As Mexicans working on environmental conservation and sustainability issues related to the agave distillery industry, we could not but react to your piece on “the unstoppable ascent of tequila” (HTSI, November 25).
The points you raise are at odds with the industry as we know it.
For example, in the last 30 years tequila distilling has been transformed with the introduction of technologies aligned to the consumer economy, and not necessarily with improving the quality of the final product.
Some of the tweaks in the process deeply affect the quality — the organoleptic properties — and obviously whether it causes a headache or not. For example, several of the brands you refer use autoclaves (steam sterilisers) to cook the agaves. This process speeds up production, but at a cost: what comes out is in no way similar to the ancestral methods which involved several days of cooking.
Similarly, using a diffuser, a faster and cheaper method to extract sugars, alters the final product; using hydrochloric acid and spraying the chopped agave pieces with hot water, as some do, triggers a chemical reaction. This is quite different from the naturally thermal-induced change, with the result that, if the ensuing sugars are not infused with artificial flavours, there would be no taste of tequila.
These are just a few of the changes the big “fancy” tequila brands have introduced into this otherwise traditional production method, with detrimental effects on the final product and for consumers, but enhanced financial benefits for the brands that use these gimmicks.
While these brands and foreign corporations are enjoying big profits, we believe they are leaving a catastrophic legacy for the socio-economic and agricultural environments in and around the regions of tequila production. Agave farmers and small, artisanal producers with generations’ worth of knowledge and encounter are finding themselves in a position which has no sustainable future. Not only are traditions at risk of being lost, but the land and soil are being damaged by agrochemicals and harmful fertilisers. Farmers are being squeezed out.
It is clear that this is not just cultural appropriation by celebrities and foreign corporations, but now a cultural exploitation. We believe that your readers are entitled to know the other side of the tequila production process that some of the brands are deploying.
Rodrigo A Medellín
University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
David G Suro
Tequila Interchange Project
Philadelphia, PA, US
