The drinks before Thanksgiving dinner became a lesson on the role of the bat in making tequila. As I was offered a Casamigos Blanco tequila before dinner, while we all hummed around the mounting dishes arriving from the oven, the topic of conversation became a lesson on Tequila and the lesser long-nosed bat. And how a fast growing tequila industry has recently grown up in its understanding of the dependency on this mammal.
Rodrigo Medellín is known as the ‘Bat Man of Mexico’, and his work has brought to light the role of the lesser long-nosed bat in Jalisco, listed as a threatened species in 1994 and delisted in 2017.
Tequila comes from the pulped core of the bulbous body of the Agave plant – called the “pina”. What distinguishes tequila, within the Mezcal category, is being made particularly from the Blue Weber Agave that grows and is cultivated in Jalisco state. With over 300 agave species, it’s the case that ‘all tequila is mezcal but not all mezcal is tequila’.
Tequila is made through a steaming process, in a brick oven, and generally with a more industrialized production (and so a narrower, more consistent range of flavors). Mezcal’s fabrication involves a much more labor intensive process, roasting the plant in pits in the ground. This gives the characteristic smoky, earthy taste for which Mezcal is known, but also means much smaller batches, with the more work involved. And so the aromas of Mezcal will reflect the wider species of agave and growing locations (and so the terroir), and of course the nature of the roasting process that gives the characteristic smokiness.
In tequila production, farmers would cut off the flowers to increase the agave’s sweetness. What was so impactful about Medellin’s work was his building a campaign educating farmers as to the bat’s pollination role requiring the agave plant to flower. The most ecologically balanced farms, following his influence, are now similar to those of generations ago in interplanting flowering agave alongside those tequila plants cut earlier to concentrate sweetness.
The result is the ‘Bat Friendly’ label on tequila bottles, for brands whose growers allow 5% of their agave plants to flower, allowing the bats to pollinate (and using the resulting seeds to replant their fields).
“Every day of our lives is touched by one or more ecosystem service that bats provide. From your cotton shirt to your coffee to your tacos to your rice to your tequila, and much, much more, your life has been touched by bats” – Rodrigo Medellin, in National Geographic.
