Ahhh Tequila

Saturday we had our third in a series of spirits tastings. This time we went south and sipped Tequila along with some incredibly delicious Mexican food. In total we tasted four Tequilas: a vertical (or is it horizontal?) of Partida which included the Blanco, Reposada and Anejo and the Herradura Anejo.

The differences between each were quite noticeable. The Partido Blanco has a crisp, clean taste but it's not very complex. The Partida Reposada is smooth and well balanced with just a touch of smoke and caramel. The Partida Anejo has lots of caramel and is quite smoky. And lastly, the Herradura Anejo is full of tropical fruits, particulary banana and vanilla, and has a very smooth finish.

For a regular sipping Tequila I'd go for Partida Reposada. For a special occasion, Herradura Anejo would get the nod.

A short primer on Tequila from Cyrus' bar menu...

The history of tequila goes back to the days of the Aztecs who would drink the fermented juice of agave plants to heal the sick and pregnant and also consume in religious ceremonies. This mildly alcoholic drink was known as pulque and became popular with Spanish conquistadors when they arrived in the 16th century. Along with diseases, oppression, and slavery, the Spanish also brought with them the art of distillation. Over time, this pulque would be distilled and become a crude version of what we call tequila today.

Tequila is a town as well as a legal term for a liquor made from the Weber blue agave plant in a very specific fashion from any one of five Mexican states, usually Jalisco. Making tequila begins with growing the blue agaves for 8 to 12 years until they reach maturity. Cutting the plant when it is young or allowing it to bolt will not provide for good juice. When the plant is ready to be harvested, it is chopped at the base and all of the large spiky leaves are sliced off so that it resembles a round pineapple weighing between 75 and 150 pounds. It will take over 10 pounds of this “pina” to make one bottle of spirit. The pinas are then chopped into pieces and sent to the ovens for slow roasting which will cause much of the starches to convert to fermentable sugars.

If the tequila is going to be 100% blue agave, only yeast is added. If it is going to be a mixto, sugar in one form or another is also added as a filler that will be converted by the yeast as well. Mixtos are less pure, less expensive, and less prized tequilas.

There are four grades of tequila. One of them, gold tequila, is not the best. It is actually quite the opposite. A gold tequila is a mixto that has all kinds of additives in it, including caramel and grain whisky which can often make up to 40% of what’s in the bottle. The genuine 100% blue agave tequilas will say exactly that on the label and cannot say so by law if anything else is in there. What to look for next is one of three words which is going to tell you how long the tequila has been aged in American oak barrels which smoothes it out and steer the aromatics from floral to oaky.

• Silver or plata tequila has not been aged at all in a barrel and will retain its ripe, natural agave smells and have no color.
• Reposado or “rested” tequila has spent between three and twelve months in a barrel and will be become slightly oaky, lose some of its fresh aromas, and attain some light straw coloration.
• Anejo or “old” tequila are 1 to 4 years old and will be even more golden with lots of vanilla, oak, and complexity.

Tequila doesn’t age well beyond five years because of the nature of the spirit and the effect of the hot Mexican climate on the aging barrels. Tequila aficionados tend to like silver tequilas for their mixed drinks and the aged reposados and anejos for sipping.

If you're looking for more info on Tequila, check out Tequila.net. It contains more info that you'd ever need including review for over 650 different Tequilas.

Next up Sake.