¡ Tequila ! (Mayapan)

And now for something completely different... (a favorite Monty Python quote we live by).
Anyway, although I'm back in WI, and coping with family stuff, farm stuff and enjoying a bit of fall and loving being back with my dogs and chickens, I have tons of Isla & Yucatan photos to get through.

Back to our drive from Merida, leaving Motul and Izamal, and coming across to Temozin (I think?--a very ranchy community), and then south to Ek Balaam. We certainly saw more by car than one would be bus, and we poked around little communities a bit. More about Ek Balaam next time.

In Valladolid, we picked up a brochure about this Tequila factory, 'Mayapan' and they give tours. I had seen it & the sign off the cuota highway, leaving Valladolid, heading to Merida.

So, this time, we made it a point to stop & check it out. It was fun and worthwhile.

The building is set out in the country, easy parking, next to a blue agave field. It feels like you are at an hacienda, although this was obviously all very planned out to give that impression.
Notice the windmill above.  Maybe it had been originally there...who knows?  But we did see windmills all over the Yucatan, especially in farming communities, as obvious power sources, at least in the past. And I think some Chicago company had the patent on them, and made out pretty well supplying them.

The girl here is giving us 'the tour' and 'the talk' about the whole tequila making process. 

Notice how she is using her notes, as she may have been in training, and we were 'guinea pigs' perhaps. The central cores of the blue agave plants, harvested,  are stacked against the building.

This is the 'oven' where the wood or 'leña' is stacked, to provide the intense heat, to roast the piña

You are looking down into the pit, where the wood is stacked at the bottom . 

There are no agave cores, or 'piñas' in there in this photo. The oven is very deep & narrow.

I know it was for show, but it was very cool to see them prepared to recreate the process of grinding or squeezing the juice from the roasted piñas, like a molinero, and using a live horse to power the grinding wheel.  I don't care if it was 'staged,' I liked it!  It at least made one think of how the original process of production may have been conducted ages ago.

The sampling, after the tour, was very fun, and they let us try all three kinds: blanco, reposado, & añejo.  yum.

 We did some shopping afterward and gave them a little business.
They really gave us their undivided attention (but then again, we were the only one there!  Okay, maybe it was low season..

Still I give them high marks for putting this together.
I think it's a nice change from just the towns and the pyramids, for tour groups.
 

Interestingly, they named their product MAYAPAN.
Apparently, no one may use the name 'tequila' except for the very area around Jalisco
(near the town of Tequila) where it was first produced & 'branded.'
So, you will not see the word tequila on any bottle made here.
But they assured us, & we agreed, it tasted like the real McCoy.

¡ SALUD !