Tequila

Tequila is a town in the agave country of Jalisco, below the Tequila volcano, north-west of Guadalajara. Fields of blue agave surround it, and the spirit that carries its name is distilled here and in other designated areas of Mexico.

Two distilleries in the town run tours with tastings: Jose Cuervo’s La Rojeña, 585 pesos for its adults-only Jose Cuervo Experience, and Casa Sauza, from 340 pesos for a one-hour tour in Spanish.

Practical notes

• The tastings are for adults: Casa Sauza reserves them for ages 18 and over.
• Casa Herradura, another distillery, is in Amatitán, the next town towards Guadalajara.

Tequila, a Pueblo Mágico since 2003

Mexico's tourism ministry lists Tequila in its Pueblos Mágicos programme since 2003 and describes the town at the foot of the Tequila volcano and the canyon of the Río Grande, at about 1,700 metres, with a semi-arid climate that stays dry and mild for much of the year and an average temperature of 23 degrees. Besides agave, the municipality grows plums, mangoes and bananas. The ministry's account of local history has the Spanish arriving in 1530, a first distillery established in 1600 and the drink becoming an industry only at the end of the 18th century.

• The town's Museo del Tequila covers the history and technique of the spirit, with a collection of bottles.
• Local dishes named by the ministry: birria, washed down with tejuino or tequila, and tostadas and pozole for supper.
• Guadalajara is about an hour away by road.

Two ways to taste at the source

Mundo Cuervo, which runs the La Rojeña visits, calls it the oldest distillery in Latin America and offers the Jose Cuervo Express, a train day from Guadalajara through the agave fields, with the distillery visit, a meal and tastings in an itinerary of about eleven hours. The regulatory council, the CRT, counted its appellation of origin's first fifty years in 2024, and in 2025 reported more than 1,300 agave growers holding its socially responsible agave certification.