If you are reading this on a Sunday the following likely did not happen today, but pretty much every other day of the week you can assume what follows has transpired.
Photography by Robbie Burns
Fourteen men boarded a small bus early in the morning in the Jaliscan Highlands, just outside of Guadalajara, an area in the world that is known to produce the best tequila.The men range in age from early 20s to older 50s, many of them are related, their families going back generations. But there are only 14 of them. A small trailer containing three seasoned donkeys follows the bus. The men are in good spirits and arrive at a blue agave field just before sunrise.
These 14 jimadors happen to be responsible for helping to produce all the Don Julio tequila in the world.
The 14 men are some of the most skilled jimadors on the planet.
As the jimadors casually make their way off the bus, there is little talk about the job at hand as mornings like this have happened many times before. The sun is starting to make an appearance as the 14 men and the donkeys make their way to the fields with only a few inside jokes, their coas and several large containers of water. The morale level seems high. These 14 jimadors happen to be responsible for helping to produce all the Don Julio tequila in the world. This has been the same formula for Don Julio since it started in 1942. It has not changed. Their hands might be some of the most treasured hands in the world—that is according to a group that very much enjoys some good tequila.
Whalebone Magazine was fortunate enough to spend a day learning about the magic of doing things by hand. The following is a documentation of a morning with the 14 jimadors after they made their way into the fields.
Jimador: Farmers who harvest mature agave plants.
Coa: A tool used by jimadors to manually strip the field of the plants.
Blue Agave Plant: An essential ingredient to quality tequila. Proper maturity is 7 to 12 years.
