Beijing Boyce

My tequila shooting life is largely limited to senors Jose Cuervo and Pepe Lopez, accompanied by their amigos lemon and salt. It was an eye-opener when Frank Siegel of John Bull Pub hosted a tasting with more than a dozen brands. I sipped my way through 17 of them, with every (partial) shot taken straight up and warm. Amazingly, even a novice like me could detect differences in acidity and sweetness, and some tasted of oak, some left a nice slow burn on the palate, and some made you want to hack up a hairball.

A Mexican trade promotion rep provided a tequila primer — the drink is made from blue agave plants, it can be labeled as tequila if it contains at least 51% agave (go for 100% brands unless you want mystery alcohol), and aged tequilas are yellow due to storage in barrels, although cheaper brands cheat by using food coloring. With a dozen visiting reps from Mexican distilleries on hand, the event was fun, educational and surprisingly sobering. The drinks and buffet of tacos, burritos, rice, nachos and salsa were RMB120 — a tremendous value. Frank, who opened the city’s first non-hotel bar (see Five Questions for Frank below), is now serving Mexican fare every Wednesday.

(From Beijing Boyce II, first emailed on October 20, 2005)