CO - July 2024 - Suavecito Tequila is proud to announce that Chief Distiller Zandra Gómez Santiago has been named the ‘2024 Best Woman Distiller’ by the Women’s International Wine & Spirits Competition the prestigious organization just recently added a spirits category to its lineup and Santiago is among the first to be recognized Santiago’s acknowledgment is celebrated alongside Suavecito Tequila's newest Cristalino expression which was named ‘Best Tequila’ in the Women’s International Wine & Spirits tasting competition.  “We are thrilled for Zandra to be recognized for her hard work and dedication to traditional craftsmanship which has propelled our brand to become a national distributor of authentic tequila,” says Bill Foss we are especially grateful for our partnership with third-generation distillery Destiladora Agave Azul in the heart of San Juanito de Escobedo and the opportunity to work with Zandra and her team who share a passion for unrelenting excellence.” Santiago oversees and leads the production process for the brand’s five expressions Suavecito Tequila is available in 23 states across the US through over 200 Total Wine & More retail locations For more information about Suavecito Tequila please visit our website and follow along via social media on Instagram and X (Twitter) Colorado-based Suavecito Tequila redefines tequila excellence to produce The World’s Smoothest™ blue Weber agave-based tequila Small batch and handcrafted with an extended aging process Suavecito Tequila celebrates the traditional craftsmanship of the Jalisco spirit but pushes the boundaries of innovation and exceptional taste by returning 2% unfermented agave nectar into its expressions Working together with Jalisco distillery Destiladora Agave Azul stand as proud stewards of the earth and tradition crafting not just tequila but a legacy of environmental responsibility and unparalleled quality and data reports that power the food and beverage industry Join our community and stay ahead with exclusive insights from BevNET and Nosh Already an Insider? Log In San Juanito Escobedo is perhaps the archetype of the quiet unassuming forgotten pueblito located in the middle of nowhere That “nowhere” just happens to be within the bounds of what was once Mexico’s third-largest lake which was drained in 1936 to create great stretches of flat I was surprised indeed to receive the following message from my friend Rick Echeverría have you visited the big distillery in San Juanito don’t miss their tequila-aging cava — it may be the biggest in the world.” I soon learned that the distillery is called Agave Azul and I was kindly invited to tour the place by members of the García family Agave Azul and San Juanito are located 60 kilometers west of Guadalajara Google Maps took my friends and me right there but via a truly adventurous route including dirt roads and back streets that tested the mettle of our four-wheel-drive vehicle But after bouncing over the last pothole of a rut-ridden back alley and there we met José de Jesús García García “Our aim,” Señor García told me,” is to preserve the traditional way of making tequila the historical approach.” He added that many distilleries buy their agaves from others “Just look out the window and you can see hills covered with our agaves azules [blue agaves] García then surprised me by announcing that all those agaves are organic “We fertilize them with compost made from our own waste products So we are returning to the soil what we have taken out of it José García then launched into the story of how this tequilería came into being ” I am the great-grandson of Don Anselmo García I didn’t know him because I was born in 1957 He produced and sold all sorts of artesanías made from tule the reed that used to grow all around the edge of the Laguna de Magdalena “He made petates [sleeping mats] and sopladoras [hand fans for stoves and fireplaces] and curious-looking chinas that served as raincoats in bygone times Don Anselmo would travel all around this area selling his products of tule along with queso enchilado which is so called because the outside of this cheese is literally covered with chile for two reasons: first to make sure flies don’t land on it and second to preserve its correct consistency Don Javier Sauza said to him: ‘Why don’t you plant agaves in your pueblo?’ And it was because of him that agaves were introduced to San Juanito “So my bisabuelo [great-grandfather] brought someone here to show people how to plant and cultivate and harvest agaves when the first of them were ready for harvest they set up what we traditionally call a taberna here and they didn’t call it tequila; they called it aguardiente [firewater] José García told me that friends of the family eventually revived the taberna and even got him involved in the project but he never knew that the distillery had anything to do with his great-grandfather “until one day I ran into my great-uncle and I said: ‘Uncle why don’t we have a little drink?’ And he replied So they got into a truck and headed along a little dirt road in the middle of nowhere Los Reyes is the place where my father used to make a really good aguardiente.” “And that is when I put it all together,” García explained “I understood that this distillery where I was helping out was the very same [one] my great-grandfather had set up years ago That is when I decided to take up what my great-grandfather had been doing and to make it my own we are completing the obra [life’s work] that he began a long following the process whereby the piñas de agave are cooked in a huge stone oven followed by distillation in huge alambiques All these works are built on a hillside to take advantage of gravity with the final product ending up in their cava There it is aged in oak barrels from France and the United States for up to three years spooky passageway right out of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado — is a huge underground room that provides the perfect temperature (10 to 13 C) and conditions for aging over 10% of a barrel of tequila is lost to evaporation every year we went off to the composting facility located five minutes away in front of row after row of composting beds who explained how Agave Azul makes its own fertilizer Most other tequila makers throw away their bagasse and their distillation slops (the top and bottom portions of the fermented must or wort) sheep and rabbit manure and bat guano and spreads the mixture on top of the composting beds where countless California red worms transform it into the very best fertilizer imaginable None of Agave Azul’s waste products are dumped into local rivers The river outside the town of Tequila is badly polluted While many tequilerías are concentrating mainly on volume appear to have a genuine concern for quality you can find something called tequila on the market for US $10 a bottle,” Aldo García told us,” but what is it made of?” He explains further: “Just do the math: to make one liter of tequila you need more or less seven kilos of agaves so the mere cost of the raw material is 210 pesos Just what the biggest distilleries — most of which are no longer owned by Mexicans — are pouring into those liter bottles but if you would like to taste what Agave Azul is producing in San Juanito all available both in Mexico and in the United States The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for 31 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC In order to boost the competitiveness of Jalisco's producers the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development declared the municipalities of Ahualulco de Mercado and San Juanito de Escobedo as a zone free of regulated avocado pests published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF states that technicians from the National Service for Agri-Food Health confirmed the absence of the large pit borer (Heilipus lauri) small pit borer (Conotrachelus aguacatea and C perseae) and the pit borer moth (Stenoma catenifer) in both municipalities which can cause up to 90 percent losses to avocado growers and the record of their presence imposes restrictions to mobilize regional production to other parts of the country for marketing in domestic and international markets Plant health specialists carried out sampling and confirmed that the avocado-growing regions comply with the phytosanitary provisions of official standards NOM-069-FITO-1995 which deals with the establishment and recognition of pest-free zones which deals with the phytosanitary management and movement of avocados signed by the Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development during which time producers must continue to apply phytosanitary measures in order to prevent the region from losing its status as a zone free of these pests as established in Article 107 of the Regulations of the Federal Plant Health Law It is important to note that Jalisco is recognized as the state with the second largest avocado production in the country equivalent to 11 percent of national production Es el portal único de trámites, información y participación ciudadana. 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