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Tequila tasting goes way beyond shooters at Canopy Tours de los Veranos. Featuring something for everyone - from straight up sippers to subtle mixers and hair raising shooters - you can sample an amazing array of over 80 different kinds of agave inspired distillations at our Palapa bar.
A taste of raicilla (pronounced "rye-see-ya",) is an almost essential part of the tequila tasting experience. Known as the "local moonshine," it has been said that raicilla is the oldest alcohol spirit known to man, drunk by Indian high priests, even before mezcal. Raicilla is distilled from a fermented mash made from the roots of the maguey plant (a lily disguised as a cactus,) which is cultivated in the hills surrounding Puerto Vallarta. Its production is one of the traditional local arts, and you can try it at the palapa bar at Los Veranos.
Tequila is truly the "essence of Mexico," reflecting its people's warmth, strength, and passion. It's a magical compound, part agave, part ambrosia, first pioneered by the conquistadors and refined into a sublime art, an art that goes way beyond salt and lime.
So where did it all begin?
Centuries ago the Mayans produced a fermented beverage called pulque that was primarily used in medicinal and ritualistic ceremonies. The source of sugar in the fermentive process was the agave or maguey, a member of the botanical family Agavaceae, which includes over 400 species.
As the early Spaniards searched for a source of fermentable sugar for the production of distilled spirits, they naturally looked to the agave, which grew in abundance in the rich volcanic soils of the high valleys around Guadalajara.
Trial and error led them to one particular species that always seemed to produce the most full-bodied taste. This special plant was the Agave Tequilana Weber, the legendary blue agave or agave azul.
Today, over 90,000 acres of blue agave are under cultivation in the tequila growing region of Mexico with the greatest concentration near the town of Tequila. This small city in Jalisco, about 45 miles northwest of Guadalajara, was once the home to over 90 distilleries. Today, although their numbers have shrunk to fewer than 20, these and the region's other remaining "fabricas" produce over 55 million liters of tequila each year.
Tequila is not for the faint hearted, but is well-suited for men and women who are enraptured by the gusto of living life to its fullest. For this reason, Canopy Tours de los Veranos in Puerto Vallarta Mexico is proud to introduce over 80 different kinds of tequila at our palapa bar.
Our distinctive tequila tasting menu will give spirit aficionados and novices alike the opportunity to experience the slight subtleties of tequila, as our friendly bartenders guide you through the surprising subtleties of Mexico's mystical libation: Tequila. |
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