Adolfo Murillo jokes about his two vocations as optometrist and tequila producer: “I help people see twice as well during the week and then I help them see double on the weekends,” writes Ted Genoways. Murillo’s Alquimia brand, distilled from organic agave plants in central Mexico, is a frequent prize-winner. Murillo was a pioneer in cultivating agave in the high desert near his home town of Agua Negra, as well as for choosing organic methods over synthetic pesticides. Agave is notoriously difficult to farm, Genoways writes in a Mother Jones story in partnership with FERN. “It’s vulnerable to weevils, fungi, bacteria and cold snaps.” And it takes six to 10 years to mature, so any setback is a burden that lasts for years.
Starting as an agave farmer whose plants had an attractively high sugar content, which is key for producing alcohol, Murillo launched his own brand of tequila “to show that his organic methods yielded a better product,” says Genoways. Murilla has shared his farming methods with local growers and there was an unexpected effect: Agua Negra “now offers good-paying farm jobs” and a reason for young people to stay, rather then seek work elsewhere. A global boom in tequila sales was a factor as well. Other organic tequila brands have entered the market but Murillo is not worried about competition. For all its momentum and Murillo’s hopes of creating a movement, organic tequila is still a tiny fraction of sales.