Guadalajara Travel 04: Chewing Agave, Then Out to the Blue Fields on a José Cuervo Tequila Tour

At 11 a.m. I put a light brown piece of something in my mouth. The more I chewed, the more it pulled apart into stringy fibers hanging off my lip. The video I took then has two words on it: "It's sweet."

I saw where that piece came from an hour and a half later in a field, and again that afternoon in a distillery yard.

Part 3 covered Puebla, Xochimilco at night, the morning I started making videos, and Guadalupe hill. That night I left Mexico City for Guadalajara. This part is one full day there: the tequila tour.

The route in this post

When	Where	In a line
Oct 7, morning	Guadalajara lodging	Arched gallery, a courtyard full of plants
Oct 7, 11 a.m.	Tasting on the tour	A piece of agave, "It's sweet."
Oct 7, 12:30 p.m.	Agave fields	Blue-green rows to the foot of the hills
Oct 7, 3 p.m.	José Cuervo distillery	A mound of piñas by a yellow wall, the guide's talk
Oct 7, 7:30–8 p.m.	Guadalajara centro	A church inside, a lit facade, Teatro Degollado
Oct 8, 9:30 a.m.	Guadalajara centro	The cathedral spire, the Rotonda

---

Guadalajara lodging: an arched gallery and a courtyard

In Guadalajara I stayed two nights, October 6 and 7. The first record of the place is the gallery I filmed at 8:38 on the morning of the tour. Iron lanterns hang from a beamed wooden ceiling, and red terracotta tiles run along the stone-column arches. Every column had a trailing plant in a hanging basket.

Eight minutes later I went down to the courtyard. Palms and potted plants filled it almost to the roof, and round tables stood under rattan lamps shaped like birdcages. A staff member walked between them carrying a plate.

Around the corner, trailing plants hung in a row along a white wall, and a black-and-white checked border ran across the floor beside a thick stone column.

The lobby felt different. A gilt-framed mirror hangs on a dark wall, and shaded lamps and white candlesticks line a console. I have no photos of the room, so I can only describe this place by its gallery, courtyard and lobby.

---

11 a.m.: a piece of agave

The tour started in the morning. At 11:03, out under the sky, I was handed a piece of agave to chew. It began as a brown lump and, the more I chewed, split along the grain into a tangle of pale strings. The first thing said in the video is "It's sweet."

In the next clip, the voice explaining it mentions "sugar" and "fiber." Tequila is made from this plant's sugars. Where those sugars are stored comes up again that afternoon at the distillery.

Around 11:30 there is also a clip where I recorded the same lines twice. The video-making I had started in Mexico City the day before carried on through the tour.

---

12:30 p.m.: blue agave fields

At about 12:30 we got out at the agave fields. The video from the field starts with a bit of Spanish: "Vamos a tomar…"

I put on sunglasses and took a selfie in the middle of the field. The leaf tips came up to my shoulders, and they are sharp. Dirt paths run between the rows.

The field runs to the low hills on the horizon. A single large tree stands at the end of the dirt path on the right, and someone was walking along it.

The leaves are less green than blue-green. That is because the variety used for tequila is blue agave (Agave tequilana Weber, blue variety). The agave fields and old distilleries around the town of Tequila were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2006, as the "Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila." The site runs from the foothills of the Tequila Volcano to the Río Grande valley.

We left the field and got back in the car. At 12:39, past the corn stalks by the road, I could look down on a town set in a valley. Behind it stood a large mountain with clouds on top.

---

3 p.m.: piñas at the José Cuervo distillery

At 3:05 p.m. I was in the yard of the José Cuervo distillery. Under a yellow wall and stone arches, agave hearts were piled up like a small hill. The round core left after the leaves are cut right back is called a piña, Spanish for pineapple, which it resembles. The cut leaf bases show as green and purple stripes.

A guide with a microphone explained it all in English. These are the lines left in the recording:

• "There are more than 200 classes of agave, but only with this we can make the tequila."
• "It's important the percentage of sugar it contains, because we only need seven kilograms to make one liter of tequila."

In other words: there are more than 200 kinds of agave, tequila is made only from this one, and its sugar content matters, with seven kilograms going into one liter. Seven kilograms is the figure the guide gave that day. The sweet fibers I chewed in the morning come from these piñas.

The clips I took at the distillery run until about 3:40.

---

The way back: agave out of the car window

By 4:43 p.m. I was back in the car. Beyond the brush along the road, grey-blue agave fields spread to the foot of the ridges.

---

Evening: Guadalajara centro

Back in Guadalajara, at about 7:30 p.m. I went into a church in the centro. At the end of the aisle between the pews is an altar decorated in white and gold, and a crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The statue at the center of the altar was lit green.

The clip I took at 7:47 has only one word on it: "Wow." Three minutes later, looking up from outside, the facade glowed a warm yellow under the floodlights. Crenellations run above a semicircular roofline, with a clock on top and three saints standing in the central niche.

At 8:07 I was in front of Teatro Degollado. The whole colonnade and pediment were lit purple. The theater opened in September 1866. Sixteen Corinthian columns stand across the front, and the pediment carries a relief on the theme of Apollo and the Muses.

At about 9:20 p.m. I was sitting in a restaurant with yellow walls and a painting on them. That restaurant is the last clip of the day.

---

October 8, morning: the cathedral spire and the Rotonda

On the morning I left for Guanajuato, I walked a loop of the centro from 9:40. At the end of a tree-lined street stands the spire of Guadalajara Cathedral. It is a pointed spire covered in yellow tiles, so you can pick it out from far away.

Next to the cathedral is the Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres, a ring of stone columns. The stone band on top reads "JALISCO A SUS HIJOS ESCLARECIDOS," Jalisco to its illustrious sons and daughters. It was built in 1952 to honor notable people from Jalisco. In the morning the plaza was empty.

The walk went on until 11:40, and after that I set off for Guanajuato.

---

Visitor information

I was there on October 7–8, 2025. I looked up the distances and history below while writing this. Tour prices and times differ between sources, so check the official information.

Place	Location	Entry / price	When I went
Agave fields	Around Tequila	Visited on the tour; check official info before visiting	Oct 7, 12:30 p.m.
José Cuervo distillery	Town of Tequila	Varies by tour; check official info before visiting	Oct 7, 3 p.m.
Teatro Degollado	Guadalajara centro	Check official info for visits and shows	Oct 7, 8 p.m., outside
Cathedral and Rotonda	Guadalajara centro	Check official info	Oct 8, 9:30 a.m.

Getting around: The town of Tequila is about 60 km northwest of Guadalajara, a bit over an hour by car. I left in the morning, was in the car on the way back at 4:43 p.m., and was in the centro by 7:30. The cathedral, the Rotonda and Teatro Degollado are all within walking distance of each other in the centro.

📍 José Cuervo distillery (La Rojeña, Mundo Cuervo) · Tequila, Jalisco

• 🏭 Known facts: José Cuervo's distillery near the main square of Tequila. According to the company, it was founded in 1812 and is the oldest working distillery in Latin America.
• 🌵 Agave: Tequila is made from blue agave. The guide said one liter of tequila takes seven kilograms of piña.
• 🎟️ Tours: Distillery tour types, prices and times vary by season and seller, and there are several day tours from Guadalajara. Check official info before visiting.
• 🗺️ Map: Open in Google Maps

📍 Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila · UNESCO World Heritage (2006)

• 🌄 Extent: The blue agave landscape and distilleries from the foothills of the Tequila Volcano to the Río Grande valley.
• 🗺️ Map: Town of Tequila

📍 Teatro Degollado · Guadalajara Centro

• 🏛️ Known facts: Opened in 1866, with sixteen Corinthian columns and a pediment relief on the theme of Apollo and the Muses.
• 🎭 Visiting: For interior visits and the performance schedule, check official info before visiting.
• 🗺️ Map: Open in Google Maps

📍 Guadalajara Cathedral · Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres · Guadalajara Centro

• 🗺️ Map: Cathedral · Rotonda

📍 Guadalajara lodging

• 🏠 What I saw: A gallery of stone-column arches, terracotta tiles, a courtyard full of plants with tables, and a lobby with ornate mirrors. Two nights, October 6 and 7.
• 📝 Name and price: I have no record of the hotel's name or price, so they are not in this post.

Tequila tour: how to get lost a little less

• 🕗 Keep the whole day free. I left the hotel in the morning and was only back in the centro at 7:30 p.m.
• 🕶️ Bring sunglasses. An agave field is nothing but dirt paths between rows, with no shade.
• 🌵 Stay on the paths in the fields. Agave leaf tips are sharp.
• 🎧 Check the tour language in advance. The distillery talk I heard was in English.
• 🌙 Head to the centro when you get back. From the church to Teatro Degollado was an easy walk between 7:30 and 8 p.m.

Jayden's verdict

The tequila tour started with a piece of agave in my mouth, went through the fields and ended at a mound of piñas in a distillery yard.

• Highlight: the agave fibers I chewed in the morning, the blue agave fields running to the hills, and the piñas piled by the yellow wall
• Tip: on tour day, come back to the centro in the evening and walk on to Teatro Degollado at night. The next morning, walk the cathedral and the Rotonda together.

The next part leaves Guadalajara for Guanajuato. From there it goes through San Miguel de Allende and back to Mexico City, and it is the last part, the way home.

---

Mexico for Tacos: 10 Days

1. Mexico City arrival and a Teotihuacan balloon
2. Mexico City: night tacos and Chapultepec Castle
3. Puebla, Xochimilco at night and Guadalupe
4. Guadalajara and a tequila tour (you are here)
5. Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and home