Tickled by Tequila

This drink hits you hard. Really hard. Consumed neat, it can knock the stuffing out of you. Even a tequila cocktail is sure to make you feel warm on a January evening in Ladakh. Made from the cactuslike agave plant, over 300 million of which are harvested each year in Mexico, tequila is not just the country’s national drink but is one of the most sipped liqueurs in the world today.And India is fast waking up to this potent spirit with over 10,000 cases sold in the country in 2007 (the figure is growing rapidly, almost at the rate of 25 per cent a year).
From pubs in whisky-addicted Delhi to high profile private dos in wine-loving Mumbai and the beer capital of Bangalore, tequila shots are being downed like never before—straight, mixed with spirits to create exotic cocktails (does Tequila Sunrise ring a bell?) or even spiced with a dash of cinnamon.
But in popular perception, tequila is still thought of as a unidimensional liqueur like Tia Maria or Baileys. Not true. Tequila comes in as many as five different varieties depending on the vintage, and that’s not even counting the tweaked ‘flavoured tequila’.The best way to research tequila would be to down a few shots. But let’s not begin this piece by telling you how to crawl on all fours. So, let’s just say that this agave-based spirit is made primarily in the area surrounding Tequila, northwest of Guadalajara in the highlands of Mexico.
Funnily enough, despite its closeness to the cactus family, the blue agave plant looks a bit like a giant pineapple tree (so, here’s a warning—when in Mexico, don’t go chopping up anything that looks like a pineapple and putting a piece in your mouth! ‘Fibrous Tequila’ may not be the best way to start your breakfast).
The leaves of the plant are chopped off, leaving only the egg-shaped ‘piña’ (the main plant)—which can weigh as much as a fully-grown male.
Once at the distillery, the juice is extracted from the plant and double distilled to make the base. And this is not a drink for the weak-hearted.
More powerful than most other liqueurs, it usually has 38–40 per cent alcohol content (76–80 proof). There are some varieties with a higher alcohol content as well.It’s no surprise that this is a powerful drink. The people who created it were power-hungry pirates. The story goes that when the Spanish conquerors ran out of brandy, they began to distill the agave drink to produce North America’s first indigenous distilled spirit near the town of Tequila in Mexico. Around 1600, Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle, the Marquis of Altamira, began mass-producing tequila at the first factory in the territory of modern-day Jalisco. By 1608, the colonial governor of Nueva Galicia had begun to tax his products, such was the popularity of the drink.Its popularity has never dwindled ever since. In fact, global sales of ultrapremium and super-premium tequilas have grown at a rate of 8 per cent per year all through the 21st century. In 2007, sales crossed the magical 10 million cases.
And in 2006, a one-litre bottle of limited edition premium tequila was sold for $225,000 (Rs 1.08 crore) in Mexico, by the company Tequila Ley .925. The manufacturer received a certificate from Guinness World Records for the most expensive bottle of liquor ever sold.Such is the pride that Mexicans take in this drink that there is actually a ‘Tequila Regulatory Council of Mexico’. The council did not permit flavoured tequila, which they considered ‘not the real thing’ to carry the tequila name till 2004, when they finally relented.
The Council has also approved an ‘official tequila glass’ called the Ouverture Tequila glass, made by Riedel, an Austrian firm. Of course, you may choose to swig tequila straight out of the bottle if you wish, but don’t do it in Mexico. The Council may haul you up for insulting their national drink!