Yuku free message boards

Absolutely, although chilling tequila outside of margarita form is honestly something I've never tried. I would think it would dull the flavor somewhat, but I can't say I'm speaking from experience, and I try to blunt any snobbery on my part in the face of such. As a supplement, here's a brief primer on tequila:

Tequila is, quite literally, fermented cactus juice. It's mostly made from the blue agave plant. It was originally distilled in the 16th century by Spanish Conquistadors who had run out of brandy. Saying that makes me feel like Sam talking about how the chairs in the Roosevelt Room were made from the wood of a pirate ship, but it's quite true. Skipping ahead a few centuries, as recently as 20 years ago, the vast majority of what was labeled 'tequila' in the US was not properly a tequila but one of several "mixtos". Mixtos use as little as 51% agave, using other sugars or even grain alcohol in the process. If you've ever had a caramel-colored mixto (Cuervo Gold is an example) you'll note an sickly sweetness overpowering the taste of the tequila. Low quality mixtos have an extremely sharp "bite". Evidence both anecdotal and scientific that I've come across suggests a greater connection with bad hangovers. It's the previous prevalence of low-quality mixtos that accounts for the reputation that persists of tequila as a drink you give up once you leave college.

More so than any other factor, if you want to ensure you're getting a quality tequila, find one labeled "100% blue agave". Regardless of whether it's a shot you plan to sip, a shot you plan to take with salt and lime or a mixer for your margarita, worrying about the other trappings and not getting a blue agave tequila is like specifying whether you want your martini shaken or stirred and not ordering name gin. (Well tequila, like well gin, is uniformly repugnant and best suited for Matches Malone and Slam Bradley and that ilk.) Tequilas labeled "gold" or "oro" should be avoided for this reason. They are uniformly mixtos.

Of the 100% tequila varieties, the most common are "blanco", "reposado" and "añejo".

Blancos (white, also called "platas" which means silver) are bottled immediately after distillation and are not aged. It tends to have a smooth initial taste but a powerful burn and a sharp aftertaste. Tequila purists deride the "lip-shoot-suck" method involving salt, a shot and a wedge of lime as "training wheels" or "tequila cruda", but it makes a lot of sense with a blanco. The salt lessens the burn of the alcohol and the fruit tang and acidity of the lime mellows the aftertaste significantly. Mixing, as Chris did, is another option. Again, purists would quibble, but that's what purists do, and for someone introducing themselves to premium tequila, I think it's perfectly sensible.

Digressing a bit, it reminds me of a friend and beer enthusiast who had a wife who hated beer. She had very little experience outside of cheap American macrobrews, of course, and he wanted to bring her into his hobby. What some make the mistake of doing is in going to extremes, when I was first introduced the idea of beer as more than a cheap way to get drunk, I was given a heavy chocolate stout that cost $20. I didn't at all see the point. It was extremely bitter to me. Eventually, I came back and retried that same stout, and found it amazing. What I'd done in the interim was educated my palate, but my friend took a smarter route than I did. If you've had Belgian fruit beers, you know some of them can be somewhere between a margarita and red kool-aid in terms of sweetness. But they also have some real beer flavor as well. My friend started his wife on those, then got her to try other Belgian beers that were hoppier or maltier. Within a year she was as enthusiastic about beer as he was...right in time for her to get pregnant, killing that hobby dead for both of them, but the point is, the way to introduce someone's palate to any acquired taste is NOT to hit them with what a magazine or a critic says is the best, but with what is going to allow someone to acclimate. The Killing Joke is a great story but it's NOT what you want to give to someone new to comics. Doing that stunts their growth, and in a year they'll be telling you what a great piece of work Sin City is.

Getting back to the point of what is increasingly inaccurately titled "a brief primer", the next type of tequila is called "reposado" (rested). This is tequila that's been aged between two months and 1 year, usually in an oak barrel. Much as it does with whiskey (albeit in a much more abbreviated time frame), the aging process mellows the drink's fire and adds complexity to the flavor. Reposados are frequently mixed, but also drunk straight.

The last type is añejo (aged), it has been aged a year or longer, also usually in an oak barrel. It will have the same color that "gold" tequilas have, except whereas the latter comes from caramel coloring or other additives, the rich gold color of an añejo tequila is a natural effect of the aging process. Añejos are the single-malts of the tequila world. They're the most expensive, so the snobs won't drink anything else. Also, any sort of mixing or shooting of an añejo will get you dirty looks. From me. Look, Chris explained this with scotch. Much like with a single-malt, the whole point of an añejo is that extra time and effort that was put into it to create a rich bouquet of flavors for you, not so you can follow up your guzzling two ounces of it by sucking on fruit. I recommend that both añejos and reposados be sipped rather than shot, but opinions on this differ.