Tequila is a liquor made from distilling the fermented juice of the blue agave plant, which is native to western Mexico (mezcal is made from other types of agave). Its popularity exploded during the 17th century under Spanish colonization. But who invented tequila? Mexico already had pulque, or fermented agave, but when did distillation begin there?
There have been three theories. Maybe people in Mexico knew about distillation before the arrival of the Spaniards, although the evidence for this is rather thin. Or the Spaniards brought the technology to Mexico, which is plausible but also suspiciously Eurocentric, as Spaniards wrote that theory. But there is credible evidence that agave distillation was brought in by Filipino sailers, who not only traded with western Mexico, but sometimes settled there. Early tequila stills resemble the devices used in the Philippines to distill coconut sap. Read the very plausible story of how Mexico-Phillipines trade brought us tequila at the Conversation.
(Image credit: Roman664)