First Tequila Festival running in Baku

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

Mexican embassy in Azerbaijan invites all to taste unique samples of Mexican cuisine, as the first Tequila Festival has been launched in Baku.

The event that will run till November 28 aims to familiarize Azerbaijani people with the Mexican culture, the embassy reported.

Degustation of Tequila in Baku will be held in Fairmonts Hotel on November 25, Maya restaurants on November 27 and Intourist Hotel on November 28.

Tequila is a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, named primarily after the area surrounding the city of Tequila in the northwestern Mexican state of Jalisco.

In total, the production of tequila in Mexico employs over 300,000 people. The country produces about 900,000 tons of tequila per year.

Many people drink tequila accompanied by salt and lime. They place the salt on the back of their hand between their thumb and forefinger. They then lick the salt, do the shot, and then such on a slice of lime.

In Mexico, the most traditional way to drink tequila is neat, without lime and salt. It is popular in some regions to drink fine tequila with a side of sangria -- a sweet, sour, and spicy drink typically made from orange juice, grenadine (or tomato juice), and hot chilies.

Tequila was first produced in the 16th century near city of Tequila, which was not officially established until 1666. The Aztec people had previously made a fermented beverage from the agave plant, long before the Spanish arrived in 1521.

When the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill agave to produce one of North America's first indigenous distilled spirits.

Some 80 years later, in around 1600, Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle, the Marquis of Altamira, began mass-producing tequila at the first factory in modern-day Jalisco.

Earlier in October, the embassy hosted the first festival of tasting alcoholic beverage Mezcal, a distilled alcoholic beverage made from the maguey plant native to Mexico.