How Do You Make a Tequila Smooth?

Watch a new tequila drinker take a sip in a bar.

Nobody holds the glass up to the light. Nobody swirls, sniffs, and takes notes while a '90s rock song plays overhead. They sip. About two seconds later, their face gives the verdict: a wince, a look of surprise, or a smile, suggests Jaime Villalobos Sauza.

He’s master distiller for Dos Ángeles Caídos, Entremanos, Cachasol and other brands, and he knows the power of “smooth”. In fact, in new research from The Tequila Report, more than half of all tequila drinkers use that exact word - smooth - to describe their favorite tequila. And that’s partially because drinkers are making assessments in an instant.

"In two seconds, there is not enough time to analyze the visual, olfactory, gustatory, or retronasal aspects of a tequila, but it is enough to define a tactile sensation of smoothness or burning," he says. "This is why, for the vast majority of consumers, the sense of touch will represent the most important sense when drinking a spirit."

Sauza is one of four master distillers who we asked to answer one question: how do tequila makers create a smooth tequila?

The other three are Sergio Cruz, who makes more of our Top 150 brands than anyone else; Oscar Vázquez, master distiller for Manuscrito and Corrido and master blender for Tierra de Ensueño; and Iliana Partida, who runs the Hacienda de Oro distillery and makes Elevación 1250, 4 Copas, and Quintaliza there, along with her own brands, Hacienda de Oro and Amatitense.

Their answers fall into two groups: ways to smooth out a tequila after it is distilled, and ways to make it smooth from the start.

Sauza points to the trigeminal nerve, which carries sensations of texture, temperature, freshness, irritation, and burning. "This nerve is responsible for sending information to the brain about 'how the tequila feels' in the mouth, independently of its aromas and flavors," he says.

That means a tequila can taste wonderful and still feel harsh.

Texture is part of it. Sauza suggests a quick test. Swirl water in a glass and it runs down the sides thin and fast. Swirl oil and it clings. "When we perform the same exercise with tequila, we can distinguish that its behavior is neither watery nor oily, but rather somewhere in between," he says. Much of that body comes from glycerol, a compound yeast produces during fermentation.

Burn is the other part. Less burn, more body, and most drinkers will call it smooth.

Yes, these are corrective actions because they adjust the finished spirit.

Lower the proof. Tequila sold in the United States must be bottled at 40% ABV or higher. In Mexico, the floor is 35%. "By reducing the alcohol percentage, the alcoholic impact is reduced," Sauza says. So are the more complex sensations that come with it.

Filter it. Most tequila passes through some kind of filter before bottling. A finer filter catches more.

"One way is filtration with a finer micron rating, powdered cellulose, for example," Cruz says, (translated from Spanish). "What that does is reduce the amount of oils, so the tequila seems very liquid, and it comes across as smooth." He lists cellulose, charcoal, and volcanic stone as filtering options. Charcoal is the same tool that strips the color from cristalino.

Vázquez describes a different method: filtering the tequila cold. "Some tequila brands use chill filtration to make the tequila 'smoother,'" he says. "Filtering cold is an aggressive process, and many of the big tequila producers do it."

Add air. The harsher sensations come mainly from "higher alcohols, aldehydes, and other volatile compounds," Sauza says. Pump air into the bottom of the tank and some of those compounds escape as the air rises through the tequila. Cruz tests this aeration and oxygenation first on 1 liter in the lab, then scales up to the whole batch. And in fact, many highly-rated tequilas use some form of aeration.

Add glycerin. Tequila regulations allow producers to add small amounts of glycerin, among other permitted additives. Sauza says the purpose is "increasing its texture and, consequently, its perceived smoothness."

No. Partida says filtration can take out more than the burn. "Excessive filtration may simply make the tequila more 'neutral' rather than smoother," she says.

Once flavor is gone, some producers put something back. "That's where additives can come into play: either to 'cover up' undesirable flavors or to add flavor back to a tequila that has already become too neutral," Partida says. "They can also help maintain consistency, which was one of the main reasons additives were allowed in the first place."

In the field.

Jimadores harvest agave by cutting away the long leaves, called pencas, down to the heart. The cogollo is the bud at the center, where new leaves grow.

"We should emphasize the importance of properly trimming the pencas and cogollo from the agave to avoid bitterness, as well as avoiding overly aggressive extraction," Partida says. Extraction is how the sugar gets pulled from the cooked agave. Squeeze too hard and more than sugar comes out.

"At every step of the process, you can either make the right choices to achieve a balanced profile or introduce bitterness and other undesirable characteristics," she says.

As tequila comes off the still, it arrives in three parts. The heads come first, sharp and solvent-like. The tails come last, heavy and often bitter. The hearts sit in the middle, and they are what most tequila is made from. The distiller decides where each part begins and ends. Those decisions are the cuts.

"The most important example of this is, without a doubt, the cutting of heads and tails," Sauza says. He watches the alcohol percentage change during the run to decide where to cut. "By maintaining a tequila body that is less 'head-heavy' or 'tail-heavy,' we will achieve greater smoothness on the palate."

Vázquez agrees. "We can also adjust our timing and cuts during distillation to change the flavors, aromas, and complexity," he says.

Cruz goes a step further. A distiller can cut later in the run and keep more of the spirit, "just taking care that your tails aren't too bitter or too acidic," he says. Pair that with filtration and you keep more body while trimming the oils that come with it.

Most tequila is distilled twice. A few producers add a third distillation, which Sauza says delivers "great texture at the expense of lower aromatic and gustatory complexity."

It can, and it comes with a trade-off.

"We can also make 'smoother' tequilas during fermentation, for example by using a yeast that doesn't create as much complexity," Vázquez says.

Sauza says different yeasts produce different concentrations of compounds, and "as a consequence, we will have tequilas that are smoother or more complex." His summary is short: "The right yeast for the desired result."

In our fermentation feature, he described natural fermentation as a symphony of many yeasts, built for complexity. Smooth and complex often pull in opposite directions. The distiller picks one.

Yes, in two different ways.

The first is rest. Also called stabilization, this is not aging, because it doesn’t happen in wood but rather in stainless steel. It gives freshly distilled tequila time to settle before bottling.

"I would also mention the importance of giving the tequila enough time to stabilize," Partida says. "The type of vessel in which this stabilization takes place can also contribute, or not, to a softer perception of alcohol."

The second is barrel aging. Sauza points to xylose, a natural sugar tequila picks up from the oak.

"As tequila remains in the barrel for a longer period of time, it gains a higher concentration of xylose and, consequently, becomes sweeter and easier to drink," he says.

That sweetness is taste, not touch. It still is perceived as smooth to a lot of people, and barrel history shapes how much of it shows up.

Smooth is how a tequila feels in your mouth in the first two seconds. Less burn and more body, sometimes with sweetness from oak.

Distillers can create it after the fact by filtering, aerating, lowering the proof, or adding glycerin. Every one of those fixes works by removing or masking something. The distillers here keep coming back to the earlier choices that leave less to fix: clean trimming, gentle extraction, the right yeast, and careful cuts.

That is how our list of 55 excellent smooth tequilas was built. Most of the bottles on it are blancos, which have no oak to hide behind.

Sergio Cruz is maestro tequilero at Vivanco y Asociados (NOM 1414) in Arandas, in the Highlands, and master distiller for Tierra de Ensueño (NOM 1580). Read more about him in our recent feature on the man who makes 16 of our Top 150 tequila brands.

Oscar Vázquez is master distiller for Manuscrito (NOM 1643) and Corrido (NOM 1412), among others, and master blender for Tierra de Ensueño.

Iliana Partida is the head of Hacienda de Oro (NOM 1522) in Amatitán, in the Valley, where she makes Elevación 1250, 4 Copas, and Quintaliza among others, along with her own brands, Hacienda de Oro and Amatitense. Hear more from her in our conversation about the moment she almost quit tequila.

Jaime Villalobos Sauza is master distiller for Dos Ángeles Caídos, Entremanos, Cachasol, and Suave, among others, all made at Hacienda de Oro. See our feature on fermentation, featuring Sauza.

Alma del Jaguar, made by Cruz, and Tierra de Ensueño, distilled by Cruz and blended by Vázquez, are presenting partners of The Tequila Report.