Tequila: Savor it one sip at a time

Ask for tequila in any bar in the United States, and the guy tending it will know you want one of two beverages: a margarita, in which tequila is mixed with fresh lime and triple sec (or a dreaded margarita mix).

Or a shot, a few ounces of tequila straight up that will be down your throat faster than it was placed before you.

That scenario makes the people at Casa Herradura cringe. The custom of throwing down a shot of tequila is largely regarded as an affront to the ancient beverage first distilled by Aztecs.

The tequila maker has been on a quest to get us to consider sipping tequila, even pairing it with food.

At the moment, it is about as common as Mexican wine consumption with meals. Neither is a big trend, says Ruben Aceves, director of International Brand Development for Casa Herradura.

So, over the past eight years, Herradura (Spanish for horseshoe) has been on a quiet, but determined, nationwide campaign to encourage us to sip, in general, and sip over lunch and dinner, specifically.

It started at the James Beard Foundation, Aceves says, when Herradura asked renowned Mexican chef Richard Sandoval to prepare "a nice Mexican dinner with tequila."

By Aceves' account, it was a highly successful sipping experience.

A few weeks ago, at the Palm Restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, Herradura brand managers Pedro Berrueco and Steven Vourvoulias gathered several dozen fine diners for a company-sponsored tutorial.

Between courses, Berrueco and Vourvoulias spoke about the cactus-like blue agave plant from which tequila is derived in Mexico, specifically the state of Jalisco.

It takes seven to 10 years for a plant to mature before it is harvested by experienced jimadores, Berrueco said.

The agave's pinas are cooked in clay ovens in 1200-degree temperatures. Its tequila is naturally fermented with wild yeast and aged in toasted or charred white American oak barrels.

Herradura does not reuse barrels (as many other spirit makers do), so its tequilas do not pick up other liquor flavors. No flavorings are added either.

The result of such traditional methods, Berrueco says, is a "handcrafted" product that has a 100 percent "natural" stamp of approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

-- Elaine Ayala, San

Antonio Express-News