Knowing when to harvest the agave's heart--the 50-to-80-pound mass from which juices are extracted--is an art.
Up close a ripe agave looks like a man-size aloe, weighing in at 100 pounds.
It takes 10 to 15 pounds of agave to make one 750ml bottle of booze.
In the borders at Great Dixter banana trees grew with verbena, and spiky agave with dahlias.
In Jalisco a sea of blue agave covers the hills for as far as the eye can see.
But for me, the plant behind the drink, the blue agave, adds even more fascination to the liquor.
To deserve the name, it must be distilled only from the sap of the Mexican blue agave plant.
In the dimly lit bar, Courtenay, petite, energetic, dressed in black, animatedly explained her interest in the agave-based alcohol.
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The most familiar perhaps to U.S. shoppers is the organic blue agave sweetener.
In 2011, Mexico exported more than 163 million liters of the agave-based alcohol, up from 64 million in 1995.
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But agave syrup is used by diabetics, so there must be more than superficial support for the product, right?
The blue agave plant ( agave tequilana) grows for about a dozen years before harvesting from the harsh Jalisco soils.
Then, try the ahi tuna with a papaya vinaigrette or the agave-glazed baby back ribs served with corn on the cob.
Unfortunately, agave appears to be an OK short-term, low dose solution that meets the needs of low calorie, low glycemic diets.
As a botanist, she appreciates the advantages that the agave plant presents.
But the agave nectar served with my Starbucks Viva instant coffee that accompanied the pumpkin and pecan pies peaked my interest.
Agave cactus is even more productive, and well adapted to desert environments.
Its scientists are researching which agave genes impart hardiness to the plants, the aim being to produce more consistency in the raw material.
Brown-Forman, for its Don Eduardo brand, promotes the fact that Don Eduardo Orendain was a real landowner who worked his own agave fields.
Made from 100% agave Piedra Azul is light and vegetal with stong lingering of brine and citrus that lend well to cocktail making.
In particular, the tough, fibrous leaves of the blue agave plant.
Carrying on the Zen leitmotif, the organic cocktail list includes a Detox Margarita mixed with agave nectar and a Desert Rose Cosmopolitan, enhanced with prickly pear.
Choose a spirit made of 100% agave, stock your bar with a solid orange-flavored liqueur, squeeze fresh lime juice think of how strong your forearms will get!
Ana Valenzuela Zapata, for years a professor of botany and zoology at the University of Guadalajara, has been studying the agave species for over two decades.
Following up on my post about the Science of Tequila, I contacted Mexican botanist and author Ana Valenzuela Zapata on the broader applications for blue agave cultivation.
The market for agave could be diversified by using agave harvest residue (e.g. leaves), and bagasse (the residue left after the juices have been extracted) for use as production.
They do not actually have a menu but you can go to the bar and ask the friendly owner Arturo for a tobaciche (mescal made from a wild agave).
If the demand for agave sugars for bioethanol production grows as predicted, Valenzuala says, then the quantity of agave residues is likely to double in the next few years as well.
Demand for tequila 100% agave sugars has recently increased (19.82% annual increase between 1995 and 2008), and the resulting increase in residue and bagasse can be used for second-generation biofuel production.
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