Agave americana flavored with the very pungent mezcal worm. "Mezcal" and "tequila", although also produced from agave plants, are different from "pulque" in their technique for extracting the sugars from the heart of the plant, and in that they are distilled spirits. In "mezcal" and "tequila" production, the sugars are extracted from the "piñas" (or hearts) by heating them in ovens, rather than by collecting "aguamiel" from the plant's cut stalk. Thus, if one were to distill "pulque", it would not be a form of "mezcal", but rather a different drink. Agave nectar is marketed as a natural form of sugar with
Agave nectar Agave nectar Agave nectar (more accurately, agave syrup) is a sweetener commercially produced from several species of agave, including "Agave tequilana" (blue agave) and "Agave salmiana". Agave syrup contains fructose as a carbohydrate providing sweetening properties. To produce agave syrup from the "Agave americana" and "A. tequilana" plants, the leaves are cut off the plant after it has been growing for seven to fourteen years. The juice is then extracted from the core of the agave, called the "piña". The juice is filtered, then heated to break the complex components (the polysaccharides) into simple sugars. The main polysaccharide is called