Tequila is actually known from Mexico. An Israeli start-up now wants to produce the schnapps from Agaven that grow in the Negev desert-in the immediate vicinity of the Gaza Strip.
About one and a half meter high blue-gray agave, as far as the eye can see-Avi Leitner goes through the Agavenfeld and remembers the moment when he showed his Mexican guests these fields in the middle of the Negev desert, and made it clear to them: he wants to produce Israeli tequila here.
“The people from Mexico said to me: ‘I have the feeling that I am in Jalisco, here it looks like at home,” says Leitner. “Nowadays in the middle of a global global economy you can no longer say, oranges, for example, only come from Florida. In the meantime, everything is exported worldwide.”
“What a crazy idea”
And if everything goes well, Avi Leitner, the head of the Blue Agave Israel Group start-up, says, also Tequila from the Negev Desert. About five years ago he presented Eran Braverman from the Alumin Kibbutz. The amazed. “What a crazy idea,” said Braverman. “I knew nothing about tequila and not about blue agaves.”
Eran Braverman is now the chief farmer of the Agavenfeld. And he has changed his opinion: “The plants grow pretty well. I don’t know whether the whole thing has economic success. We haven’t bottled a tequila yet. But it looks pretty good.”
Good soil, enough water, constantly sun
AVI Leitner had the idea of a tequila production in Israel a few years ago after visiting the Mexican Tequila region of Jalisco. The Israeli Negev desert seemed ideal for this.
“This region here in the Negev is perfect,” says Leitner. “And Israel is the world champion in terms of irrigation of plants. Nobody understands plant cultivation in the desert anymore.” The floor is good, there is water, and the sun is constantly shining. “Israel could be a big player when growing blue agaves.”
They are the basis for tequila. 140,000 of the blue-gray plants were put into the ground four years ago. If everything goes well, about a million bottles with tequila will be filled in the coming year. Tequila will not be called Agaven schnapps – for legal reasons. “Negev-Spirit” floats Avi Leitner as a name.
It will taste different
“When we try the first tequila, it will certainly not taste as much as in Mexico,” says Leitner. “But that’s also the idea. We want to bring something new, something unique to the spirits market. A little deeply Israeli. Something from the Holy Land.”
Chief farmer Eran Braverman from Kibbutz Alumin also has to be patient with the Israeli Negev Tequila for another year. And in the meantime he still drinks the one who was imported from Mexico.
