Bagazo

Bagazo is the fibrous solid pulp left over after a cooked agave piña is shredded or milled to release its sugary juice. The texture is wet, blond, and stringy, like crushed sugarcane after a press. The chemistry is mostly cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and a residual coating of fermentable sugars and Maillard compounds picked up during cooking.

The split between mezcal and tequila on what to do with bagazo is one of the cleanest production-style divides in agave spirits. In traditional mezcal, the bagazo goes into the fermentation tank along with the juice. Native yeasts and bacteria live on the fiber, the residual sugars in the pulp keep contributing to the ferment, and the fiber itself adds aromatic compounds during distillation (some mezcaleros also place bagazo directly in the still as part of the first distillation). In industrial tequila, the bagazo is pressed and separated before fermentation; the liquid mosto ferments cleanly without fiber, and the spent bagazo is dried for use as boiler fuel, livestock feed, mushroom-growing substrate, or compost.

The choice has real flavor consequences. A bagazo-included ferment tastes earthier, more vegetal, and carries more roasted-fiber character into the final spirit. A bagazo-excluded ferment is cleaner, less rustic, and lets the cooked-agave sweetness lead. See the distillation chapter Parts 3 and 4 for the bagazo decision in production context.