January 25, 2009
Back to the Tequila Bar. I stopped there last night to add one more the list (#5) and to copy the list that we leave there. Here’s where we stand:

1. Redondel Diamante Reposado
2. El Tesoro Platinum Blanco
3. Centenario Añejo ***** This one was not only our favorite, we found a bottle in a local shop.
4. Don Julio Reposado
5. Mi Tiera Añejo

January 29,2009

P&S and I dropped in at the Tequila Bar and each had one. These three were added #6, #7, & #8. The Espolon Añejo was very good and earned 4 stars.

6. Tres Generaciones Añejo
7. Don Fernando Añejo
8. Espolon Añejo ****

Now some of you may wonder what’s the difference between a blanco, reposado, and an Añejo tequila. For you, I have added the following History of Tequila. It's a long one, so I've only included part 1 of 3. Stay tuned for more interesting facts about tequila. Oh, tequila is spelled with one L, not two.

Tequila - A Bit of History:

No other liquid is surrounded by as many stories, myths, legends and lore as tequila and its sister beverage mezcal. As wine and whisky have taken their place in modernized western culture, so too has tequila. Once only a drink for bandidos and rancheros, tequila is as much at home in the fist of today’s business yuppie as a cup of Starbuck’s coffee. While plenty have sampled various breeds of this zesty spirit in the form of a margarita, many more are discovering that good tequila is a drink to be enjoyed like a fine cognac or scotch. Many have put away the salt shakers and sliced limes—they sit down, relax and savor the taste of liquid fire…sip by sip!

As North America’s first distilled drink, and its first commercially produced alcohol, the history of tequila is long and rich. Its roots reach back into pre-Hispanic times when the natives fermented sap from the local maguey plants into a drink called pulque. The history of tequila’s development from the traditional beverage to the modern spirit parallels the often turbulent, chaotic growth of Mexico herself, and is equally obscure to outsiders.

Mezcal wine, tequila’s grandparent, was first produced only a few decades after the Conquest that brought the Spaniards to the New World in 1521. It was variously called mezcal brandy, agave wine, mezcal tequila and finally simply tequila—appropriately named after Tequila, a small town in a valley in Jalisco state, México.

The word tequila itself is a mystery. It is said to be an ancient Nahuatl term. The Nahuatl were the original people who lived in the area. The word means “the place of harvesting plants.”Agave, the plant from which tequila is distilled, played a much larger role than just being the source of an alcoholic drink. Its leaves were used for a hemp-like fiber to make mats, clothing, rope and paper. It was also the source of the nutrient and vitamin-rich brew, pulque.

Distillation of pulque, tequila’s distant ancestor, into something stronger may have originated by the Conquistadors as early as the 1520s. After the Conquest, the area around today’s Jalisco state was originally called New Galicia by the Spanish conquerors. The community we now know as Tequila officially became a village in 1656. In the 1700s, mezcal wines became an important product for export because the town of Tequila lay on the route to the newly opened Pacific port of San Blas.

(stay tuned for part 2 of 3 later this......)