Tequila of premium (100% blue agave) tequila into China was lifted following a state visit to Mexico by President Xi Jinping. The entry of premium tequila into the country is expected to increase tequila exports by 20 percent within a decade (exports totaled 170 million liters in 2013). Ramon Gonzalez, director of the "Consejo Regulador del Tequila", estimates that each of the top 16 producers of tequila had invested up to $3 million to enter the Chinese market. On 30 August 2013, the first 70,380 bottles of premium tequila from ten brands arrived in Shanghai. The arrival happened during an event
Raicilla Raicilla Raicilla is a distilled spirit, originating in the south western portion of the Mexican state of Jalisco. Like tequila and mezcal, it is a product of the agave plant. Traditionally raicilla has been created and sold as a "moonshine" product without government sanction or approval. Recently a distiller, La Venenosa, has begun to market a variety of legal brands of raicilla. It is distilled in crude, primitive stills from a fermented mash made from the central stem ("piña") of the maguey plant. The mash is slow cooked, and the steam condensed on a copper cone cooled, traditionally, by spring