Ingredient of the Month: Tequila

Photo by esgarijc

A field of tequila (blue agave)--Photo by flickr user jay8085

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, this month’s ingredient is Tequila!

The GINtender’s favorite tequila definition: “Tequila is the secret weapon invented by Mexicans to reduce productivity in other economies.” – Richard Neill

Tequila is made by distilling the fermented juice of the blue agave plant.  The most important thing to take away from the Gintender (regarding tequila) is: Make sure the bottle says “100% puro Agave”…anything else is “gringo juice” and is primarily schwill made for exporting only.

Categories:

Blanco (“white”) or plata (“silver”): white spirit, un-aged and bottled or stored immediately after distillation, or aged less than two months in stainless steel or neutral oak barrels

Joven/plata/silver-”young”…not aged in oak.

Reposado- ‘rested tequila’-aged in oak for 60 days to one year

Anejo-Golden colored tequila, aged in oak for one year or longer

Tequila is of course most popular in margarita or shooter form, but quality tequila was meant to be sipped (cheap tequila was meant to be drunk by college gringos).  It usually runs between 75-80 proof, but has been known to be distilled up to 110 proof.  Most quality sipping tequilas measure out around 80.

If your tequila has a worm in it, it is not tequila.  And by the way… the worm isn’t a worm.  It’s a butterfly larvae and the spirit is called mescal–which can be made from a wide variety if strains of agave (not specifically blue).  The “worm” started as a marketing gimmick to prove the quality/strength of the spirit with the insect staying intact.

Typically, tequila is thought of as only mixable with citrus, but this month we want to bring you some excellent cocktails that do more than just use citrus.

**Cinco de Mayo Special: Wisdom, the Gintender’s original bar, will be concocting specialty tequila cocktails this Thursday for Cinco de Mayo!  Try unique, premium tequilas with interesting mixtures including coffee, jalapeno, hibiscus, tropical as well as Wisdom’s house-infused habanero tequila! **

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 at 7:46 pm. It is filed under Blog, Ingredient of the Month and tagged with blue agave, Cinco de Mayo, Tequila. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.