila unless it's made from blue agave in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
Wagoner, who claims to be the first maker of blue agave liquor in the United States, came up with a solution.
He labels his liquor "Temequila," after the city of Temecula, 85 miles southeast of Los Angeles, where it's produced.
Wagoner also put an American flag design on the 750-milliliter bottles, to hit the market in April.
The $58 price tag is aimed at sophisticated consumers who are driving the luxury spirits industry.
"We've already gotten a surprising level of demand for the product from people looking for something new and different," he said.
Shawn Kelly, spokeswoman for the distilled spirits council, said demand for high-end liquor is being driven by a stronger economy, a re-emerging "cocktail culture" and new laws in several states allowing liquor stores to stay open longer.
Although tequila sales in the United States ranked ninth in 2004 behind vodka, rum, gin, whiskey and other liquors, high-end tequila brands saw big growth at 15.4 percent.
"People are drinking less beer and more vodka, whisky and rum," said Tom Pirko, president of Bevmark, a beverage consulting firm in Santa Barbara. "It's a great time to be in the spirits business."
Wagoner said he spent six years learning to grow and process blue agave, which involves fermenting its sweet nectar into wine, then distilling it into liquor.
Pirko warned that Wagoner will face challenges in trying to gain a share of the market. "Authenticity is a real issue," he said. "Tequila is made in Mexico, by people who have made it for many years."
Wagoner seemed unconcerned.
"There are some 50 different kinds of tequilas from Mexico," he said, "but there's only one that's 100 percent agave tequila, made in the USA."

African Tequila Revisited

Stolen from iAfrica.com

Blue agave on mission to US, Canada Posted Tue, 01 Feb 2005

The producers of blue agave spirit are undertaking an export and investment mission to Canada and the United States next week to conclude trade agreements and to seek business partnerships ahead of launching into the lucrative North American market.
A delegation from Agave Distillers — including board chair Keith McLachlan — will visit Vancouver, Los Angeles and Houston from February 6 to 14, to finalise export agreements and to seek further investment and distribution partners for its blue agave spirit, bottled here as Agava Silver and Agava Gold.

Agave Distillers has its headquarters in Cape Town.

With a shortage of tequila worldwide, international interest in the South African product has been growing, said McLachlan on Tuesday.

He said the company was currently concluding a deal with a major UK distributor to export 13 500 litres (1500 cases) of his product per month and would finalise similar export and distribution deals in Vancouver, Los Angeles and Houston during the upcoming mission.
We can produce 150 000 litres a month

McLachlan added that his company was preparing to invite shareholders, both local and foreign, to invest in Agave Distillers' anticipated international success.
Capital Commitments, a venture capital specialist organisation based in South Africa, had been contracted as corporate advisors, company secretary and issuing house to facilitate the involvement of the investment public.

"We will be offering the opportunity to invest in a new business with a unique product in great demand that is not being manufactured anywhere else outside of Mexico and which has proved itself to have almost unlimited potential," said McLachlan.

Agava Distillers operates a distillery in Graaff Reinet, about 600km east of Cape Town, where the Blue Agave Americana plant grows in abundance.

McLachlan said the distillery had capacity to produce up to 150 000 litres of spirit each month, enough to meet large export demands. "We believe that in the next five to ten years, South Africa could become a major contender in the international market, competing with the (leading) Mexican (tequila) products."

"Due to the regulations pertaining to origin, only Blue Agave Spirit produced in the Jalisco Province of Mexico can be called tequila. Our product is a Blue Agave Spirit produced from the Blue Agave Americana which is a close relative to the Blue Agave Weber found in Mexico from which tequila is made," said McLachlan.