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Tequila Cocktail Recipes

Page 1: Tequila History, Tequila Types

The Margarita, while extremely popular, isn’t the only tequila cocktail in town. Here are some tequila cocktail recipes for Cinco de Mayo, casual evenings or other times that call for something south of the border. And yes, there are Margarita recipes, too. This is Page 1 of a four-page article. Click on the black links below to visit other pages.

• Page 1: The History Of Tequila
• Page 1: Types Of Tequila
• Page 2: Fruity Tequila Cocktail Recipes
• Page 3: Spicy Tequila Cocktail Recipes
• Page 4: Margarita Cocktail Recipes

The History Of Tequila

Tequila is North America’s first indigenous distilled drink or spirit, a strong distilled alcoholic liquor. It’s made from the sweet juice of the blue agave plant, and is produced via double-distillation in the area around the city of Tequila, located in the western Mexico state of Jalisco. The agave plant grows exceptionally well in the volcanic soil of the region, and Mexican law dictates that tequila can only be produced in Jalisco. Mezcal, the precursor of tequila, is a less refined spirit that can be made from five different varieties of agave. It is single-distilled, and is made mostly in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. (By the way, the agave plant is a succulent in the Agavaceae family, related to the lily family, and not a cactus. See another photo here.)

Before there was tequila or mezcal, there was pulque. Pulque was made by the Nahuatl Aztec tribe that migrated into the region. The first recorded cultivation of the blue agave dates to 1224 C.E. It is also recorded that in 1239, a very strong beverage called pulque was fermented from it.* The Aztecs called it the “a gift from the gods” and the agave was a sacred plant. (Note that they called chocolate the “food of the gods.”)

*It is still made today.

The Spanish arrived in the 15th century and taught the indigenous people the art of distilling: Mezcal was born. The village of Tequila, established in 1656, focused on the mezcal trade, with mezcals being called “tequila.” It was a bar drink, not a refined spirit that would be served at a restaurant. What we know as tequila was invented in the 19th century, with the introduction of above-ground, steam-heated ovens.

Agave piñas. Photo courtesy of BlueAgaveNectar.com.

To start at the beginning: Tequila is created from the piñas, or pineapples, of the agave. The piñas are cut away from the mother plant, then shredded; the juice is pressed out and put into vats and allow to ferment. A yeast is added to the vats to convert the sugar into alcohol. Different companies use their own distinctive (and often secret) yeasts. The tequila can then be aged in oak barrels to become a reposado or añejo (see below), or bottled immediately as a blanco. The treatment of the oak wood, and what the barrels were previously used for (many from prior batches of blanco tequila) both affect the flavor of the finished spirit.

In 1902, the German botanist Franz Weber studied the agave plant and determined that the sap of the blue agave had the ideal amount of sugar for distillation and fermentation. Its botanical name is the Agave tequilana Weber—Weber named it after himself. In 2001, Mexico and the European Union ruled that tequila must be at least 51% Agave tequilana Weber, that it could be produced in Mexico only, and within only the five states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit and Tamaulipas. Jalisco is considered to be the best overall agave-growing region.

Types Of Tequila

The five types of tequila are:

• Blanco (“white”) or plata (“silver”): clear and transparent, the tequila is bottled or stored immediately after distillation, or aged no more than two months.
• Joven (“young”) or oro (“gold”): un-aged tequila blended with rested or aged tequilas; caramel coloring, sugar-based syrup, glycerin, and/or oak extract are often added in order to resemble aged tequila.
• Reposado (“rested”): light yellow and translucent, the tequila is aged for at least six months but less than a year. Reposado began to emerge as a new category of tequila in the late 1980s.
• Añejo (“aged” or “vintage”): brighter yellow, aged at least one year, but less than three years.
• Extra Añejo (“extra aged” or “ultra aged”): a golden color, aged at least three years in oak .

The blue agave itself takes 8 to 12 years to reach full maturity, so the tequila you drink has taken quite a long time to reach your tongue.

There is a misconception that some tequilas have a worm in the bottle. They don’t; but certain brands of mezcal do contain a worm, the larval form of the moth Hypopta agavis, which lives on the agave plant. The larvae are used by several brands of mezcal to give flavor to the spirit. As a marketing gimmick, some brands put a worm in the bottle, but all flavor has long been removed during production.

Tequila should not contain an insect of any kind, and if it does, then “you’ve either purchased gag-inducing hooch aimed at gullible gringos, or your top-shelf booze is infested by some kind of alcohol-breathing, alien bug,” according to author James Waller (Drinkology: The Art and Science of the Cocktail, page 224, published 2003).

Continue To Page 2: Tequila Cocktail Recipes

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