Alcademics: The five best drink books of 2023
This year I read more than 40 books, mostly about drinks…What I want out of drink books is new information or information presented in a new way. I don’t need cocktail recipes so recipe books only really appeal to me when they present new techniques. The title and cover copy of A Field Guide to Tequila: What It Is, Where It’s From, and How to Taste It really undersell it: This is the tequila book the world needs. About half the book is about the production of tequila and the historical circumstances and sometimes-ridiculous regulations that lead to it being made that way. Tequila is a moving target in many ways, but Szczech has done a great job at nailing the parameters that make it what it is, along with highlighting some of the largest and most traditional players in the category. This is now the first book I recommend about the category.
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Camper English
Wine EnthusiasT
In his 2023 book A Field Guide to Tequila, spirits expert and Jalisco resident Clayton Szczech confirms that Riedel’s Overture is a taster’s best bet for unlocking all there is to experience in a fine tequila. But he was quick to note that the qualities Riedel described—space for the nose, a long side of the glass and the elegance of a stem—can also be found in a standard Champagne flute. When he ran a tequila tasting room in Jalisco from 2016 to 2019, Szczech told me that it was Overtures behind the bar, but Champagne flutes for table service.
“If you can afford it and feel the need to go to the top, the Overtures have clear benefits,” he told me. “But for most of us, most of the time, a standard flute will do nearly all the same work.”
Szczech described how the current tequila tasting trend draws some of its language and custom from …
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Aaron Britt
Cocktails DistilleD
Szczech, who has written and taught about Mexican alcoholic beverages since 2006, has taken a complicated topic and broken it down into four easy-to-digest sections that cover everything from the making to the experiencing and the sustaining of Tequila…Want to hold a tasting? Szczech has tips for that, too – on everything from the flavour wheel and how to keep track of tasting notes to proper glassware and the correct pour. All of this leads up to the holy grail …. how to choose a tequila. ”There are plenty of wrong ways to taste tequila, and really only one way to taste tequila properly”.
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Tiff Christie
The Alcohol Profesor:Boozy
Book Reviews
A Field Guide to Tequila by long-time Mexican resident and tour operator Clayton Szczech tackles tequila on a level of detail not yet seen in other works…The author doesn’t shy away from controversies within the tequila category, from the commerce-driven nature of the convoluted Denomination of Origin to the lack of biodiversity of blue agave to the industrial processes like diffusers and additives used to make it.
Though I thought I knew the regulations of tequila backwards and forwards, I learned…
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Though I thought I knew the regulations of tequila backwards and forwards, I learned…
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Camper English
Tequila List:
Review
A Field Guide to Tequila is excactly what the name describes – it is a thorough, well-written introduction to most things tequila! And THAT is what I absolutely love about this book! The history chapters are good and well-informed and, for the first time, I have read a proper (and exciting) article about why Tamaulipas became part of the DOT!
When you take an interest in tequila, you will soon be confused about the acronyms. DOT, CRT, NOM… Fortunately this book…
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Bjørn Smalbro
SBI:A Tequila Guide for Both Newbies and Nerds
Clayton Szczech was sitting shotgun on tequila’s rocket ship ride from regional treat to global phenomenon over the past two decades. Fifteen years ago, he founded a tour company called Experience Agave, became a full-time resident of Mexico three years later, and now lives in Puerto Vallarta, where he’s researching another agave-based spirit called raicilla as part of his Ph.D. program at the University of Utah.
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Matt Kettmann