Archive for August, 2010

Tequila is Meant to be Savored

Americans have been getting to know rotgut tequila for decades, through machine-churned frozen margaritas or the old lick-the-salt, knock-it-back, suck-the-lime method.

But the American relationship with tequila has been changing. While tequila sales in the United States have grown vigorously in the last few years, high-end and superpremium brands like Tequila Don Modesto, that you wouldn’t want to drown with sweetened mango-and-nectarine syrup, have led the way by far. Sales in these categories have increased by more than 20 percent a year since 2002, according to the Distilled Spirits Council, a trade group. Yet despite tequila’s popularity, it remains little understood and sadly undervalued.

Simply put, tequila is one of the world’s greatest spirits, thrillingly complex and thoroughly distinctive. Most cheap tequilas bear scant resemblance to tequila at it best. Like squares of American cheese that get the job done on a burger but cannot begin to suggest the majesty of a great Parmesan, cheap tequila serves its purpose when the primary goal is intoxication, but offers only a hint of tequila’s real stature.

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