Tequila Tasting

To make a tequila tasting, it's important to take into account 4 characteristics of the spirit or distillate, which are:

• Color
• Body
• Scent
• Taste

The latter, taste, is the most important, since it's the one that will help us decide whether a product is for us or not, regardless of its:

• Category- Tequila and 100% Tequila
• Class- White, Young or Gold, Rested, Vintage and Extra Vintage, or
• Brand- approximately 1,500

Tequila Tasting

To carry out the tasting it's important to have the correct glass. The official glass for tequila tastings is the Riedel glass.

This glass is designed to better know these 4 characteristics of which we've previously spoken.

We will go step by step to learn the:

Tequila characteristics in the tasting

Color

To learn about the color of Tequila, you must bring the glass to eye level to assign the product a color, transparency and shine.

Body

To learn about the tequila's body, me must lightly shake the glass, making sure that the liquid adheres to its walls, forming a crown on top. Tears or legs will flow from this crown. Afterwards, the body of the tequila can be defined as light, medium or full, depending on how fast the legs descend and how close they are to each other.

Scent or Aroma

It is said that there are more than 600 aromas found in tequilas. It's a bit complicated to be able to perceive them all, so we will only focus on the primary notes, which are those given by the process of its ellaboration. These can be perceived, among many others, as:

• Dairy-like
• Meat-like
• Citrus
• Herbal

Taste

For this last step, it's important to know which are the flavors that are perceived in the mouth:

• Sweet, at the front of the tongue
• Salty, at the front sides
• Acid, at rear sides
• Bitter, at the back of the tongue

Each of these parts work at different temperatures, so it's extremely important to keep the liquid in the mouth for at least 10 seconds. Before carrying out all this process, it's also important to notify our nervous system what it is about to receive. How do we notify it? through sight, smell and palate. To prepare the latter, it is important that we get the taste bud used to alcohol by first taking a small sip of the tequila, in this way, the taste bud will produce saliva and be wet enough to receive the tequila. Once the papillae are prepared, then the tasting is carried out. This is how all the flavors can be perceived.

During the tasting process, it's very important to exhale with the nose, keeping our mouth closed. This is how you'll have a retro-nasal inhaling that will help you increase the flavors in the mouth. Many people breathe out after taking a sip as to avoid perceiving the flavor or the burning of the alcohol, but they make a big mistake, as it'll be difficult for them to perceive the flavors in the mouth.

This whole process will have to be repeated with each of the tequilas to be tasted.

In my next blog, I'll talk about the different characteristics that may show in each kind of tequila.

If you want to learn more about tequila and its production, come to Casa Sauza and take one of our guided tours. We'd be happy to show you around!