It is believed that in XVI century with the Spanish Conquest, the conquerors introduced the use of copper pots with the serpentine to distill the drink, a mechanism learnt by the Arabic culture and used in Europe for their distilled products. When they found agave, the Spanish conquerors started to use the copper pots to get more alcohol from the plant.

Another theory states that the Filipinos sailors from XVI century, traveling from Manila to Colima and Jalisco ports, introduced to the inhabitants the use of their distillation pots to make coconut aguardiente. However, while staying at the ports they used clay or wood pots to distill agaves instead.

The most recent study, based on archeology findings, suggests that the distillation process was developed in Mesoamerica between 1500 and 1000 BC. There is evidence of indigenous instruments used for distillation.