Travel with Angela Lansbury: Tequila and Tonic Talk For Travellers

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Tequila and Tonic Talk For Travellers

Tequila is made from the blue agave plant which grows around the Mexican city of Tequila. Like Champagne and many other names of drink and food there are restrictions on who or where or what ingredients can be used to produce and put on the label of products using what is sold under that name, although different copanies can also trademark brand anames for their company's production, or quality using different amounts of the local plant or product.

The Blue Agave Plant

Tequila has to be made from the blue agave plant.

Blue Agave plant.

It reminds me of the aloe vera I used to grow on the balcony of the last place I lived in Singapore. Long leaves with a sharp point. Fleshy inside. The agave fans out like a fan shaped palm. It grows in Mexico and the Caribbean.

It would be the drink to try in Mexico. But you don't have to travel all that way to try it.

BCB London

I tried it at the BCB bar and beverage trade show in July at Tobacco Docks in Eaast London. The next event in the UK is next July. Others are held in Berlin and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

You can buy it online at amazon.co.uk and numeraout other online suppliers and physical supermarkets in the UK and worldwide.

I reseaarched online to see how you drink it. Like many other spirits, it is strong, high alcohol content. So you don't drink it neat but add something else. A popular spirit drink is gin and tonic. You can do the same mix with tequila, the nicely alliterative and memorable tequla and tonic.

I than researched tonic, good or bad. Tonic was originally drunk for a good, medicinal reason, against malaria, (prevention or cure?) . However, like any drug, you must know the dosage and not overdo it. For me tequila would be drunk only as part of a cocktail and only once a week, on one day, or evening, such as Saturday, or sometimes Sunday.

Obviously, if you are running a bar, restaurant, or events, you are serving it to others on a daily basis. The recipe which popped up online when I serached was easy to remember, 2 oz of tequila, 6 of tonic. Garnich with a slice of orange. For fun, on festive occasions, I like a cocktail to have a teeny paper parasol.

For Non Drinkers

To me one of the advantages of the orange slice or umbrella is that a non-drinkers drink resemblers the alcoholic drink. Crating a shared experience.

I have a grand-daughter aged four who wants to drink what we are drinking. So we give her a glass of water or juice with a little decorative paper umbrella and she is very happy. Giggles all around.

You don't have to travel to Mexico to drink Tequila. You can buy it in the UK from Amazon.co.uk or from off licenses.

What is an off license?

I remember as a teenager being puzzled when my father spoke about buying drinks from an off license.

An off license has a license to sell sealed bottles and cans of drinks off the premises, essentially a shop, not a place where staff have to be trained how to serve alcohol. You might describe it as a bottle shop.

Spelling license and licence

In British English the verb is spelled with an s, the same as the Americans, but the noun in spelled licence, using the C twice. Linguistis would notice that tonic ends with an ick sounnd, rhyming with brick. Adding the letter e after c makes the soft s sound.

Tonic

The tonic added to tequila has the benefit of making the sstrong drink drainkable, and a longer drink. Why bother with the proportions? Surely more tonic is better? No. Why? Because too much tonic dilutes not just the alcohol but also the flavour. A customer or guest might think they had been cheated, or that the server was ignorant, or running out of alcohol.

Tonic can contain sweetener which could be bad for your health (e.g. diabetes) or affect your weight loss diet.

So, the more you know, the more you can get the drink just right for the drinker. And plenty to discuss over your drinks and food.

Whilst listening to the original recording of the song Tequila by band, The Champs. And numerous other songs about Tequila.