Tequila

Tequila (/tɛˈkiːlə/; Spanish: [teˈkila] is a distilled beverage made from the Weber Blue Agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila 65 km (40 mi) northwest of Guadalajara and in the Jalisco Highlands (Los Altos de Jalisco) of the central western Mexican state of Jalisco.

The other States that produce Tequila are Jalisco and parts of Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, and Nayarit. Each bottle of tequila has a four-digit number corresponding to the producer it came from, referred to as the NOM.

The Norma Oficial Mexicana (Official Mexican Standard), abbreviated NOM, is the name of each of a series of official, compulsory standards and regulations for diverse activities in Mexico. In the case of tequila, Mexico's Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT) regulates the production NOMs.

The NOM identifier means the tequila meets government standards - but this is not any guarantee of tequila's quality. However, without the NOM stamp of legitimacy, it is not guaranteed that the bottle contains tequila.

All 100% agave tequilas must have a NOM identifier on the bottle. NOM does not indicate the location of the distillery, merely the parent company or - in the case where a company leases space in a plant - the physical plant where the tequila was manufactured. If multiple brands share a NOM, they are produced in the same place.