Which Agave to use?

Mark starts with ...
Yesterday I saw an article that listed 'Agave Nectar' as a 'new super-food'. It's supposed to be sweet & a sugar replacement. I'd like to ask "Does anyone know which Variety of Agave this is?" ... (out of curiosity some years ago, I did try Agave I had in the garden. It was very bitter.) Soo, I was just wondering... Does anyone know the Botanical Name for that particular variety of Agave? ..... "Please."

Speedy says...
Agave salmiana
is one of the main (Pulque) agaves used for the production of Agave nectar.
Mine are a few years off ready yet.

Agave mapisaga and A.americana are also used.

you have to select a plant that is not far off flowering so that the inulins are being converted by enzymes into sugars - mainly fructose.
cut the growing tip right out (careful the sap makes your skin really itchy) and the cut the a strip off the edge of the lvs. to remove the teeth from where you access the plant to reduce chance of injury and dig into the heart of the plant.
a special tool is used to scrape a layer from the exposed heart every day and collect the aguameil (honeywater).
collect both morning and afternoon if weather is warm as it ferments very easily.

Pulque is the fermented aguameil, more nutritious than the unfermented nectar.
it gets sour and develops off flavours if left too long as it's a living culture and changes over time as
different microbe populations rise and fall as constituents of the pulque change.
Very simmilar to Palm wines (toddy; tuak) of trop. Asia and Pacific.


I've roasted (24+hrs) quartered hearts of A.lurida and they're sweet, not too unlike dried apple to taste although very fibrous.

In the production of Mezcal (Tequila is a regional type of Mezcal) and other distilled agave liquors,
the too much leaf material left on the hearts can lower the quality.

many diff. species are utilised in the production on mezcal.

Tee Bee says...
Agave nectar is a pure sweetener made from the natural juice (aguamiel) of the agave salmiana plant.