It's a shame that Tequila is too often related to drunken party shots, a rim of salt, a bit of lime and a rough morning of regrets to wake up to, in reality, Tequila is a delicious slice of the incredibly diverse Agave Spirits pie.
Broadly, alcohol made from an agave plant, anywhere in the world is an Agave Spirit, this is the umbrella term, Mezcal and Tequila are domination of origin terms - put simply, names that can only be used if they come from specific Mexican States and follow specific processes... think Champagne vs Sparkling wine.
In the case of Tequila, it can only come from a handful of Mexican states, and made from the blue agave plant. These enormous (and surprisingly sharp) plants grow 8 years before they can be harvested, we really don't make any other alcohol out of something that grows for that long, think bourbon or whiskey that uses corn or wheat that was planted that year, sugar cane for rum grows for about 12 months, even grapes - although they are on old vines, the grapes themselves grow over a single season... so why does that matter? Over those 8 years, the agave plant is soaking up flavours from the soil, the environment around it, the rain and sun, by the time it's harvested it has an amazing story to tell of that region, it truly spends years just soaking up the terroir.
However, there is a lot of room to play when it comes to Tequila, and not all of it is good - for example, the traditional way of making tequila is to cut out the Pina of the agave plant (that pineapple looking core), slow roast it in an oven, squeeze the sugary juice out of it, ferment that, then distill it into what we know as Tequila; however, there is a short cut for the roasting part which involves soaking your agave in chemicals, wildly more efficient, unfortunately, it means the resulting tequila is full of hydrochloric acid, not fun. Also, a tequila legally only needs to be 51% agave spirit, meaning whatever other alcohol you have laying around you can use to top off your tequila and you can still call it tequila (because growing a blue agave plant for 8 years before you harvest is expensive). As you can imagine the big brands out there, including a lot of the new celebrity tequilas are using loopholes like this to keep costs down - no wonder you can get a bad headache from a night on Tequila. Another good reason to find and support small businesses and celebrate traditional craft!
There is a lot more to the world of Agave Spirits than Patron and Don Julio, and the good stuff only happens if you dive in. If you are into wine tastings, have a Mezcal or Agave Spirit tasting you might be amazed at what you find.
