Tequila

A spirit made from a succulent

Tequila carries a Mexican denomination of origin: only spirit distilled in the designated region, from blue agave (Weber blue agave), may use the name, and the state of Jalisco is its centre. Agave is not a cactus but a succulent, and the part that matters is underground — a swollen stem the size of a beach ball, called the piña for its resemblance to a pineapple.

How it is made

The plant takes several years to mature. Harvesters strip the spiked leaves, the piñas go into brick ovens or steam autoclaves until the fructans stored in them break down into fermentable sugars, and the pressed juice is fermented and usually distilled twice. A bottle marked 100% agave took all its sugar from the plant; anything else may be fermented with other sugars alongside it, and tastes thinner for it.

Three degrees of ageing

• Blanco — bottled with little or no time in wood. Cooked agave, green herbs, pepper and citrus are at their clearest.
• Reposado — rested in oak for a few months. Edges soften; vanilla and light wood appear.
• Añejo — a year or more in barrel, darker, closer in shape to other aged spirits. Longer-aged bottlings are labelled extra añejo.

Mezcal, the wider relative

Mezcal is the broader category: many agave species qualify, and Oaxaca is its best-known state. The traditional method roasts the agave hearts for days in earth pits over wood, which is where the smoke in a typical mezcal comes from. Both are agave spirits under separate rules — tequila only from blue agave, mezcal from many species — so read them as close relatives rather than substitutes.

Which one a drink wants

Most shaken, citrus-led recipes are written for blanco: the acid has something green and peppery to argue with, and oak would only blur it. Reposado suits stirred or spirit-forward builds, where its softer edges and vanilla read as depth rather than interference. Añejo is rarely called for in mixed drinks, since the wood that makes it worth its price is the first thing lost under juice.

In cocktails

Agave's herbal, earthy register is hard to bury, so most recipes give it sharp acidity to work against. The Margarita balances it with triple sec and lime juice over a salted rim; the Paloma simply builds it over grapefruit soda and is the everyday Mexican version. The Tequila Sunrise lets grenadine settle at the base so the colour shifts from the bottom up, while Naked and Famous, an equal-parts formula written in New York in 2011 and originally built on mezcal, answers the spirit with Chartreuse and Aperol; tequila stands in for the mezcal here. Vampiro takes the savoury road, leaning on tomato juice and spice.

For the orange liqueurs that so often sit beside it, see liqueurs and herbal spirits; for the shaking itself, see shaking.