When you hear the word maguey, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? mezcal? pulque? a landscape worthy of a postcard? There’s more than that, so today we’re going to tell you everything that surrounds these proudly Mexican plants and everything they offer us.
What is maguey?
The agave also known as maguey, is a plant of Mexican origin, but it was the Swedish naturalist Carlos Linneo, who in 1753 made this genus of flora scientifically known in Europe under that name, taking the Greek word Agavos, which means “illustrious or admirable”.
On the other hand, different Mexican cultures gave other names to this plant, for example, uadá in Otomi, doba in Zapotec, akamba in Purépecha. The ancient Mexican called it melt or mexcalmetl, from which the name Mezcal comes, a drink made with the pineapple or heart of the maguey.
Mexico is the place of origin of the Agaves family and of the 273 different species, it has 205 species, of which 151 are endemic and are found in different parts of the Republic. The states where these species are most present are Chihuahua, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Coahuila, Durango, and Jalisco.
Main uses of maguey
To talk about the use of agave, we must go back to pre-Columbian times when the benefits of this plant were discovered that was useful to the indigenous people to make many products such as sacks, rugs, fishing nets; the quiotes used them as beams or fences and the thorns as nails and needles.
However, throughout history some of them have remained and others have been transformed, but what remains intact are the various qualities of the maguey of which today we can highlight as main uses:
- Production of alcoholic beverages
- Manufacture of textile garments
- Ornamentation
- Gastronomy
- Medicine
Characteristics of this plant
The maguey belongs to the Agavaceae family, which includes different species where most of the plants are monocarpic, that’s, they only flower once and after flowering and the ripening of their fruits, they die.
The leaves of these plants are long, large, hard, and thick and form a large rosette, commonly having flattened spines at the margins, which also gives them the characteristic of a thin apex. Each maguey usually has 10 to 12 leaves, and most species develop basal shears that grow in the original rosette.
The habitat of the agaves are arid lands where the climate is semi-dry, they resist temperatures ranging from 10 to 30 ° C. The optimal soil for its growth must be permeable, clayey, and abundant in elements derived from basalt because this rock is rich in magnesium and iron silicates.
Maguey grows slowly and takes between 8 and 10 years to reach maturity. Its flowering as mentioned above only occurs once, it develops a quiote that’s a very long stem, which can reach 32 ft in height, has small flowers and the plant dies when generating the fruit. A curious fact about the quiote is that it’s usually used within Mexican cuisine.
What does the maguey symbolize?
In Mexico the maguey has a great symbolism because it combines tradition and culture, which have given it a very important heritage value, but in addition to the above, this plant is related to Mexican mythology that tells us about its origin from a divine worldview.
Mayahuel in Nahuatl is known as “what surrounds the maguey”: metl, maguey; yahualli, round; he was a deity who was related to the earth, fertility, and food, he lived in the sky with his grandmother Tzitzimitl and with his sisters the Tzitzimime, who were considered as dark beings because they prevented the sun from rising.
In an encounter with the wind god Ehécatl, he convinced Mayahuel to go down to the earthly world, already in love on Earth they were united in an intertwined tree of two different branches. Upon noticing his absence, his grandmother descended with the Tzitzimime to look for his granddaughter and at that moment, the tree broke in two.
The old woman recognized Mayahuel and broke her branch into pieces and let the Tzitzimime devour the spoils. However, the branch of Quetzalcoatl remained intact and when the grandmother and sisters left, he took the remains of the young goddess, buried them and from there the maguey plant was born.
Products that can come out of the maguey
In relation to the uses of agave, you can obtain multiple products that we can currently find in different sectors such as: food and beverages, cosmetics, medicine, fuels, etc. Some products that are obtained from this multifaceted plant are:
- Beams
- Paper
- Pulque
- Mixiote
- Tequila
- Agave honey
- Hair products
- Musical instruments
- Huipiles, naguas, mantas.
And in this list, you can’t miss the mezcal, our favorite product of which we’re proudly producers, because La Luna Mezcal is a Mexican brand that’s born from the Michoacan lands, where traditions, culture, crafts, and landscapes come together in which the magueys are protagonists.
Our vast experience in the production of mezcal has allowed us to launch different expressions to satisfy the palates that enjoy maguey in combination with other ingredients. The Mezcal Moon is an experience that’s enjoyed in the mouth.