How to Actually Drink Tequila

If your only memory of tequila involves a salt-rimmed shot glass and a wince, you've been doing it wrong.   Good tequila is meant to be sipped, not survived, and once you've tasted one well you don't go back. This guide sets out how to drink tequila properly the way it's drunk in Jalisco.

First, Forget the Shot Glass

The salt-and-lime ritual exists for one reason: to mask cheap mixto tequila that was never meant to be tasted. With a proper 100% agave tequila, you're throwing away the best bit.

Sipping tequila is closer to sipping whisky or cognac than it is to doing shots. Small pour, take your time, pay attention. The bottle will tell you everything if you let it.

How to Sip

There's a rhythm to it. Nothing fancy, but it matters.

• Pour small. Half an ounce to an ounce is plenty. You're tasting, not drinking.
• Look at it. Hold the glass up to the light. The colour tells you a lot before you even smell it.
• Swirl gently. One slow swirl wakes up the aromas. Don't go mad with it.
• Nose it. Mouth slightly open, glass at your chin first, then closer. Breathe softly.
• First sip is a calibration sip. It'll taste hot. That's normal. Your palate is adjusting.
• Second sip is where it starts. Let it sit on your tongue for a beat before swallowing.
• Third sip is when you actually taste it. The agave, the spice, the oak if it's been rested.

Colour

Tequila tells you what it's been through by the colour in the glass. Hold it up to a window or a lamp. Tilt it. You're reading its history.

A quick note: a darker tequila isn't automatically a better one. Colour can come honestly from oak, or it can be helped along by caramel colouring (one of the four allowed additives in tequila). If a brand says "no additives," what you see in the glass is what the barrel actually gave it.

Nose

This is the bit most people skip, and it's where most of the flavour lives. Your tongue can only do five things. Your nose can do thousands.

How to nose it properly

• Hold the glass below your chin and breathe in gently. Get a first read without committing.
• Bring it slowly up to your nose, mouth slightly parted. The open mouth keeps the alcohol from numbing things.
• Don't sniff hard. You're not a bloodhound. Soft, slow breaths.
• Pull the glass away. Try again from the other nostril. They pick up different things.

What to look for

In a Blanco: cooked agave (think roasted sweet pepper or pineapple), citrus, fresh herbs, a bit of black pepper, sometimes a mineral edge from the water.

In a Reposado: the agave is still there but softer, joined by vanilla, light caramel, baking spice, maybe a hint of butterscotch.

In an Añejo or Extra Añejo: dried fruit, toffee, dark chocolate, leather, tobacco, oak. The agave fades back but should never disappear entirely. If you can't find it at all, the barrel has won.

Palate

Take a small sip. Don't swallow straight away. Roll it around — front of the tongue, sides, back. Each part of your mouth reads different flavours.

What to look for

• Sweetness from the cooked agave. Highland tequilas tend to be sweeter; valley tequilas drier and more earthy.
• Body: is it light and bright, or thick and oily? Texture is part of the experience.
• Spice: black pepper, white pepper, cinnamon, clove.
• Fruit: citrus, green apple, tropical fruits in blancos. Dried fruit and stewed fruit in añejos.
• Earthiness: minerality, wet stone, sometimes a clean savoury note. This is the agave talking.
• Oak (in aged tequilas): vanilla, caramel, toasted nut, sometimes coconut from American oak.

Finish

The finish is what the tequila leaves behind once you've swallowed. It's often the most telling part.

A short finish means the flavour disappears within a few seconds. A long finish means it lingers — sometimes for a minute or more — and that's usually the sign of a quality liquid. Pay attention to whether the finish is hot and harsh, or warm and smooth. Whether it stays sweet or turns dry. Whether the agave keeps singing or the oak takes over.

Good tequila finishes clean. There shouldn't be any chemical burn or solvent edge hanging around. If you're getting that, the bottle probably isn't 100% agave, or it's been heavily messed with on the way out.

The Best Glasses

The wrong glass will fight you. The right one helps the tequila open up. You don't need to spend a fortune, one good glass at home will do the job.

And what to avoid

• Shot glasses. Built for slamming, not for sipping. It hides everything good about the liquid.
• Tumblers and rocks glasses. Too wide at the top — the aromas just escape into the room before they reach your nose.
• Cold glasses. Chilling kills the aromatics. Room temperature glass, room temperature pour.

Putting It All Together

You don't need to be a sommelier. You just need to slow down enough to notice. Pour small, look at it, smell it properly, taste it in stages, pay attention to what it leaves behind.

Try it side by side with two different bottles,  a Blanco and a Reposado from the same distillery is a great starting pair. You'll learn more in ten minutes than you would reading another article.

KEEP READING

If this has you ready to dig a little deeper, here's where to go next:

• Best Tequila for Beginners  
• What Is Mixto Tequila? -  the difference between 100% agave and the cheaper stuff, and why it matters in your glass.