Tequila (Spanish pronunciation: [teˈkila]) is a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, 65 kilometres (40 mi) northwest of Guadalajara, and in the highlands (Los Altos) of the western Mexican state of Jalisco..

Tequila was first produced in the 16th century near the location of the city of Tequila, which was not officially established until 1666. The Aztec people had previously made a fermented beverage from the agave plant, which they called octli – later called pulque – long before the Spanish arrived in 1521. When the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill agave to produce one of North America's first indigenous distilled spirits .

• 1600, Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle, the Marquis of Altamira, began mass-producing tequila .
• 1608, Spain's King Carlos IV granted the Cuervo family the first license to commercially make tequila.
• 1884–1885, was the first to export tequila to the United States.
• Don Francisco Javier gained international attention for insisting that "there cannot be tequila where there are no agaves!".
• 2003, Mexico issued a proposal that would require all Mexican-made tequila be bottled in Mexico before being exported to other countries.
• 2004, the Council decided to allow flavored tequila to be called tequila, with the exception of pure agave tequila.
• 2006, new NOM (Norma Oficial Mexicana) for tequila (NOM-006-SCFI-2005) was issued.
• 2006, the United States and Mexico signed an agreement allowing the continued bulk import of tequila into the United States.
• 2009, Mexican scientists discovered a method to produce tiny, nanometric sized synthetic diamonds from 80-proof (40% alcohol) tequila

Planting, tending, and harvesting the agave plant remains a manual effort, largely unchanged by modern farm machinery and relying on centuries-old know-how. The men who harvest it, the jimadores [xima'ðoɾes], have intimate knowledge of how the plants should be cultivated, passed down from generation to generation.

There are two basic categories of tequila: mixtos and 100% agave. Mixtos use no less than 51% agave, with other sugars making up the remainder. Mixtos use both glucose and fructose sugars. .

Tequila is usually bottled in one of five categories:

• Blanco ['blaŋko] ("white") or plata ['plata] ("silver"): white spirit, un-aged and bottled or stored immediately after distillation, or aged less than two months in stainless steel or neutral oak barrels;.
• Joven ['xoβen] ("young") or oro ['oɾo] ("gold").
• Reposado [repo'saðo] ("rested"): aged a minimum of two months, but less than a year in oak barrels of any size;.
• Añejo [a'ɲexo] ("aged" or "vintage"): aged a minimum of one year, but less than three years in small oak barrels;
• Extra Añejo ("extra aged" or "ultra aged"): aged a minimum of three years in oak barrels. This category was established in March 2006.

Only certain mezcals, usually from the state of Oaxaca, are ever sold "con gusano" ("with worm"), and that only began as a marketing gimmick in the 1940s. The worm is actually the larval form of the moth Hypopta agavis, which lives on the agave plant. Finding one in the plant during processing indicates an infestation and, correspondingly, a lower-quality product. However, this misconception continues, despite effort and marketing to represent tequila as a premium liquor – similar to the way Cognac is viewed in relation to other brandies

In Mexico

• the most traditional way to drink tequila is neat, without lime and salt..
• It is popular in some regions to drink fine tequila with a side of sangrita – a sweet, sour and spicy drink typically made from orange juice, grenadine (or tomato juice), and hot chillies.
• the "bandera" (Flag, in Spanish), named after the Flag of Mexico, it consists of three shot glasses, filled with lime juice (for the green), white tequila, and sangrita (for the red).

The Consejo Regulador del Tequila (Tequila Regulatory Council) approved an "official tequila glass" in 2002 called the Ouverture Tequila glass, made by Riedel