Tequila Source NYT Crossword Clue Explained: AGAVE

Working through a clue like “Tequila source” and the answer won’t come? The answer to “Tequila source” in the NYT Crossword is AGAVE. This five-letter plant name is one of the most dependable entries in the entire puzzle — a word that most solvers know from cocktail menus and health-food aisles, with a letter pattern that constructors absolutely adore. Whether you have seen it clued as a tequila ingredient, a sweetener, or a desert plant, the answer is the same. In this guide, we dig into exactly why AGAVE is the answer, tour the verified NYT clue wordings for it, analyze the letters that make it grid gold, flag the trap answers to avoid, and hand you the solving strategies that make plant clues easy.

Why AGAVE?

Tequila is made from the blue agave plant (Agave tequilana), a spiky succulent native to the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico. By law — both Mexican regulation and international trade agreements — true tequila must be distilled from the fermented sugars of the blue agave’s heart, the piña, which can weigh 100 pounds or more after the plant’s long 7-to-10-year maturation. So when a crossword clue says “Tequila source,” it is asking a straightforward production question: what plant does tequila come from? The answer is AGAVE, verified in the NYT Crossword on August 27, 2020.

The botany is worth knowing because it explains the clue family. Agaves are not cacti, though they look the part — they belong to the asparagus family (Asparagaceae), a fun fact that occasionally surfaces in trivia-adjacent cluing. The genus Agave includes hundreds of species, but only blue agave makes tequila; other species produce mezcal (including the famous smoky mezcals of Oaxaca), pulque, and agave syrup. The plant’s name comes from the Greek agauos, meaning “noble” or “admirable” — a nod to the spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime flower stalk that some species send up before dying, the so-called “century plant” bloom. That Greek root is a reminder that this is a word with genuine etymological depth, not just cocktail trivia.

From a constructor’s standpoint, AGAVE is close to perfect. Five letters, three vowels (A-A-E), no repeated tricky consonants, and a GV pair that is unusual enough to be interesting but common enough to cross cleanly. The A_A_E vowel skeleton is a crossing dream: vowels intersect with other answers far more easily than consonant clusters do, which means AGAVE can slot into tight grid corners where a consonant-heavy word would jam. This is the same reason answers like ALOE and ERIE recur endlessly — vowel-rich words are the lubricant of crossword construction. AGAVE brings that same vowel power at five letters, a length where friendly fill is harder to find.

The clue’s fairness deserves a note too. “Tequila source” assumes a piece of general knowledge — that tequila comes from agave — that the Times considers squarely within a literate solver’s reach. It is the kind of fact you absorb from cocktail menus, liquor-store labels, travel shows, and food writing. The puzzle does not demand that you know the species name or the Mexican regulatory council; it asks for the everyday word. That is the NYT’s cluing philosophy at its best: the answer is common, the clue is direct, and the satisfaction comes from the retrieval, not from obscure trivia.

Solving Tip: follow the product back to its plant

A huge family of crossword clues works by naming a product and asking for its source plant, and the solving move is always the same: trace the product backward. Tequila → AGAVE. Chocolate → CACAO. Coffee → (usually clued differently, but the bean logic holds). Vanilla → ORCHID (the vanilla orchid — a great late-week answer). Maple syrup → MAPLE. Once you see the pattern, product-to-plant clues become mechanical: identify the product, name the plant it comes from, check the letter count. “Tequila source” at five letters has exactly one plausible answer, which is why experienced solvers fill it in without a second thought.

Be precise about the wording, though, because the plant-product family has traps. “Tequila source” is AGAVE, but “Tequila, e.g.” would be asking for a category like SPIRIT or LIQUOR. “Tequila plant” is also AGAVE, but “Tequila cocktail” points to MARGARITA or PALOMA. The noun after the product name tells you what kind of answer to build: “source” means raw material, “e.g.” means category, and a bare product name with “cocktail” means the drink. Reading these little function words carefully is one of the fastest ways to level up as a solver.

Another trap to dodge: the sweetener angle. Agave syrup (often labeled “agave nectar”) is a popular alternative sweetener, and clues like “Alternative sweetener” or “Honey alternative” can point to AGAVE — but they can also point to STEVIA or other sweeteners. When the clue mentions tequila or mezcal, the answer is locked to AGAVE; when it only mentions sweetness, keep STEVIA in mind and let the crossings decide. The verified NYT wording “Plant that’s a source for tequila or mescal” (NYT Mini, November 13, 2024) deliberately names both spirits to remove exactly this ambiguity.

Other NYT crossword clues for AGAVE

• “Tequila source” (NYT, August 27, 2020) — the clue we are unpacking here.
• “Plant source for tequila” (NYT, May 13, 2021) — the same fact with the plant made explicit.
• “Plant that’s a source for tequila or mescal” (NYT Mini, November 13, 2024) — the disambiguated Mini wording covering both spirits.
• “Blue ___ (tequila plant)” — fill-in-the-blank style; the color-plus-plant construction is a Times favorite.
• “Mezcal source” — the Oaxacan sibling spirit, same plant genus, same answer.
• “Century plant” — the common name for some agave species, referencing the dramatic once-in-a-lifetime bloom.

AGAVE’s crossword neighbors

• ALOE — the other famous succulent in crosswords; the two are botanical cousins in puzzle-land. See our ALOE NYT crossword clue explained guide.
• SERE — another five-or-four-letter nature answer that constructors reuse constantly. See our SERE NYT crossword clue explained guide.
• ERIE — the vowel-heavy short answer that shares AGAVE’s grid-friendly DNA. See our ERIE NYT crossword clue explained guide.
• EPEE — a five-letter-maximum classic with a friendly letter pattern. See our EPEE NYT crossword clue explained guide.
• STEVIA — the sweetener rival; knowing both keeps you safe on “alternative sweetener” clues.

How to spot AGAVE in the NYT crossword

The recognition triggers for AGAVE are refreshingly consistent. Any clue containing “tequila,” “mezcal,” “blue” (as in “Blue ___”), “century plant,” “succulent,” or “agave syrup/sweetener” with a five-letter slot should make AGAVE your leading candidate. The Times rarely gets exotic with this entry — it does not clue AGAVE through Greek etymology or taxonomy on most days — so the everyday vocabulary of bars, kitchens, and gardens is where the clues live. If the clue sounds like something you would read on a bottle label or a garden-center tag, you are in the right neighborhood.

The letter pattern is a strong secondary signal. A_A_E is a distinctive skeleton, and the GV consonant pair in the middle is genuinely unusual in English — when you have _G_V_ or AG__E from crossings with a plant-or-drink clue, AGAVE should be your immediate write-in. Few other common words share that shape, which makes partial information unusually decisive here. This is one of those answers where two crossing letters are often enough.

Watch the day-of-week gradient as well. Early-week AGAVE clues are direct (“Tequila source”); late-week versions might go through the “century plant” common name, the Greek root, or the mezcal connection. The Mini, with its compact grid, loves AGAVE — five letters of vowel-rich fill is premium real estate in a 5×5, and the November 13, 2024 Mini clue proves it. If you play the Mini daily, AGAVE belongs on your must-know list right alongside the short country and state answers.

Finally, build a real-world hook. The next time you see a tequila bottle, read the label: “100% blue agave” is printed on the good stuff, and every sighting reinforces the clue-answer link. Food and drink answers are among the easiest to memorize because you encounter them in daily life — the puzzle is simply asking you to notice what is already around you. Five letters, three vowels, one plant: AGAVE.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the answer to “Tequila source” in the NYT Crossword?

The answer is AGAVE. Tequila is distilled from the blue agave plant native to Mexico, and this clue wording appeared in the New York Times Crossword on August 27, 2020. It is the standard five-letter answer for tequila-related clues.

What is agave?

Agave is a genus of succulent plants native to the Americas, belonging to the asparagus family. The blue agave (Agave tequilana) is the legally required base of tequila; other species are used for mezcal, pulque, and agave syrup. The name comes from the Greek agauos, meaning “noble.”

What other NYT clues point to AGAVE?

Verified wordings include “Plant source for tequila” (NYT, May 13, 2021) and “Plant that’s a source for tequila or mescal” (NYT Mini, November 13, 2024). Related angles include “Mezcal source,” “Blue ___ (tequila plant),” and “Century plant.”

Is agave the same as aloe?

No, though they look similar and both are crossword favorites. Agave belongs to the asparagus family and is the source of tequila; aloe belongs to its own family and is known for its soothing gel. In puzzles they are distinct answers — AGAVE is five letters, ALOE is four — so the letter count always settles it. See our ALOE guide for the full breakdown.

Why is AGAVE so common in crosswords?

Its five-letter, three-vowel structure (A_A_E) makes it exceptionally easy to cross with other answers, and it can be clued fairly through food, drink, botany, and etymology. Vowel-rich words are the structural backbone of crossword grids, and AGAVE delivers that vowel power at a versatile five-letter length. Our crosswordese guide explains the pattern in depth.

Related NYT Crossword Clues

• ALOE NYT crossword clue explained — the other famous succulent.
• SERE NYT crossword clue explained — a nature-word crossword classic.
• ERIE NYT crossword clue explained — the vowel-heavy short answer.
• EPEE NYT crossword clue explained — a friendly-lettered staple.
• What is crosswordese? NYT crossword guide — why answers like AGAVE repeat.
• Best Wordle starting words — vowel-heavy openers that work like AGAVE’s letters.