It is believed that the name tequila may have originally come from a volcano of the same name. In 1874, a village with roots dating back to the 16th century was given the name Tequila, and it is now mainly in Tequila and the areas around the city that the drink is produced.
Archaeologists have found traces of the tequila-like drink pulque on pottery shards dating back to 150-300 BC. It was an ancient people in Teotihuacán in central Mexico who made the drink long before both the Aztecs and the Spanish arrived there. It seems to have happened by pure chance, as the starchy sap of the agave plant began to ferment under the baking sun. The result was a slightly alcoholic drink. Pulque was not only an intoxicating beverage, but also served as an energy-rich and nutritious accompaniment to meals.
But the birth of tequila didn't really begin until the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico in the early 16th century. The Spaniards created large fields where they grew only blue agave. Later, they brought distillers from Europe to extract higher alcohol contents from the plants. This was something the Indians had already done to produce their own drinks , aguamiel and balche.
The first 'real' distillery was founded in 1600 by the Spaniard Don Pedro Sanchez de Tagle. He produced the predecessor of tequila, the Vino de Mezcal, or mezcal wine. Here, the juice from the agave stem was left to ferment for up to 3 days before being distilled.
Once the drink was formally named Tequila - in the last half of the 19th century - it began to be exported. However, if it was not produced in or around the city of Tequila, it could not be called Tequila.
The myth of the caterpillar
There's a myth that there's a caterpillar in tequila - in some cases smashed. This is not entirely true. However, mezcal can have a caterpillar in the bottle, it is usually a white Oro or red Roja caterpillar that lives on the agave. In the past, it was believed that the caterpillar carried the soul of the agave and thus would pass it on to the person drinking the mezcal.
They also added agave larvae to the drink to control its alcohol content. The aim was to show that the spirit was strong enough. If it was too weak, the larvae would dissolve.
Putting larvae in the bottle has now become a marketing trend for some producers, rather than the first two reasons.