Tucson is a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, one of only two in the entire US. That honor is bestowed upon cities that celebrate their culinary heritage and traditions at an exceptionally high level. (The second UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the US is San Antonio, another unexpected but deserving recipient.)
This year is the 10th anniversary of Tucson’s UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation, along with the city’s 250th birthday. There is a unique culinary flavor to Tucson that evolves from its Indigenous, Spanish, Anglo and Asian heritage. Talented Tucson chefs, distillers, bakers and brewers not only embrace the roots of their local community, they take pride in showcasing ingredients that grow in and around Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, some dating as far back as the 15th century.
The Culinary Cultural Heritage of Tucson
Don Guerra, James Beard Award-winning baker and founder of Barrio Bread, is single-handedly responsible for bringing back centuries-old ancient and heritage grains to the area. “These grains are more expressive, healthier and make an agricultural and gastronomic impact in the community,” says Guerra, who bakes with organic einkorn, Sonoran wheat, amaranth, kamut and red wheat. Celebrating Tucson’s heritage is also important at Maynard’s Kitchen & Bottle Shop, a restaurant in a historic train station where guests may find dishes with squash blossom, prickly pear or agave on a special dinner menu. Juniper, a storefront gin bar on historic Congress Street, whips up delicious classic and modern cocktails with a twist. The signature “Blue Juniper” is made with juniper gin, housemade prickly pear syrup, fresh lemon and lime, and juniper berries. BarBata, an atmospheric subterranean bar connected to the award-winning Bata restaurant upstairs, features an extensive selection of drinks “From Agave” on its menu.
Tucson’s Agave Festival
From prickly pear margaritas to mezcal palomas, there is no shortage of agave-inspired drinks in town, a reflection of Tucson’s Mexican community. Mexico, of course, is the heart and soul of the agave world, centered in Oaxaca. And the Agave Heritage Festival in Tucson, from April 10-13, is the place to be for anyone who cares about agave. The Festival began as a one-day tequila-drinking bacchanal, replete with margarita-drinking contests, but it has evolved. If you wanted to, it would be easy to roll through the three-day Festival in an agave-addled haze. But as much as you may be a fan of kicking back tequila shots or sipping mezcal (both topnotch spirits made from the heart of the agave plant), you will want to be alert for this event.
“Agave is a plant that has adapted over thousands of years to be resilient and multifaceted, and, it’s so spectacularly beautiful," says Todd Hanley, Festival Director and Founder, who really has a thing for agave. Hanley was the manager of the historic Hotel Congress (home base for the festival and, fun fact, the spot where John Dillinger was arrested), when he decided that a plant inspiring this much passion and playing such an important role in the desert ecosystem deserved a special celebration.
The Magic of Agave
The annual Festival features seminars, workshops, speakers, panels, events, themed dinners, agave-inspired night markets and, yes, tastings, all packed with great information and storytelling. While the focus is agave–there are over 200 types, with 160 endemic to Mexico– experts from remote spots around the globe share expertise about the super plant in the context of fermentation, biodiversity, microbes, conservation, climate change, ethnobotany and sustainability.
Because it takes 30 to 40 years to mature an agave plant, the stalks (sisal) are extremely strong, and agave is used to make rope, cloth, geotextiles, carpets and sandals. It has the potential to be transformed into bioplastics and biofuel. The agave plant improves soil health and it is climate-smart and drought-tolerant. Historically, indigenous people called it “the buffalo of the plant world,” for its versatility. “Agave” is a Greek word that means "admirable,’’ “illustrious” and ”brilliant," and there are seemingly endless species, with each one imparting a unique flavor and aroma to tequila and mezcal.
Drinks made from agave also include the fermented pulque, along with agave nectar, which can also be used as a sweetener in cocktails. Bacchanora, a spirit from Sonora that is related to tequila, comes from agave, as does lechuguilla. (Sotol is sometimes mistakenly found under the agave umbrella, but, according to Brent Looby, CEO, Desert Door, a Texas producer of wild-harvested, hand-crafted sotol, a generic name for 22 species in the spiky dasylirion genus native to the Chichuahan Desert, it is “smoother than tequila and much softer and more delicate than a mezcal.” No matter what your taste, sotol, like agave, is worthy of admiration--it is an incredibly self-sufficient, sustainable plant, with a delicious yield.)
Conduit to Shamanic and Spiritual Healing
Ultimately, agave is more than just a plant, it’s a conduit to culture. Known as the “century plant,” the long-lived botanical typically only blooms once in its long lifetime, and for that and many other reasons it has taken on an aura of mysticism and links to shamanic and spiritual healing. At an Agave Roast at Tucson’s Mission Garden, a nonprofit near the Santa Cruz River and the place where the indigenous people of AZ first settled, a Hualapai elder said, “We were told that when harvesting agave it is very important to be free of negative thoughts and feelings. Prayer is important when going out to harvest.”
Agave is, for the most part, produced in rural communities where it was traditionally incorporated into sacred rituals and ceremonies. “Agave has always been a sacred plant,” says Silvia Philion, of Mujer Agave, a Oaxaca-based collective for women in agave, traditionally a male-dominated industry. According to Philion, agave has long been used ceremonially by indigenous. “We are like the agave plant–resilient, adaptable,” she says. “With the agave plant, you can drink, eat or make a home. Like a mother, it gives you everything.”
Hanley says, “I feel spiritually connected to it, because it represents so many of my values as a person–hard work, resilience, dedication. It’s just a tough-ass plant.” And there are plenty of ways to eat, drink and enjoy that tough-ass plant in Tucson.
ByRona Berg,
Contributor
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ronaberg/2025/02/21/tucson-culinary-capital-and-city-of-gastronomy-celebrates-250-years/