Scarlet and Grover Sanschagrin have constructed a veritable temple to tequila at Casa Lotecito in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, the headquarters for Style Tequila and Tequila Matchmaker. Close to the doorway, a small lab and microdistillery (the place the couple make small batches of experimental tequila) give mad scientist vibes. Upstairs, a well-stocked bar guarantees tastes of many scrumptious agave spirits—some uncommon, others housemade.
On the eating room desk, a number of fluted glasses and a tray of small dropper bottles are set out prematurely of our arrival—every brown vial hand-labeled with the liquid contents inside: caramel coloring, vanilla extract, glycerin, tutti-frutti, aspartame, almond, chocolate, stevia, inexperienced apple.
“It’s authorized and thought of very regular to make use of components within the tequila world, and thru our analysis we estimate that at the very least 70 % of all tequilas bought include components like these,” Scarlet says. “And that’s conservatively low, as a result of there are plenty of corporations that don’t launch that data.”
To indicate guests in actual time how components affect the character of a tequila, the Sanschagrins acquired an eclectic assortment of components from Guadalajara-based corporations that additionally promote to large tequila manufacturers. “We’re going to make use of them to recreate a number of common superstar tequilas,” Scarlet says with an amused grin. She provides two modest pours of blanco tequila into the glasses. One will function the fixed, Grover explains. To the opposite, we are going to add incremental drops of components (the variables) to see how the aromas and flavors change.
“Glycerin is used for mouthfeel and to cowl defects,” Scarlet says. I dispense a number of drops of the colorless, odorless, oily substrate generally present in soaps, moisturizers and a few prescription drugs into my glass. “It dampens down aromas and coats your tongue so that you gained’t get one hundred pc of the flavour of the tequila anymore.”
It takes extra power than I count on to swirl it into the tequila, and with just some drops, the load of the spirit has thickened considerably. Grover suggests tipping the glass to the facet to look at how the liquid runs down the inside floor. “Glycerin is heavier than unadulterated tequila, so the ‘tears’ will run down the sides sooner,” he says.
Subsequent up: vanilla extract. “It smells like frosting,” my good friend groans. I take a whiff, and my sense reminiscence ferries me again to a current bar go to the place I used to be gifted pictures of a celebrity-owned spirit that’s taken the mainstream by storm. All the vibrant agave flavors—spicy inexperienced peppercorn, lemon curd, mint—have pale into obscurity. It tastes like sticky birthday cake.
“These [industrial] producers are basically making a impartial product, stripping away all of the pure agave taste within the course of. That’s the reason they’ve so as to add taste again in after the actual fact.”
The Sanschagrins met in San Francisco whereas working in tech—Scarlet as a reporter, Grover because the founding father of the photo-hosting platform PhotoShelter. They linked over a mutual love of tequila, which led to the creation of the interest website Style Tequila in 2009. A transfer to Guadalajara shortly thereafter spurred deeper immersion within the agave spirits realm; the duo skilled as catadores—a type of tequila sommelier—below the tutelage of Ana Maria Romero Mena, a maestra tequilera referred to as “probably the most well-known nostril within the tequila business.”
A Cheat Sheet to Components
Caramel coloration: Creates uniform coloration. As a result of reposados, añejos and further añejos are aged for months (as an alternative of years, as with whiskey and different aged spirits), the pure coloration is commonly fairly mild. The addition of caramel makes the spirit appear like it has rested for much longer as a method of interesting to whiskey and brandy drinkers.
Glycerin: A viscous substance used to cowl defects. The feel is considerably oily, to “easy out” the texture, numbing flavors and aromas within the course of.
Jarabes: Sugar-based syrups that add additional sweetness to tequila. These embrace synthetic sweeteners, corresponding to stevia, aspartame and Splenda, in addition to pure ones, like agave nectar. “You may add flavors into jarabes, and also you don’t have to inform the CRT what’s in it as a result of that’s your ‘commerce secret,’” Grover says. “Virtually something goes: wooden, vanilla, tutti-frutti taste, and many others.”
Oak extract: Provides woody notes. “Say you age a reposado for 3 to 4 months, however you need it to style prefer it was aged for six to seven months—the extract will give it extra barrel qualities,” says Scarlet.
In 2012, the Sanschagrins launched the Tequila Matchmaker app, which gives detailed manufacturing data on retail manufacturers, like distillery quantity and placement, cook dinner and extraction sort, water supply and fermentation size, plus aroma and taste profiles and critiques—intel that was in any other case not broadly obtainable to most people on the time. This system to guage components began as one in all many bins to examine on the app. “Years in the past we determined that, ‘Hey, components are a factor, so let’s put a line in there for manufacturers we all know don’t use them, like Fortaleza, Cascahuín, Siete Leguas,’” Grover explains.
When the couple began to obtain requests for inclusion from manufacturers who claimed to be additive-free—however clearly weren’t—it shortly turned obvious that they would wish to develop a extra formal affirmation course of. Now, they use a multipronged method to fact-check distilleries’ claims, together with on-site visits to watch manufacturing, tasting evaluations—as soon as off the nonetheless or from the barrel, and once more from the completed retail product, to search for discrepancies—plus lab evaluations when vital.
The Consejo Regulador del Tequila (CRT), the Mexican group that oversees and enforces the foundations and laws surrounding tequila (NOM 006), additionally seems for components as a part of its regulatory practices, however in response to the Sanschagrins, the method is considerably missing as a result of the entire thing relies on an honor system. “There’s a binder in each distillery the place you write down in the event you put components within the product or not. The CRT seems on the binder and indicators off and strikes on. They don’t check or odor or something,” Grover says. “Our intention is to only fact-check to verify our database that folks comply with, and rely upon, is correct.”
The 4 sorts of components, known as abocantes, which might be legally allowed in tequila are glycerin, oak extract, caramel coloration and jarabes, that are pure sugar-based syrups like agave nectar, in addition to sugar substitutes like aspartame (usually seen because the Equal model), stevia and sucralose (aka Splenda). Per the federal government guidelines, if the proportion of abocantes used exceeds 1 % by weight, the components should be printed on the label. (Blanco tequilas are a curious exception; the NOM says components will not be allowed, but additionally features a loophole that renders this level moot, so many blanco tequilas additionally embrace components.) More often than not, producers embrace simply sufficient components to stay below the load restrict, so this data stays below wraps. Grover and Scarlet are primarily searching these circumstances—when components are used, however not communicated to the buyer.
In Search of True Tequila
In an business rife with artifice, Felipe Camarena is working towards the tide to protect true tequila.
Agave spirits aren’t distinctive in the usage of components. Many spirits permit them—whiskey, rum and Cognac usually embrace sugar and caramel coloring, for instance—to make the liquid extra viscous, sweeter or extra uniformly coloured and flavored throughout completely different batches. And since it’s authorized and regular in tequila, the Sanschagrins say the impetus for his or her program isn’t to disgrace manufacturers that use them; they only wish to carry extra transparency to the apply.
“There are additionally cultural variations at play. Individuals in Mexico don’t actually care as a lot,” Grover says. “However folks within the U.S. wish to know what’s within the bottle… It’s much less to do with well being, and extra to do with not desirous to be tricked by advertising.”
Components are additionally sometimes solely utilized in industrial manufacturing, which poses a menace to conventional customs and environmental sustainability. In 2022, Mexico produced about 600 million liters of tequila, a determine that required nearly 2.5 million tons of agave. This demand prompts massive producers to reap vegetation earlier than maturity and use machines that depend on catalysts like acid and diammonium phosphate (a standard fertilizer) to make tremendous excessive volumes of spirit actually shortly.
Industrial manufacturing drastically adjustments the flavour of the spirit, too. “In conventional tequila, you get [notes of] cooked agave, herbs, spices—all the things you’d have in your kitchen—once you give time for cooking and fermentation and are utilizing mature agave,” Scarlet says. “These [industrial] producers are basically making a impartial product, stripping away all of the pure agave taste within the course of. That’s the reason they’ve so as to add taste again in after the actual fact, and that’s additionally why additive tequilas are often just one or two notes. They don’t seem to be as complicated as a pure tequila.”
Maybe most regarding is the way in which these one-dimensional tequilas are altering the face of the spirit. “Though components are regular and have been used for a very long time … now they’re getting used not solely to easy out defects and create consistency, they’re getting used to create your entire aroma and taste profile,” Grover says. “Shoppers are demanding these smoother, sweeter tequilas, and we predict it’s gotten to the purpose that the conventional shopper will suppose tequila is meant to style like cake batter or vanilla, and after they have a standard tequila it’s unrecognizable.”
“What began as a easy field to examine on the app is blooming right into a grassroots motion akin to the shift towards one hundred pc agave tequilas that occurred a few decade in the past.”
Because the Sanschagrins launched this system in 2020, the variety of confirmed additive-free manufacturers within the Tequila Matchmaker database has grown from a handful to 73 merchandise, a determine that Grover estimates will attain 100 by the tip of 2023. Trade darlings Tequila Ocho, Siete Leguas, Cascahuín and Don Fulano have joined the ranks, and even a number of celebrity-owned manufacturers—like El Bandido Yankee, Mala Vida and Santo Fino—have opted into this system. What began as a easy field to examine on the app is blooming right into a grassroots motion akin to the shift towards one hundred pc agave tequilas that occurred a few decade in the past.
Bars like Las Almas Rotas in Dallas, Clavel in Baltimore, Drastic Measures close to Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, De Nada Cantina in Austin, Texas, and extra are main the way in which with spirits and cocktail lists that includes additive-free tequila. At Puesto, a restaurant with places in San Diego, Orange County and the Bay Space, vice chairman of bar and spirits Beau du Bois has eliminated Clase Azul and Casamigos from the menu. Don Julio will get the ax subsequent. “What Grover and Scarlet are doing is pushing ahead the query I ask every single day, which is: Have you learnt in case your favourite tequila is artificially flavored or not? I’ll be the primary to say that one of the best tequila on the planet is the one you prefer to drink, however I’m additionally right here to supply transparency.”
This system has additionally caught the eye of the CRT, which introduced a brand new certification known as “Naturaleza Libre de Aditivos Producto Certificado” in March. No additional particulars have been supplied relating to how the regulatory physique will verify or implement the designation of merchandise which might be freed from components. However for the Sanschagrins, the information is promising. “We’d find it irresistible if they might take this over and do a great job with it,” Scarlet says with a slight snigger. “We’d have a lot time to do different issues.”
