Perhaps you have, like me, stood in a liquor aisle and gazed at an array of tequilas on sale, wondering which was the best to buy. To the unitiated, any tequila will do after thinking about cost, bottle size, and how you'll drink it. It makes sense to want something tasty for a sipping drink, whereas one might be less discerning about a tequila bound for a blender as part of a margarita.
But there's a lot more that goes into to tequila than those simple initial factors. There's a whole glossary of terms that insiders in the tequila-making industry and serious tequila-lovers use. We spoke with Antonio Rodriguez, who is the production manager for the storied tequila brand Patrón. Its tequila is made from blue agave in the Mexican region of Jalisco, and Antonio spoke to me from their production facilities, where he was on a break from overseeing the company's time-honored process.
This, according to Antonio, is what everyone needs to know before they find themselves wandering in the tequila aisle.