It’s 11 a.m. on a Tuesday and I’m sitting in La Tequila, the largest tequila bar-restaurant in Guadalajara. The older gentleman sitting next to is holding a small glass vial to his nose and smelling deeply. He looks at me, shrugs, and hands me the vial. I know this one is going to be a tough one.
It’s Day One of a four-day hardcore seminar on tequila tasting and evaluation and almost everyone is having a hard time identifying the unmarked smells in the little glass vials. We have to identify what aroma group the smell comes from—floral, herbal, spice, fruit or other—and name the smell if we can. I take the vial the man has passed to me and take a deep whiff. It’s floral … no, it’s punchier than that. An herb? I write down “herbal” but I have no clue what kind. I move on to the next one.
For this website, I have tasted a lot of tequilas. I always try to be observant and descriptive as possible about the tequilas, but I realize I’m no expert. Tequila is complex. It has over 600 possible aroma and flavor components. Some, like vanilla and caramel, are easy to spot because they come from the barrel and are present in many aged tequilas. Others, like apples, gardenias and solvents, are more challenging. Is it baked apple or fresh apple? Is it thinner or is it gasoline? These are things that expert “catadores” (tequila tasters) can identify immediately.