The high production of agavins (branched oligosaccharides composed mostly of fructose) in the core of the plant is the main characteristic that makes it suitable for the preparation of alcoholic beverages.

Blue agave plants grow into large succulents, with spiky fleshy leaves, that can reach over 2 metres (7 ft) in height.

It is rarely kept as a houseplant, but a 50-year-old blue agave in Boston grew a 9 m (30 ft) stalk requiring a hole in the greenhouse roof and flowered in the summer of 2006.

Tequila is produced by removing the heart (piña) of the plant in its seventh to fourteenth year (depending on growth rate and whims of harvester).

Then the roasted core is pressed or crushed to release the sugary clear liquid called aguamiel, which is, in turn, fermented and distilled into alcohol.