What's in a name? José Cuervo's namesake tequila brand is intertwined with some of the most pivotal moments in Mexican history, from gaining independence from Spain in 1821 to the Mexican Revolution. A new book, Tequila Wars, José Cuervo and the Bloody Struggle for the Spirit of Mexico, by journalist Ted Genoways, pieces together Cuervo's crusade to modernize and export the alcoholic spirit made from the blue agave plant.
"He was a real person born in the Tequila Valley in the late 19th century and someone who built the industry," said Genoways of the famously private Cuervo who inherited his family's distillery in the Tequila valley of central western Mexico.
NPR's A Martínez spoke with Genoways about the history of tequila and José Cuervo's lesser-known life story.
The following excerpt has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
A Martínez: So let's start then with the origins of tequila that date back to the indigenous people of Mexico. How did the colonization by the Spanish change what we now know as tequila?
Ted Genoways: The Indigenous people were fermenting agave and creating drinks from that and also may have been doing some form of single distillation. The Spaniards, when they arrived, brought in double distillation and then brought in more advanced distillation technology. And over time that evolved into something that was not just meant to produce a higher proof spirit but was something that with some tweaking and experimentation produced something that was this sort of rich pleasing mineral and vegetal spirit that we know today with all of the complexity of flavor and aroma.
Martínez: One of the things that I did not know, and I can't believe I didn't know this, Ted, but I learned it after reading your book is that tequila was not the intended name for the actual drink, it was first called vino mezcal or wine mezcal. But the place where it was distributed from Tequila, Jalisco, that's the name that stuck. Tell us about that region in Mexico where tequila comes from and how this spirit is different from mezcal.
Genoways: Mezcal is really any spirit that is made from an agave plant and that's the Indigenous word is mezcal and for the plant itself. And so the spirit that comes from the Tequila Valley, the reason we call it that is because of the town of Tequila. And because the way that it was made there, first of all, it tended to rely on the blue agave, a particular variety of agave that grows there and has a particular sweetness to it. Also the process came to change over time, especially as men like José Cuervo tried to industrialize and widened the market for tequila so that they moved away from in-ground ovens and toward steam ovens that produced a different flavor profile and then they changed the distillation to try to increase volume, which also changed the flavors. And so all of those advances and all of those small changes over time created something that has its own distinct flavor from other kinds of mezcal.
Martínez: Let's talk about José Cuervo, the real person behind all of this, the one you call the "godfather of tequila." Why did you want to write a book about this particular person?
Genoways: Well, because, first of all, he's someone who, as you said, we didn't even know for the most part that he was a real person. His whole life story has essentially been forgotten. And the more I dug into the archives and newspaper records and got access to some family materials, the more I discovered that he was really a central figure, not just in the evolution of the industry that he led, but because he wanted tequila to be something that was an international product, he was really influential in Mexican politics and in the driving of technology that allowed for distribution and increased production and publicity around his product. And what I came to see was somebody who had really transformed his country and had certainly revolutionized his industry, but because he was a sort of shy and retiring person whose interest was in promoting his brand but keeping himself out of the limelight, he had been almost completely forgotten.
Martínez: In reading your book, I couldn't help but just think that the history of tequila and the history of the nation of Mexico are intertwined. It's almost like they can't exist without the other.
Genoways: It's really true. I guess. I had always thought of tequila as a kind of cultural symbol and something that defined Mexico in that way, as a kind of national spirit. But what I came to discover was that they really were the builders of the country and were deeply, deeply involved in the way that the country evolved and the politics that made that play out.
Martínez: Tequila over the years has kept an eye on the American market. And that got me thinking about all the different celebrity tequila brands, actors, athletes, influencers have tequila brands but then I think about its bloody history and how it's intertwined with a nation that has struggled in a lot of different ways over the decades, actually, over the centuries. Is the spirit of Mexico still in tequila or is it now just belong to the world?
Genoways: I think it's still a very Mexican product. And there's no question that American celebrities in particular have had a great influence on the industry in recent years. They have shaped its image in the popular imagination in the United States. But when you visit Tequila, the town of Tequila, and you stand on the plaza one of the things that I can never get enough of is that the bandstand that José Cuervo built in 1909 is still the center of the plaza. The distillery where José Cuervo made his tequila is there. The cobblestone streets that Cuervo had laid that are made from the obsidian that came from the volcano that is on the horizon, is there. This is a product that can only be made by international agreement in certain regions in Mexico but ground zero will always, always be the town of Tequila. And to me, that product belongs perhaps to the world, but it is also rooted in that very specific place and the people who have lived there for generations and are still making tequila, there are the true spirit of that industry.
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