Tequila taste buds in Asia(1)

By Ian Williams 2011-9-4 16:00:41

Across the world, luxury goods producers are looking to the growing middle classes of Asia to expand their sales and Mexico's tequila producers are no exception.

China is second only to the United States for sales of Mercedes, Jaguars, Land Rovers and similar up-market cars while branded luxury bags, shoes and similar affluent appurtenances are selling so well that many of their makers are listing on the Hong Kong Exchange to tap local enthusiasm.

Trimming leaves off an agave.

In India, the growing middle classes has completely recovered from Gandhian abstinence and Nehruvian import restrictions and is trying the riches of the world's liquor baskets, while across Asia

fine wines, cognacs and Scotches - and now premium tequilas - are rattling off the shelves.
Coming to Asia in a variety of distinctive bottles, tequila has a distinctive floral aroma and its palate contrasts sweetness with a hint of white pepper. Twenty years ago, it was a drink that at best helped make margaritas and gave bad heads and stomachs to spring-breakers, but it has been moving steadily up-market.

A Jimador, or harvester, trims plants at the Cuervo plantation.

International connoisseurs now sip it like a fine cognac or single malt scotch - and pay similar tabs for the privilege. globally, during the recession, premium tequila sales soared, even the crisis-ridden US rising by 28% from 2009 to 2010. In some markets the growth is almost unbelievable - for example 76.7% in Canada and 46% in Russia. Interestingly, Cuervo's Mark Bayardo points "in the Russian market, women on the whole drink three times more tequila than men." They are looking for a chic, exotic drink that's not vodka.

It is not surprising that most tequila companies have their sights set on Asia. They have been selling in Japan and Korea for a long time and are working on India and China. Salvador Alvarez, managing director for Casa Herradura, points out that the US accounts for 50% of the global market for tequila and Mexico for 35%, which leaves only 15% for the rest of the world.

Cutting up agave pods for the ovens.

"That tells you how much of an opportunity we have, just growing the rest of the world as an example. We have an operation in China, which is actually one of our premier operations in Asia, and obviously we're looking at the size of the markets and the opportunities in Asia to drive that going forward" - and in the interests of tradition he points to their home hacienda - a key element of the tequila tradition, "It's the best example you can see in Mexico of a real hacienda that dates back to that era."

But what is a luxury brand? In general, de luxe brands with a future need a history. They also need a high input of skill and art over a long period - and they are more desirable if made somewhere far away. Even the exceptions prove the rule: vodka-come-lately Grey Goose covered its otherwise unexceptional ethanol and water formula with a patina of French refinement and implied historicity, riding on the coat-tails of centuries of cognac, champagne and wine production.

Ranks of blue agave at Casa Herradura.

The premium tequilas have all that it takes for a luxury brand - a distinctive locally based product involving a lot of hands on skilled labor, and a history going back before the Spanish Conquest. Those do not have a historic hacienda, tend to build one that looks as if it were there for centuries.

Tequila is made from just one of the several hundred varieties of agave plant that evolved in Mexico. For the Aztecs, agave had its own goddess, Mayahuel. She provided food, clothes, paper, thatching, building materials - and drink. She is shown as having 400 breasts, to feed her 400 rabbit children - rabbits symbolizing fertility and drunkenness. Before the conquest they used it to ferment pulque, a drink they reserved for nobles, pregnant women , priests - and their sacrificial victims.

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From www.atimes.com