Tequila Town

Tequila, a Pueblo Mágico about an hour northwest of Guadalajara, is surrounded by the blue agave fields that make up the UNESCO-listed Agave Landscape and sits at the center of Mexico's tequila industry, which has operated here for more than four centuries. Visitors typically spend the day touring one or more of the town's distilleries, from large operations such as Jose Cuervo's La Rojeña, the oldest active distillery in Latin America, to smaller artisanal producers in the surrounding countryside, watching the process from agave harvest (jima) through roasting, fermentation, and distillation before sampling the results. The town's main plaza, anchored by the Parroquia de Santiago Apóstol church, and the National Tequila Museum give a break from distillery visits and context on the spirit's history. A full day is typical: mornings for a distillery tour and agave field visit, afternoons for the plaza, museum, and lunch at one of the restaurants overlooking the fields. The rolling blue agave landscape around town is at its most photogenic in the morning light and especially vivid during the July-to-December harvest season, when the plants show a deeper blue-green color before jima.