| Tequila Time |
| Written by Jesse Stanek |
| Friday, 12 June 2009 17:26 |
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I love a good Mexican meal. Everything from the salty chips and homemade salsa appetizer, to the tabletop stack of warm tortillas, to the crunch of delicious fried ice cream. And while all those things are great, it’s the salted margarita on the rocks bringing the whole affair home for me. The light green elixir of summer makes everything just that much better. La Mesa Mexican Restaurant takes tequila lovers to heart by offering an array of the distilled agave product. The bottom line is La Mesa doesn’t mess around with tequilas. The restaurant is the first in the Midwest to be certified by the Tequila Regulatory Council, the organization responsible for maintaining industry-wide standards. With over 100 varieties of tequila, including a host of Premiums, 100% Blue Agave Tequila Anejos (aged a minimum of one year but less than three years in oak barrels), 100% Blue Agave Reposados (aged a minimum of two months but less than a year in oak barrels) and 100% Blue Agave Silver/Blancos (unaged and bottled or stored immediately after distillation, or aged less than two months in oak barrels), La Mesa is the perfect place to explore tequila in all its rich, distinct flavors. With prices ranging from $5 to $75, there are offerings for tight-pursed penny-pinchers and blowhard spendthrifts alike. “We are the only ones in the Midwest to have certification from the regulatory council,” La Mesa general manager Jose Salazar said. “We called them in Mexico and told them we wanted to be certified and they came up and trained our staff about the differences and varieties. Our staff can explain to you the differences between Anejos and Reposados and Blancos. They also showed us how to protect our product.” Tequila (Spanish pronunciation: te’kila) was first produced in the 16th Century near the location of the city of Tequila. The volcanic soil in this region of Jalisco is particularly suited to growing the blue agave plant. The Aztecs had been making a fermented agave drink called pulque long before the Spanish arrived, but when the conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill this agave drink to produce North America’s first indigenous distilled spirit. The Tequila that is popular today was first mass-produced in the 1800s in Guadalajara, Mexico. Mexico boasts over 100 tequila distilleries making over 600 brands of tequila. Due to the small number of distilleries, multiple brands often come from the same place. Accordingly, each bottle of tequila has a serial number designating which distillery brewed and bottled it. For years the Tequila Regulatory Council did not allow flavored tequilas to carry the tequila name, but in 2004 the council changed the rule for tequilas with the exception of pure agave tequila, which still cannot be flavored. This change allowed a host of flavored tequilas to flood liquor stores, including mango, lime and coffee. Whether you feel like sipping margaritas or chasing shots with salt and lime, La Mesa is the area’s best resource for exploring the illustrious fermented agave product. Browse the extensive collection of tequilas online (la-mesa.com), research the history and even take a quiz to see how well you know your tequilas. To help on your quest exploring tequilas, they offer a tequila club, weekly features and $1.99 margaritas Wednesday nights (made with Sauza). “To be honest,” Salazar said, “Tequila is a way of life, a culture. There are so many ways to drink tequila, there are so many ways to enjoy tequila. You can sip it like a cognac, mix it in a margarita or just enjoy it on the rocks or as a shot. The differences in tequilas, the varieties, like smoothness and taste, all make tequila special.” , La Mesa Mexican Restaurant has five metro locations: 156th and Q St., 110th and Maple St., Ft. Crook Rd. and 370 in Bellevue, 84th and Tara Plaza in Papillion and right off the Lake Manawa exit in Council Bluffs. For more information visit la-mesa.com. |