Jalisco the blue agave plant. It is the most famous type of mezcal produced in Mexico, and the only mezcal which is produced industrially with strict standards. The tequila industry supports large scale cultivation of the blue agave, with about 200,000 people employed through it directly or indirectly. It is named after a small town northwest of the city of Guadalajara in the center of where it is produced and the native region of the blue agave. The plant was used in pre-Hispanic times to make a ceremonial drink. The Spanish used the sweet heart of the mature plant, called a
Agave macroacantha to 3 m (10 feet) in height. The plant prefers a dry, sunny and hot location for summer and from early autumn onwards a cooler, well-lit space. It likes regular watering in summer and only minimum watering in winter, and will fare well in a large pot with sparse, gravelly soil. In the UK this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit. Agave macroacantha Agave macroacantha, the black-spined agave or large-thorned agave, is a species of succulent flowering plant in the Asparagaceae family naturally occurring in Oaxaca and also near the town of Tehuacan in the