Every year on July 24th, the United States celebrates National Tequila Day, the annual day dedicated to the celebration of Mexico's quintessential distillate.
In Italy, it's been a few years since this distillate has begun to be appreciated for its various aromatic nuances and to become better known regarding its history, quality, variety and versatility of use, when initially it was just a festive and light-hearted proposal.
Some curiosities about tequila with Cristian Bugiada
Tequila is a distillate obtained from the cooking, fermentation and distillation of blue agave, also called blue or tequila And, Unlike other spirits, such as whiskey and gin, tequila must be produced and bottled in Mexico, in particular in one of the five regions authorised by the specification – Jalisco, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, Nayarit And Michoacan -, although the 90% of production takes place in the Jalisco region.
Tequilas differ from each other in ingredients, dividing into Premium, tequila produced with 100% agave tequilana, Mix with tequila produced with at least 51% agave tequilana, together with other sugary substances such as corn syrup or sugar cane syrup.
Beyond premium And mixto, tequila can be diversified based on the possible aging of the distillate in barrels or steel: the tequila blanco or plata it is not aged or it is aged for 60 days in steel, while the youth or gold it has a golden color given by rapid aging or by the addition of caramel; the rest ages in oak barrels for a few months and, finally, the aged for at least one year and the extra aged up to eight years.
«Before distillate existed tequila as we know it today». – he tells us Cristian Liar, bar manager of the Romano venue The Punta Expendio de Agave that boasts approximately 300 tequila labels.
«The agave distillate that was produced in Jalisco, in the city of Tequila, was called Tequila Mezcal Wine, because initially there was only the production of mezcal in Mexico. Tequila is the child of a project started during the industrial revolution, where the steam engine was used in the production of the distillate. A softer distillate was obtained compared to mezcal, leading tequila to become a very usable product also on a commercial level».
Leaving aside the Mexican Legends that hover over tequila, its true story begins with the conquistadors Spaniards who, having arrived in North America, began to distribute one of their flagship products, the brandy. After the discovery of agave juice and thanks to the European experience in distillation, they began to create interesting drinks that led to the birth of modern tequila.
Now that we have a general idea, one of the great disputes regarding the Mexican distillate is its declination: do you say tequila or la tequila? Reading the article of theAcademy of the Crusca, it is clear that it is said the tequila, because it is masculine and because, in the Spanish language, it is declined in the masculine. However, Italian dictionaries record the entry as a feminine noun because the name ends in -a, which is the most typical ending for feminine nouns in Italian.
«For me tequila And tequila, I usually don't even use the article in front. If someone asks me the tequila I'll give it to him anyway – Bugiana says laughing – What really matters is the quality of the product».
But how do you drink tequila? The combination best known even by us Italians is together with the salt and lemon, a triptych of strong flavours that, while in Mexico – where they use lime which, being local, it is much sweeter than what arrives on our tables – salt and “lemon” are very common ingredients on the table and they are consumed very often, «in Italy this custom came because, in the 80s and 90s, the quality of tequila on the market was questionable, so salt and lemon were a good commercial trick to cover up the flavor. However, we basically recommend and always try to promote the consumption of the smooth distillate, so that all its essence can be appreciated».
Despite the advice, Cristian and his partner Roberto de The Punta Expendio de Agave, on the occasion of the Tequila Day, propose with The Tequileño The Batangas, the very popular drink in Mexico but still little known in Italy invented in the city of Tequila by Father Javier Delgado Crown, owner of the bar The Chapel, currently under the reins of his grandchildren.
«It is a cocktail based on tequila, lime, salt and cola. We are also bringing it back to life with The Tequileño, which produces the tequila that Don Javier himself used for his Batanga. We had this idea because we wanted to remember Don Javier who gave us a wonderful experience in Mexico. We also want to celebrate the symbolic drink of the city that gave birth to the distillate that we know today».
The Batanga recipe from La Punta Expendio de Agave:
50 ml The Tequila
15ml lime
5 ml agavesite.
Maldon salt crust
Cola top
He tells us Christian: «Our recipe has a touch of agave syrup (Agavesito) because both the lime and the cola they use in Mexico are sweeter than what you find here in Europe.».
The Importance of Bats in Tequila Production
Another curiosity about tequila concerns the bats, which act as pollinators with the agave a bit like bees do: «The agave plant, when it reaches maturity, has a flower in the centre, the quiet, which allows the main reproduction of the plant through its pollination – Bugiada tells us -. The bat, being a nocturnal animal, orients itself thanks to quiet which opens at night and, approaching in search of some small insect, become the main pollinators of the agave together with the hummingbird which, with its beak, forces the opening of the quiote».
The problem is that, in mass production, very often quiote is not grown, because to do so it needs the sugars of the agave: «If you tried to distill a plant where quiote has grown – Bugiana explains – you would not have tequila production, because the distillate requires the sugars of the agave. So before the plant reaches the peak of its maturation they cut the quiote, effectively castrating the agave which however will continue to produce sugars anyway, becoming rich in them and here the producer detaches the plant from the ground and begins the distillation process».
This production has created a problem for the bats that, no longer having the reference points given by the quiet, have moved and no longer pollinating the plants, they inevitably weaken: «Currently the reproduction technique linked to a small clone plant that grows spontaneously alongside the plant is used – Bugiada explains – and they are used because they are much faster and already formed compared to the seed, if it were not for the fact that these clones have a genetic heritage equal to that of the mother. So if we continue to plant them we will have a field with the same genetic heritage and on a biological level we are impoverishing the population and above all we are exposing the plantations to parasites.
This is what it takes to maintain a high level of biodiversity with the birth of plants with reproduction through seed through programs such as the Bat Friendly Program: «The producers who join these initiatives leave the 5% of their crops untouched, letting the quiote grow spontaneously without cutting it, so that each plant can give 2 or 3 thousand seeds that can be used for new pollinated crops and a stronger genetic heritage. It should be a program with strong participation, but at the moment it is very low, because if the 5% of a production is untouched, for the producer it has a cost, but we hope that with time there will be more participation».
