With more than 600 brands of tequila and mezcal available, deciding on a bottle can be a monumental task.
You can seek out a local bar with an impressive agave selection and sample their beverage menu in alphabetical order. Or hold a tequila and mezcal party, an excellent way to survey the agave market
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“Get a group together and splurge,” says Lucinda Hutson, author of “Tequila! Cooking with the Spirit of Mexico.” A 100 percent agave fiesta allows people to experiment and figure out which brands they favor.
“It makes
for an expensive evening,” she says, since a good bottle of tequila
or mezcal can cost $30 and up. But “you end up getting to go home
with a lot of the bottle, too.”
The ultimate sampling ground can only be found in one place, Mexico. Unlike other countries that sell their best to foreign markets, Mexico keeps its finest for home.
For the last ten
years, tequila and mezcal have made their way into more and more glasses.
One by one, people have begun to move past preconceived notions and
the obvious harshness of high alcohol content in order to take pleasure
in the complex flavors of tequila and mezcal.
As more people find their palate won over by these two Mexican libations, they discover that they are not just sipping the fruits of premium liquor.
More than that, people find that their first discerning taste has led to a gift from a goddess, the spirit of a country and to one of the world’s last great undiscovered spirits.