Tequila… chuck it down, chuck it up?

By Allan Swann

Most New Zealand bars these days have some kind of Tequila-esque plonk sitting on their shiny, mirrored top-shelf. Times have changed. Never in its history has Tequila been as popular and successful as it is right now, but many short-sighted bars stuck in the 90s shooter mindset are letting a sure-fire money-spinner go begging.

Auckland’s Mexican Café has been a local institution for 25 years, the definitive Mexican experience for tourists and local alike. Bruce Glover, proprietor, spent 2 years as head chef in the famous Café Pacifico in Amsterdam, Holland, one of the first Mexican restaurants in Europe. After opening a similar operation in Brazil with Elemaria, his Brazilian artist wife, he moved to New Zealand and opened the café with her in 1983. In 2005 the café expanded into Christchurch, where it has met with similar levels of success.

General manager Jeff Langford started out as an aircraft engineer before working as a ski instructor in the Austrian Alps; hardly the expected resume of a resident Tequila and Mexican food expert.

“In 1976 I was a ski instructor at a resort in Austria. A brother of one of my regular American clients owned Café Pacifico in Amsterdam, and thought I had what it took to work in the hospitality industry, he invited me to work there,” says Langford, “It was completely new, I knew nothing about Tequila, nothing about Mexican food, and nothing about the hospitality market. That’s where I met Bruce and he invited me to come down here in 1989.”

For Kiwi Tequila fans, there is no place that compares. Offering some 80-plus rare and expensive Tequilas all tightly integrated into the menu, the Mexican Café’s bartenders and waiters have been trained by Jeff to offer food matches much like wine sommeliers. Given that he’s been working with nothing but Mexican food and Tequila since 1980, and its safe to say he has a fair insight into the Tequila market.

“The emergence of Tequila worldwide is really started to come into its own in the last 20 odd years, when distilleries started to concentrate on producing top end Tequilas. These are drinks that are equivalent to single malt whiskeys or the finest cognacs. A lot of their ranges have expanded from the clear distillates to aged Tequila like anejo, which require a hell of a lot of care in their processing. As their product ranges have grown, we’ve managed to expand our range and get various bits and pieces of stock. We actually used to have people that would travel to the states and bring us back the rarer products,” says Langford.

As the profile of Tequila has risen, importers are bringing in a more complete range of Tequilas, making things a lot easier for local retailers. If a brand is picked up by a distributor, they “generally offer to bring in the full range, from entry level right through to the top of the range.”

The Mexican Café house Tequilas, El Jimador and Herradura come through Hancocks. The restaurant has been recognised as a Herradura embassy – one of the few in the world, according to Langford. He trains his staff to in turn educate the public about the merits of the drop, as well as running Tequila education classes called TREAT (Tequila Re-Education Appreciation Trust).

TREAT is a “deadly serious” class run for those who want to learn. Classes are limited to 20-25 people and consist of a four-course tequila-cooked dinner, matched with the appropriate drink. Patrons get the history lesson, learn distilling and serving techniques, and a tasting. TREAT is well regarded and is used as a training course for staff and even bartenders from other establishments.

“We do a lot of inhouse training here. We have been in talks about doing an industry TREAT, and I think Hancock’s are really keen on running it up here to broaden education and knowledge of Tequila within the industry as a whole. We’re going to be really quite happy to host that; it’s essentially what we do anyway,” chuckles Langford.

At its most basic the Mexican Café’s bar offers tastings, shots and sippers for curious members of the public, which come in ‘vertical’ or ‘horizontal’ flights – vertical will go up through a particular brands range, starting at the blanco’s (silver), then the reposado’s (rested) to the anejo’s (aged) and, if the customer can afford it, the Supremas. A ‘horizontal flight’ compares a single level of Tequila across different brands.

“Sadly, our business is still primarily in shots and cocktails – blasphemous! But once customers get into the upper ranges we offer proper tasting glasses. We encourage customers to swirl, sniff and enjoy the aromas, look for nuances; we basically operate it like a proper wine tasting. It’s great to see more people starting to sit there and sip away at it like a fine cognac.”