AGAVE, THE WUNDER-PLANT

I bet you already know how awesome the agave plant is, being the smart cookies that you all are. I'm sure you've probably read or heard about how it came to be called Century Plant - the way it grows soooooooooo slowly, for decades, then finally sends up one spectacular bloom stalk, and dies. Good thing all those little suckers can be harvested from around its base, and grown as new plants! You probably know about many of its amazing uses as well: that its stalks, sap, flowers and leaves are all edible; the leaves of several species yield a useful fiber; the dried stalks are used to make didgeridoos; the roasted stalks can be chewed like sugar cane; the agave nectar is used as a sugar substitute. If nothing else, you've surely heard that the sap can be fermented and distilled to produce mezcal, of which tequila is the most popular form. But did you know this: they now make agave wine!

I only know this myself because my favorite local eatery, Mima's Cafe, just obtained a license to serve alcohol (Wimberley has been dry up until recently). The last time I was in there, they were showing a bottle of this wine to several of us, waving the open bottle under our noses and saying "Isn't that awesome? It smells and tastes just like tequila!" Smells more like a tequila wine cooler, in my opinion. Don't know about the taste, as they weren't giving out free samples. Anyway, as it turns out, they are going to use it to make margaritas! I didn't understand at first. If you want something that tastes just like tequila, why not use tequila? Were they just trying to save money? Then it hit me: they didn't get a license for serving hard liquor. They just got a beer and wine license. Brilliant! Talk about some smart cookies!