The Tequila Takeover: Inside The New Wave Of Agave Spirits & Sophisticates

Move over gin — agave spirits are the hottest drink in town, writes Rebecca Barry Hill.

When Mexican chef and Besos Margarita founder Luis Cabrera would suggest to diners they have a pre-dinner tequila, served straight as it often is in Mexico, Kiwi diners would look at him strangely.

“People would say, ‘Are you crazy? How can we have a tequila shot?’ And I’d say, ‘Not a shot, just sipping’. A lot of people are traumatised by their experiences with tequila and have said, ‘I’m never ever going to have tequila in my life again’.”

Pity those with fuzzy memories of shots imbibed at stupid o’clock and washed down with salt and lemon to disguise the taste (pretty much anyone who’s been to a stag or hen’s do). Fortunately, a more sophisticated tequila drinker is emerging, one who appreciates its heritage and is picky about quality. Those who know tequila will tell you it’s only worth drinking if it’s made from 100 per cent Blue Weber agave (aka agave Tequilana); not the cheap “mixto” variety diluted with anything from rum to corn syrup and food colouring, the stuff of hangover nightmares.

In the US, agave-based liquors such as tequila and mezcal were the fastest growing spirits category of 2022, tipped to overtake vodka as the best-selling liquor in the US in 2023, its growing popularity fuelled not only by the country’s proximity to Mexico but by countless celebs, from Eva Longoria to The Rock, Kendall Jenner and George Clooney, launching their own premium tequila brands.

In New Zealand, while the category is still relatively small, sitting well behind gin, vodka, whisky and rum, tequila has nonetheless seen extraordinary growth. In the last five years, the volume of top-shelf tequila sold here has increased by 38 per cent, according to statistics supplied by Spirits NZ.

The so-called “premiumisation” of spirits and boom in cocktail culture — along with a more mindful approach to drinking — has helped to nudge tequila ahead, whether drinkers are sipping a reposado on ice like ex-All Black Dan Carter or, increasingly, enjoying a cocktail with a meal out.

A recent survey conducted by Spirits NZ found that 92 per cent of New Zealand bars and restaurants now have a cocktail offering, whereas if you’d done the survey five, 10 years ago, the number would have been closer to 60-70 per cent, says Spirits NZ chief executive Robert Brewer.

Instagram is awash with Kiwis sipping palomas by the pool and modern margaritas at the bar. At South American-inspired restaurant Milenta in Victoria Park, for example, tequila features prominently on the menu, their margaritas embellished with green chilli and elderflower. Meanwhile, downtown Auckland is particularly well served by specialist agave spirits bars, such as La Fuente (Snickel Lane), New York franchise Ghost Donkey (Commercial Bay) and Frida (the Viaduct).

Since it launched in October, Custom Street cocktail bar Rocketman, owned by the team behind Deadshot, Ponsonby and Caretaker, Britomart, has been whipping up everything from negronis to martinis and old-fashioneds using tequila or mezcal as the hero spirit, along with citrusy tequila daiquiris and agave-based quill cocktails with a dash of absinthe.

Rocketman manager Vince Schiller, a Chicago native who worked at a tequila and mezcal bar in his home city before moving to New Zealand just over a year ago, has seen first-hand the growing curiosity about agave spirits, including artisanal mezcals, each of which bears regional characteristics, much like wine.

Scotch whiskies, gins, espresso martinis and pornstar martinis (made with passion fruit) are all hugely popular here, says Vince, “but if somebody’s looking for a cocktail with a light spirit I’ll ask if they’re open to light rum or tequila”, he says. “I love the spirit myself and I always like to serve something people haven’t had before.”

The magic of mezcal

Just as Champagne originates from the region of Champagne, to call a spirit tequila it must come from one of five regions in Jalisco, Mexico — whereas mezcal hails from 12 regions, the most popular being Oaxaca. Tequila must also come from Blue Weber agave, while mezcal can come from other agave varieties. Mezcal is typically not as “clean” a spirit as tequila, Vince explains, as the bulb or pena of the agave plant is roasted in the ground, taking on some of that smokiness, hence why it pairs well with the bitterness of a negroni.

Anyone seeking to match their agave spirits with authentic Mexican food should look no further than Tacoteca in City Works Depot. It’s here in mid 2023, that Edmundo Farrera, the Mexican epicurean behind downtown wine and mezcal bar and shop La Fuente, realised his vision for an authentic taco, margarita and beer bar, a lively space that’s as much an upper as the tequila and mezcal he serves.

Ask “Mundo” about the rising global interest in agave spirits and he becomes animated about the history and provenance of this culturally important commodity (and yes, there are far more agave spirits in Mexico than the popular duo on the menu here).

To give a very potted version of the history of this sacred ancient product, you could say tequila represents the purest form of the agave plant, a process of steaming, extracting, fermenting, distilling and ageing. It is Mexico’s entrepreneurial engine and often mass-produced export. Mezcal, on the other hand, expresses the regional heart of the country, care of smaller, generational artisanal producers, with the really top-notch stuff shared only among friends and family.

Mezcal entails agave cooked over a fire for three days to break down the sugars prior to the fermentation process via natural air-borne yeasts. Rather than copper distillers, it is usually distilled in a clay pot.

“That’s why you have richer, more natural flavours,” says Edmundo. “We say they’re a little bit dirty, but that’s because they’re like the flower, the flavours of the agave with the earth, with the clay all at once.”

Edmundo still recalls the aroma of mezcal from his childhood in the southeast of Mexico, where his biologist mother raised him on an exotic diet that included iguana stew and river turtle. His grandfather had a bottle that spilt in the back of the car, and what struck him about its scent was its power.

To demonstrate this earthiness, we perch at a Tacoteca booth and he pours a thimble each of el Jimador blanco tequila, a very smooth expression of the spirit, and Derrumbes Durango mezcal, which is like showing up to the party with a rockstar, its viscerally sweet aroma making way for a smoky, peaty flavour not dissimilar to the mouthfeel you’d get from Laphroaig whisky. A lot of whisky drinkers and wine connoisseurs are into mezcal, Edmundo explains, with customers increasingly asking for specific styles in the shop, much as someone would inquire after a riesling or pinot noir.

“There are some incredible tequilas, and if you’re ever lucky to try one of those, you sit there, you take your time. They are incredible. But there are limits to that level of purity that you can achieve with that method when you move into mezcal, which is probably my favourite. It’s always made in smaller batches. The best mezcal doesn’t even leave the place where it’s made.”

Whereas tequila comes from an agave plant that is seven to eight years old, mezcal comes from one that is anywhere from seven to 35. The “holy grail” comes from the rocks in the mountains, he says, where basically nothing but wild monster agave plants grow, and the landscape looks like the moon.

“So imagine sipping on that. It’s been taking energy from the sun for 35 years. It’s been taken from the rocks so it has this minerality as well. It’s beyond a collector’s item and you can’t just get on a waiting list — you have to be in [the producer’s] circle to get access.”

Agave is gaining popularity in New Zealand

The challenges of access — and the fact Kiwis are 11,000km from Mexico — hasn’t stopped local suppliers from procuring this popular spirit. There’s even a New Zealand-grown blue agave spirit called TeKiwi Tequilana, grown in Golden Bay, selling for $1000 a bottle.

New Zealand shelves are now well stocked with new additions to the ever-expanding premium RTD category, with local brands Pals and Alba releasing a canned chilli margarita within days of each other, alongside relatively new competitors from the likes of Batched, Jose Cuervo and Aussie brand Altos. Early this year Jalisco native Luis Cabrera will launch Ligera, a non-carbonated ready-to-serve margarita (at seven per cent, it complements his globally-award-winning 700ml ready-to-serve Besos Margarita Clasica, which calls for sensible pours, at 22 per cent).

Perhaps the most unlikely location to find a Mexican product like tequila is Kumeū, a 45-minute drive from Auckland central. It’s here, nestled among the vineyards and orchards, you’ll find Alba’s HQ, their factory and lab set unobtrusively behind the Hunting Lodge Winery and Restaurant, where weddings and events take place within the grounds of a historic homestead.

Alba first launched its lightly carbonated margarita-inspired RTD two years ago and brought out a chilli version, the fourth flavour in the range, in lightning-quick fashion after getting wind of the competition preparing to do the same. Industry insiders told Alba founder Michael Tutty the quickest to market was a drink that took six weeks to develop; theirs took two.

Alba launched in 2021 after Michael and his wife first experimented with margaritas at home during lockdown. The cans are now in more than 700 liquor stores around the country, and Alba is worth roughly $3 million in retail sales, up 340 per cent from this time last year.

“I think consumers are looking for something more out of what they drink these days,” says Michael, an exuberant host who takes Viva through the bottling plant, where parent company Brix & Co is a contract packer for the likes of Phoenix, East Imperial and Matua Valley Wines, as well as a producer of a range of its own drinks.

“First and foremost it’s about the quality of ingredients. The RTD market in New Zealand is relatively dominated by vodka-seltzer products or full-sugar bourbon and Cokes. A lot of the products are just food-grade ethanol, so there’s no real story to the spirit itself.”

Tequila, on the other hand, has plenty of exotic appeal. But to sell it, Michael had to prove to the Mexican authorities he would do their national drink justice, precipitating the need for a trip to Jalisco, where he met with government officials and local distilleries, and underwent tequila training (a certificate that is more book smart than boozy).

Tequila is a trademarked word, so permission must be obtained from the Mexican Tequila Regulatory Council to sell it.

“When you buy tequila as a consumer, you know that it’s a really great spirit being properly treated,” says Michael. “It’s not fake or artificial, no shortcuts are being taken.”

That has led to a few logistical challenges to bring the product to market in New Zealand and goes partway to explaining why Kiwi spirit producers have tended to go for the much quicker and easier-to-make gins.

“If tequila was cheaper here we might see it being bigger,” agrees Nick Marshall, co-founder of Pals, the local premium RTD brand that has soared to popularity in recent years, releasing a new product each year, typically using vodka, gin and whisky. “Tequila is a hard thing to procure from overseas and very expensive too.”

The strict vetting process meant it took two-and-a-half years for Pals to produce two tequila products, a carbonated margarita and a chilli version, both of which launched in October. Making a tequila RTD at scale is tricky and a little “off-piste” for the brand, says Nick, but like Alba, Pals managed to find a quality distiller in Mexico (like each brand interviewed for this piece, the names of the distilleries are somewhat of a trade secret). Though the team aren’t yet to set foot in the distillery until the new year, Nick has met with the owner in Melbourne.

“There’s a whole lot to it: making sure that you have continuity of supply and standardised output so that you’re not getting variation. Dealing with a foreign country is also challenging, as is the international shipping. So it’s been a lot of learning for our little team.”

The biggest problem Pals has faced since launching is keeping up with demand. Originally, they forecasted they’d need enough stock for three months, but the new cans sold out in two weeks.

“Trends come and go,” Nick muses of tequila’s growing popularity. “It was rosé for a while and espresso martinis. But in the last 12-18 months, we’ve seen a lot more margarita action. And tequila is quite a complex spirit, so it works well in cocktail format.”

The real deal

You might wonder how much of an art is it to whiz together tequila, triple sec and lime juice? But as anyone who has sipped a lacklustre margie will know, like all good cocktails, it’s a balancing act. Growing up in Mexico, Besos Margarita’s Luis Cabrera never used to drink but during a stint training as a chef in Venice, Italy, his mentors pressed upon him the importance of matching food and wine. So his appreciation for a good tipple is perhaps more culinary than most.

Initially, Luis says, he’d simply tried to make an exemplary drink to serve with the food he was serving at his former restaurants Besos Latinos and Ceviche Bar by Besos Latinos at the Wynyard Quarter — or to serve the many US and Latin American VIPs he’s catered for Downunder (everyone from Barack Obama to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and America’s Cup sailing stars.)

If the balance of citrus to sweetness and alcohol content is slightly off balance, he explains, it can ruin the meal. Hence his goal to eliminate inconsistency by perfecting his margarita recipe, adding ingredients at varying times and temperatures. During lockdown, originally using Patron, he sold Besos through the local wine shop, eventually making up to 120 bottles a week. Later came his tequila appreciation masterclasses, including the occasional stint at Peter Gordon’s restaurant and cooking school, Homeland.

“I feel almost like a responsibility and a mission to show Kiwis why tequila is so special,” he says.

In its homeland tequila is revered as a precious commodity, with many families staking their livelihoods on growing blue agave plants. Farmers harvest once every seven to eight years, so each plant is precious and needs tending to. Growers often rise at 4am, some with babies strapped to their backs, says Luis, to check each plant individually, cutting any that show signs of having blossomed and gone to seed. After the pina is baked and juiced, it’s fermented in barrels with yeast. The first few drops of tequila are given back to Mother Earth.

“So they are really connected [to the process],” says Luis. “In the rural communities when there’s a wedding or funeral, a birthday or a really special moment, people will give you a bottle. Imagine you choose me to give a bottle. I’m going to think about all the years of care that went into it. I’m not going to mix it with Coca-Cola and lime.”

Rocketman manager Vince Schiller’s top tequila picks

As a go-to, we use Arette as our well spirit. If I’m going to sit down with a tequila to sip on, I love Fortaleza. I’m a fan of Paco blanco tequila, but I think their reposado and their anejo are nice as well.

There’s Tequila Ocho, which I like. And there’s a fantastic brand called Calle 23, which is interesting, they do blanco tequila made with an artisanal method where they’re roasting it very much like how you roast a traditional mezcal.

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