Strong agave presence. Very vegetal with green bell peppers, thyme honey, chargrilled courgettes, raw asparagus. There is a fuller caramel hinting at honeycomb and beeswax. Vanilla pods, ginger biscuits, Turkish Delights, Custard Creams add to the sweetness. Taste We’ve also included details of the NOM, which is a four-digit number found on every bottle. This gives us visibility of the producer, so you can see just how many brands they’re responsible for — because can you really claim to be an artisanal tequila with hundreds of brands under the same roof? Not on our watch. What are the different types of tequila?

The Master standard continued into the higher end of the añejo category, with one top award winner unearthed in the ultra-premium heat. Corralejo 99,000 Horas Añejo was a deserving Master medallist. The Tequila impressed the judges with its “very rich nose”, followed by a “smooth mouthfeel, wonderful complex mature flavours, and a long and elegant finish”. Mijenta Reposado also scooped a Master, praised for its “lovely long finish with oak and earthy, smoky notes lingering for ages”.Yes, indeed! We knew what we wanted to make and how we wanted to do it. We were already credited over there with the CRT and we had the logistics in place to get products over here because we already did it with the agave syrup, so it was the perfect storm really. We spent three years developing it: one year developing the Blanco, then we waited two years for the Reposado and Añejo to age – we thought if we were going to do it, best do it properly. We launched around the start of the year and since then, it’s gone nuts! We’re house pours at great places like this [ TRADE Soho] all around the country. This double gold star awarded Tequila Añejo from VIVIR is their Tequila Blanco aged for 18 months in American Oak bourbon casks. The Tequila maintains its Agave routes whilst bringing an amazing palate of smoky oak, burned bananas and chocolate. Fantastic for sipping neat or over ice.

The opening flight of Mixto Tequila – Blanco delivered a set of Silver medals for El Sueño Tequila Silver and Sierra Tequila Silver. El Sueño Tequila Silver was “light and bright” on the nose, with “delicate citrus and a peppery palate”. Sierra Tequila Silver had a “slight nuttiness”, but was found to be “what you’d expect” from a mixto blanco – “solid”, noted one judge. There’s a reason celebrities are eager to claim a stake in the Tequila category, and that’s because the agave‐based spirit is soaring in popularity. Aged for at least two months, up to one year, here the colour changes to more gold and amber tones. You should find a more well-rounded flavour and smoother finish with sweeter vanilla and oak notes. Anejo That concluded the Tequila segment of the competition. The tasting then focused its efforts on the spirit’s up‐and‐coming cousin, mezcal.We really thought about it and wanted to be different whilst keeping something of tradition. For example, the Blanco bottle is the colour of the agave; it’s also meant to look like ceramics so that a nod to tradition. Our logo is Quetzalcóatl, the Aztec god who agave supposedly came from.

People sometimes think we’re just chancers coming into the market but then they try our tequilas and every time realise that they’re really good. We’ve been in the market for a long time and we know what we’re doing and always wanted to create something to be proud of. Tell us about your distillery and why you chose it. Among the five Gold winners in this flight was Calirosa Tequila Añejo, with its “dessert‐like” palate and “dry” finish, with “some marzipan and nuttiness”. There’s a reason bar industry experts gravitate towards reposado tequila. Meaning “rested,” reposado sits for at least two months, but generally less than a year, in the barrel. Most oftentimes, they’re American oak casks that once held whiskey. “It’s like the VSOP of tequila, aged but not too aged, with some wood but not overly decadent,” says Ivy Mix, owner of New York's Leyenda and author of "Spirits of Latin America." She quotes Carlos Camarena, master distiller of Jalisco La Alteña distillery, where Tequila Ocho is made: “He says aging is supposed to be like a picture frame, and in this case, the picture is of agave. You don’t want the frame to overtake the picture but to bring out [the] best attributes and highlight them.”El Mayor Tequila Blanco also won a Gold medal for complex aromas of “ripe stone fruits and dried florals”, leading to “chilli, pepper and citrus” on the palate. Essentially, all tequila is mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila. Mezcal is a general category for all agave-based distillates. Tequila is mezcal that must be produced using the blue agave plant within the Mexican state of Jalisco and four of its neighboring states. Beyond the legal definition, reposado tequila is not produced, as is mezcal, by pit-roasting the agave. Therefore, it does not have mezcal’s signature smokiness. In the more costly super‐premium price range, a Master was awarded to Olmeca Altos Reposado. Athavia noted the “fantastic integration of the oak on the palate”, which she said gave the Tequila “body, texture and a hint of sweetness”.

The qualities of the sweet Weber blue agave are ever-present and the smoothness of the Blanco is very impressive. Suggested Serve Like champagne, tequila production is a closely guarded secret and must be made and bottled within a specific area in Mexico. It can only be made from blue agave (unlike smoky mezcal which can be created from over 30 different varieties). The blue agave starts life as one hell of a sexy succulent, but it’s the piña at the heart of the plant that is needed to make tequila. The juice of the piña is fermented, then aged in oak for various lengths of time, to become blanco (unaged), reposado (aged for two months up to a year) or anejo (one to three years). There are two types of tequila — those that are made with 100% agave, and the inferior 'mixto', which only contains the legally required minimum 51 percent (with the rest made up of any other sugar, often corn). Don’t worry, we’re not going to recommend any of those. Made from 100% Weber blue agave, VIVIR Tequila Blanco is double distilled and blended with local water from a volcanic spring close to the distillery in Jalisco. Nose

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When I went to Mexico to get the agave syrup from the distilleries, even the guys there found it a bit weird as we were buying it in vats to bring over to the UK. You can’t work with those guys and not drink your own bodyweight in tequila. I was a bit wary but started to drink what they produced and loved it! I then found out that what we mainly had in the UK was Mixto, which uses 51% Weber blue agave and 49% something else like non-matured agave or corn syrup that I was clearly allergic to. The 100% agave tequila was brilliant and I didn’t understand why we didn’t have it in the UK. Nav Grewal and Paul Hayes, Co-Founders of VIVIR Tequila Traditionally distilled in the Mexican state of Jalisco using the cooked hearts of the Blue Agave plant (Agave Tequilana), Tequila is one of the world's greatest and most unique spirits. Tequila can be either un-aged in the form of Blanco or spend some time in oak. Barrel-aged Tequilas are labelled based on the length of time spent maturing with Reposado being the youngest before Añejo and finally Extra Añejo. Often associated with youthful drinking sessions in shot form, there's much more sophistication in tequila than the average consumer realises. Our panel – made up of 10-accredited spirits experts and tequila-loving consumers – put 27 blanco, reposado and anejo tequilas to the test. The fruity, spicy notes of agave are what makes a tequila. Purists love to taste that raw material in the bottle. No aging process should erase that. In the 100% Agave Mezcal – Joven, a Master medal was awarded to Mezcal Artesanal Noble Coyote – Coyote de Amatlán. Athavia found this to be “quite salty on the nose, with sea aromas”, leading to “lots of character and funky notes” on the palate.