Celebrating Cinco de Mayo has become increasingly popular along the U.S.-Mexico border and in parts of the U.S. that have a high population of people with a Mexican heritage. In these areas the holiday is a celebration of Mexican culture, of food, music, beverage and customs unique to Mexico.

Tres Agaves bartender Cristian Lara prepares what he calls the perfect margarita - Photo by Sena Christian

Commercial interests in the United States and Mexico have also had a hand in promoting the holiday, with products and services focused on Mexican food, beverages and festivities, with music playing a more visible role as well. Several cities throughout the U.S. hold parades and concerts during the week following up to May 5th, so that Cinco de Mayo has become a bigger holiday north of the border than it is to the south, and is being adopted into the holiday calendar of more and more people every year.

Now we’d advise drinking your tequila straight-up…but if you fancy something a bit more jovial during your festivities today then Tres Agaves bartender Cristian Lara has what he considers to be the perfect Margarita.

Recipe for the perfect margarita:

1 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice

1 oz. Tres Agaves house-made agave nectar

2 oz. 100 percent Blue Agave tequila

Squeeze out 1 ounce of lime juice and pour over ice in a large glass. Add 1 ounce of agave nectar and 2 ounces of 100 percent Blue Agave tequila. Cover and shake glass. Pour fresh ice into a new glass and pour in mixed drink.

Recipe Source: Cristian Lara, Tres Agaves Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Lounge

Tequila has been knocking about since the 16th Century, it wasn’t however mass produced until the 17th Century. Yeah…they’ve always been slow in the part of the world eh!? It’s a fine and complex drink and as such it must be sipped slowly and served at room temperature, although some do like it ice cold. Traditionally tequila is served in a “caballito”, a 2oz glass made exclusively for this purpose.

Quite where the name ‘tequila’ comes from is a bit of a mystery in itself. One thing is more than certain and that’s the the word originates from an ancient Nahuatl term. The Nahuatl were the original people who lived in the area. The particular word is still very much up for discussion.

The agave, also know as maguey (pronounced muh-gay), is cultivated on plantations for eight to 10 years, depending on the species of agave. In the year of 2001 there was a shortage of tequila on the market.  Seven years previous to this it was believed that agave was being over produced and the fields were used for other crops. Due to the agave taking so long to mature the effects from these actions were not apparent until it was too late. Let’s hope they don’t make that mistake again.

Tequila in a caballito

The tequila shot with lime and salt is pure Hollywood and few people drink it that way. However, some people do put some lime juice in the tequila or take a bite from various citrus fruits before sipping it. Shooting it back for the pure reason to get hammered is regrettably what tequila has become renowned for over the years, but really that’s not what it’s all about.

Predominantly it’s the ‘Margarita’ cocktail that most people drink when they imbibing tequila, but it doesn’t have to be so. Personally I prefer it straight up. I have much the same feeling for most drinks. Why not enjoy it as it was intended instead of diluting it down?! If straight up is not to your palette’s taste then check out our very own ‘Margarita Recipe’.

Additional Cabo Wabo are trying to beef up the celebrations this year with the introduction of fiery cocktails. Seems a bit dumb to me to go burning all the alcohol off personally, let’s hope it doesn’t catch on.

¡Salud y’all!

Alright, it only pegged onto the US calendar, but are you really going to let that stop you!? America is slowly growing into a nation of tequila drinkers, especially in Florida, which lags behind only California and Texas in tequila consumption. A few years back I recall an article from ‘The Telegraph’ stating that in the UK it was set to be the next big thing. Regrettably this just never seemed…one day it will I’m sure.

The question on your lips is no doubt “how to celebrate the big day?”. Well ‘SILVER’ from our forums always is trying to push his ‘Killer Margartia Recipe’ so why not give that a go!

Here’s a recipe for a margarita. I warn my victims; only one, but it’s so good, they always ask for more. Poor souls!

4 oz. tequila (100% silver prefered, but, do your own thing)
1.5 oz Patrón Citronge
1.5 oz lime juice (fresh of course)
0.5 oz agave nectar

I like mine shaken with ice and poured in a large goblet, but, you can freeze it, you can shake it, you can stir it…….

Oh yes, shake it like a white boy!

Whatever you get up to we hope it’s a good one. ¡Salud!

With the increase in popularity of social networking it seemed that the next step would be to create a blog. Ideally the site should progress to a point that it would be easier for others to pitch in and add content rather than relying on me to do it all the time. I looked at both Joomla and Drupal to see if they would be useful but decided that the features that they offered where much more than was really required. WordPress seemed the logical choice. I’m aware that it’s mostly intended as a blogging platform, which I hope to use, but it does have it’s uses as a CMS.

Let’s see how it goes….welcome to TequilaTown v6