Pre-Hispanic uses of agave
Long before distillation reached the Americas, agave (known in Nahuatl as metl and in the Antilles as maguey) was one of the most important cultivated plants in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence of agave use in central and western Mexico stretches back thousands of years, and Indigenous communities developed a remarkably complete material culture around the plant.
The pencas (leaves) were roasted for food and pressed for their fibers, which were spun into ixtle cordage, sandals, nets, and coarse cloth. The spines served as needles and awls. Dried flower stalks (quiotes) became construction lumber and fencing. Sap harvested from mature plants was consumed fresh as aguamiel and, once fermented, as pulque — a milky, low-alcohol beverage that predates any distilled agave spirit by many centuries.
Pulque and other fermented agave drinks held ritual as well as everyday roles. Their consumption was regulated by custom and, in Mexica society, restricted in daily life while sanctioned in specific ceremonial contexts. This deep pre-Hispanic relationship between people and agave is the cultural foundation on which every later agave distillate was built.
Mayahuel and cultural tradition
Mayahuel appears in Mesoamerican tradition as a goddess associated with the maguey plant and with fermented drink. In surviving codices she is often depicted seated on or emerging from an agave, sometimes shown with multiple breasts to symbolize the plant's nourishing sap.
Related narratives describe her as one of the Tzitzimimeh or as a figure connected to the god Quetzalcóatl, and explain the origin of pulque through her story. These accounts come to us through post-conquest sources that combined Indigenous oral tradition with European framing, so specific details vary between codices and chroniclers.
Agave Atlas presents Mayahuel and related figures as cultural and religious tradition — meaningful context for understanding how Indigenous communities related to the plant — rather than as documented historical events.
Mythology is presented here as cultural context, not as verified history.
Colonial introduction of distillation
Distillation was not practiced in the Americas before European and, by extension, Asian contact. It arrived in New Spain in the 16th century through Spanish settlers and, according to a growing body of research, through Filipino sailors on the Manila Galleon trade who brought small coconut-wine stills to the Pacific coast of what is today Colima and Jalisco.
These techniques were applied to fermented beverages already made from cooked agave hearts, producing the first mezcales — a broad family of regional agave distillates. The spirit that would later be called tequila emerged from this family in the highlands and valleys around the town of Tequila, Jalisco, where blue agave (Agave tequilana Weber var. azul) grew especially well in the volcanic soils.
The earliest documented commercial production licenses in the Tequila region date to the late 16th and 17th centuries, with the Cuervo family receiving formal royal permission to produce mezcal de Tequila in 1795 — often cited as the first legally sanctioned tequila operation.
19th century: from regional mezcal to a named category
Through the 19th century, mezcal de Tequila grew from a regional specialty into a product traded across Mexico and, increasingly, exported. The arrival of the railroad in Guadalajara in 1888 gave producers reliable access to Mexico City and to Pacific and Gulf ports, and larger family firms — Cuervo, Sauza, Herradura and others — invested in industrial-scale ovens, tahonas and column stills.
It was during this period that the shortened name tequila (referring to the town) began to displace the longer mezcal de Tequila in commerce, marking the early identity of tequila as a distinct category rather than simply a regional style of mezcal.
Tequila as a protected product
Over the 20th century, tequila's commercial and cultural profile grew steadily. Mexican producers began pushing for legal protection of the name — both to defend quality standards at home and to prevent unrelated distillates abroad from being labeled tequila.
The first Mexican Official Standard specifically for tequila was published in 1949, followed by revised standards in 1964 and 1970. These early standards defined tequila as a spirit produced from blue agave in a specific region, and set minimum agave content and production requirements that laid the groundwork for formal appellation status.
The 1974 and 1977 Appellation of Origin
In 1974 Mexico formally recognized Tequila as a Denomination of Origin (Denominación de Origen Tequila, DOT), and in 1977 published the General Declaration of Protection of the Tequila Appellation of Origin in the Diario Oficial de la Federación. The declaration legally tied the name Tequila to a defined territory and to blue agave production.
The protected territory today covers all 125 municipalities of Jalisco plus specific municipalities in Nayarit, Michoacán, Guanajuato, and Tamaulipas. Agave grown outside this zone cannot be used to make tequila, and spirits distilled outside it cannot legally carry the name — regardless of the raw material used.
Tequila was also one of the first non-European products protected under the WIPO Lisbon Agreement, giving it international recognition alongside appellations such as Champagne and Cognac.
Founding of the CRT (1994)
The Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT) was established in 1993 and began formal operations in 1994 as the independent third-party body responsible for verifying compliance with the Official Mexican Standard and the Appellation of Origin.
The CRT inspects agave fields, monitors production at every certified distillery (identified by a NOM number), verifies bottling, and certifies exports. Its traceability system underpins the guarantee that a bottle labeled tequila was made from authorized agave, in the authorized territory, following the authorized process.
The CRT was later recognized as a certification body under Mexican law and accredited internationally, and it now maintains cooperation agreements with regulators in the European Union, United States, Canada, Japan, and other major markets.
Modern era: NOM-006 and category expansion
The current Official Mexican Standard, NOM-006-SCFI-2012, defines tequila's two commercial classes (100% agave and mixto), the recognized age categories (Blanco, Joven, Reposado, Añejo, Extra Añejo), and the production, labeling, and packaging requirements that all producers must meet.
Since the year 2000, tequila has grown into one of the world's fastest-expanding spirits categories, driven by premium and ultra-premium 100% agave expressions and by rising demand in the United States, which is now the largest export market by a wide margin. Additional recognitions — including the Cristalino style and updates to the standard — reflect the category's continued evolution within its regulated framework.