About Tequila

 – Historically, most of the Tequila in the United States was low quality spirit meant to be drunk as quickly as possible usually brought back from some slumming south of the border. Fortunately a number of years ago (about 25 or so) ago the market underwent a sea change, with much improvement in both quality and brand choices. Tequila is a form of Mezcal but can use only the blue agave (Tequilana Weber) where Mezcal can use 18 different varieties. So Tequila is a Mezcal but a Mezcal is not necessarily Tequila. The is grown for a number of years until it reaches maturity(usually 6) then is harvested by a Espadin- a skilled worker who cuts the large sharp leaves of the plant to make a Pina (or Pineapple as it is called) which is the barrel shaped heart of the agave. The pina is baked in a oven (the traditional producers still use stone ovens) to caramelize the starch into sugars then the cooked pina is crushed to extract the juice for fermentation and distillation. The more industrial type of tequila production crushes or shreds the pina before cooking but is generally held to producer a lesser quality spirit. Many cheaper brands of Tequila are mass produced in factories and bulk shipped to the US for Bottling 

Now for some finer points:

 Always look for 100% Agave on the bottle, the cheap, painful stuff does not say that. It is referred to as Mixto and is made of a blend of Agave and God knows what else if you are lucky cheap grain alcohol, unlucky, well you can use the money you saved on a white cane.

The three types or age classifications: 
Joven: Fresh from the still also known as Blanco or Silver
Reposado: Rested in Oak barrels ( If you want to find out which distillery made a tequila look for the NOM #which is listed on every tequila label or bottle . There are numerous books and websites with lists of the numbers so you can track it down. (see our tequila links sections for some sites)