Fermented Products Produced from Agave Book in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • © 2019 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.Agaves have been used since ancient times to produce a great variety of products for human use such as fibers or consumption mostly in the form of alcoholic beverages. Agave¿s alcoholic beverages have been produced since ancient times. Historical documents describe the use of agave¿s sap to produce a fermented beverage like a wine called pulque but also the use of fermented cooked agave juices for religious purposes. When Spanish arrived at the new continent, they discovered that native produced beverages by fermenting juices obtained from cooked agave¿s plants. Spanish introduced distillation with Arabian alembic to the process to obtain the ¿spirit¿ of these fermented beverages and increase the alcohol content. The variety of Agave species, agave¿s age, geoclimatic conditions as well as the different operations in the production process has originated an important variety of beverages with specific aromatic and sensory characteristics. Actually, two of them are known to have achieved international recognition, these are Tequila and Mezcal, but others such as Sotol, Bacanora, Raicilla, have started to be to be equally known. These alcoholic beverages are regulated by Mexican and International norms, and some of them are protected by an Origin Denomination. These norms regulate, for each specific product, all the aspects of the production chain, which consists of the agave¿s production territory, agave¿s species, and harvesting age, the production process, allowed ingredients, and quality of the final product. Final products are regulated such as the final quality could be assured, including aspects such as authenticity, ethanol content, and safety. Controlled compounds levels are defined for each kind of beverage; the most commonly measured are methanol, higher alcohols, acetaldehyde, and furfural content.

publication date

  • January 1, 2019