Many gastronomic crimes can be attributed to the US – vodka Martinis, oversized portions…pineapple on a pizza – but one trend has luckily managed to right the wrong: shooting Tequila with a lick of salt and a squeeze of a lime.
Back in college, the few times I came close to calling it quits with alcohol, it usually involved Tequila. Post graduation, I didn’t revisit the beverage for over a decade till I was roped in by Corralejo to organise their very successful (albeit too early for the times) national cocktail competition. We tasted inventive Tequila cocktails aplenty and that’s when I realised that Tequila was better when not shot while holding your breath, like some bitter medicine. Again, it was too early for the world but good on you, Corralejo!
Agave
Fast forward to 2013 when Hollywood superstar, George Clooney, launched his brand, Casamigos, on the market, way before ‘cultural misappropriation’ became the currency of social ostracisation. He sold it in 2017 for a tidy sum and that spurred on many others to join the fray. Naturally, when the rich and fabulous go hankering after something like their lifestyle depends on it, the product gains traction. It has happened with watches, sneakers, luxury bags and accessories, and so it did with Tequila.
Why so many chose Tequila and not a more ‘stably popular’ category like Bourbon or Gin remains a mystery but hey, superstar is as superstar does, always high on the whimsy quotient.
But strip away the limelight and the fanfare around Tequila and ponder, ‘Is Tequila really worth the hype?” In one word, to me, yes.
Glasses whiskey bourbon
White spirits have always lagged behind in pricing and demand compared to their deeply hued counterparts. People pay ridiculous amounts of money for aged Scotch and Cognacs, with some costing more than a luxury car or being sold only under the auction house hammer. The mystery of Cognac probably gives it a price advantage; Armagnac, even more so. Rum, although not considered upmarket in our part of the world is, in fact, quite a luxury in the West, especially the ones from the Caribbean Islands.
Some vodkas did manage to enter that stratosphere of luxury and aspiration but they were always vastly outnumbered and considered somewhat gimmicky. No gin or rum or any other white spirit has ever scaled such heights based on their tactile prowess.
I think there’s a reason why. Vodka, for all its refinement, is still about mouthfeel and smoothness rather than intrinsic flavours. Astute tasters may be able to detect the source of starch it but it’s not all that important.
Gins, at least the ones that are now popular, to me are akin to vodka with makeup; the cupcakes of the beverage world – flavoured drinks with little inherent flavour.
Rum is markedly different and I believe that one day people will wake up to the richness of a good Rhum Agricole. In the meantime, fuelled by the superstar penchant but also riding on a strong sense of inherent flavour that comes from the source plant, Tequila is enjoying the gain, commanding a premium over lab-designed vodkas and gins.
Mezcal (or aguardiente by another name) Fruit schnapps, all deserve some respect for preserving this plant-to-bottle journey of flavours and textures.
Tequila cocktails
Which means, shooting these drinks denies you almost 100% of the flavour. Mind you, what the Americans were shooting back then was quite dreadful stuff but the Tequila brands on shelves today are worthy of sipping as also barrel-ageing. But, even without trying to emulate brown spirits, a good Blanco has enough to command presence and price. Which explains why sipping Tequilas are all the craze.
All in all, the market is heating up and prices are rising, so go grab yourself a bottle and try it on ice, or mix it into a cocktail, and realise why the short-lived gin craze was really quite an elaborate marketing scam.
