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| March 19, 2010 |
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Finer Things
The Real Tequila
By Staff Writer
Packaging isn't everything. We wanted to take the opportunity to warn you and your readers against letting fancy marketing and colorful packaging fool you into choosing bad quality tequila.
Of course we don't deny that it's important to have a good presentation, but we strongly believe that one should be informed enough to be able to select a bottle of tequila based on what's inside rather than just what they see on the outside.
With that said, Tequila Herradura - one of the oldest and most respected brands in the industry - suggests some guidelines to help prevent you from being fooled.
- To ensure you're drinking the good stuff, confirm that your tequila is made from 100% blue agave, like Herradura. There are two types of tequila: 100% blue agave tequila and mixto. While 100% blue agave tequilas are distilled entirely from the fermented juice of the agave plant, mixtos may have been distilled from as little as 60% agave juice and then mixed with other sugars.
- Reposado (rested) or añejo (aged) tequila is created by aging blanco (or silver) tequila in wooden barrels. Other brands use any kind of wood, but Tequila Herradura only utilizes American oak barrels which lend the tequila a unique flavor and aroma profile. As the spirit is aged, it becomes smoother, and acquires a woody taste and golden color. Be careful though! Some tequila brands use artificial coloring or caramel in order to get this hue, effectively fooling you again…
- Beware if your tequila is not Hecho en Mexico (made in Mexico)! Each distillery in Mexico is assigned a NOM number (Norma Official Mexicana) to show that the distiller has complied with Mexican government standards. True tequila can only be prepared from blue agave sugars in five states of Mexico, and all bottles that pass the test are marked with the legend: Hecho en México.
- There's no such thing as "light tequila". Tequila must be produced with no less than 35% alcohol by
volume.
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