One plant, one region, one rulebook — and a spirit most people only know as a burning shot. This course teaches you to read a tequila's structure and trace it back to its cause: the aging, the production choices, the origin, and the rules that permit more than buyers assume. Your progress across all seven files is tracked below.
0 of 20 sessions complete
Progress can't be saved in this view. Open the files in your browser (or your hosted site) to keep scores and completion.
Twenty sessions, roughly 40 minutes each. Do them in order — the category map assumes the production block, and the whole course builds on the six-axis instrument from Session 1. Each session has a tasting tool, a short "do this now" step, a quiz, and flashcards. Progress saves in your browser per session.
The honest caveat — the one thing this can't give you
Tequila is a spirit you must taste to learn, and no course can supply the bottle or the reps. Treat the reading as the map and the glass in front of you as the territory. Taste 100% agave, use a proper glass, and — this should go without saying — drink responsibly.
The spine of it all — character vs efficiency
Every production step forks the same way: keep character (slow ovens, tahona, wild yeast, pot stills) or maximize efficiency (autoclaves/diffusers, mills, cultured yeast, column stills). An industrial spirit makes the efficiency choice and rebuilds flavor with additives. Read a tequila by asking which fork it took — and remember cooked agave is the soul; its absence is the warning sign.
Two things are changing right now — verify before relying
Sessions 6 and 13 cover the live controversies: the diffuser (legal, unlabeled, widespread, hotly debated) and the additive-free fight (the CRT restricted "additive-free" labeling in 2024 and took legal action against independent certifiers in 2025). What's sayable, certifiable, and verifiable keeps shifting — check current, independent sources rather than trusting a seal or a memory. Labels won't fully tell you; lean on distillery reputation, the NOM, and your own palate.
"100% agave" ≠ additive-free · color ≠ age
Two traps worth carrying everywhere: a "100% agave" tequila can still legally contain up to ~1% undisclosed additives, and a deep golden color can be caramel coloring rather than barrel time. Judge by flavor and finish, not by the label's promises or the liquid's tint.
After the course — the outward door to mezcal
All tequila is technically a mezcal — an agave spirit — just a specific, heavily-regulated one. Once you can read tequila, the same instrument and structure-first habit carry straight into a much larger world:
Mezcal — dozens of agave species, often pit-roasted for smoky, wild, hugely varied character (notably from Oaxaca). The obvious next journey.
Other agave spirits — raicilla, bacanora, and the adjacent sotol; each a regional rabbit hole.
Go deep on one thing — one distillery's full range, one region (highland vs lowland), or one production style, until it's second nature.
Keep a journal — bottle, NOM, category, process (where known), and the six-axis reading. Notes are what turn tasting into a trained palate.