It’s hard to know what to make of just about any alcohol product that trades on the lingo of cannabis as a marketing strategy. With some, the association is clear—the major beer makers have been rushing for the last few years to get products to market that actually contain THC, wherever such a drink would be legal. But when you get past THC, and into the quasi-cannabis market of CBD, “terpenes” and beyond, it becomes especially hard to distinguish how much importance to place on that kind of marketing speak. Are cannabis consumers the intended marketplace? Or is the playing up of “terpenes” in a bottle of tequila just part of a broader, new age-y “health benefit” ideal?
I still don’t really know the answer, when it comes to the new El Sativo Tequila brand. What I can say is that this tequila, regardless of terpene content, is absolutely delicious. And that’s a pleasant surprise—no marketing gimmicks are necessary when at its core, a spirit is as good as this one. The quality simply speaks for itself.
El Sativo is a new brand that has quickly made waves among tequila fans, immediately winning two double gold awards in 2020—and that includes Tequila of the Year at the San Francisco Spirits World Competition, one of the most commonly cited award shows for spirits. Tasting it, I can see why—this is an extremely clean, friendly, flavorful tequila that excels at delivering a classic tequila profile.
El Sativo is distilled in the lowlands of Amatitán, Jalisco, by Tequilas Las Americas. It is a single estate, organic tequila made from agave on the distillery’s own estate, “harvested solely in our fields and never sourced,” which is how the company assures its organic certification. That agave is slowly steamed in small batch stone ovens, fermented with natural yeast, and blended with reverse osmosis water filtered through volcanic rock. The resulting tequila is bottled at the standard 40% ABV (80 proof), with an MSRP of $40-45. As far as I know, the brand only has a blanco tequila, and no aged (reposado or anejo) varieties as of yet.
The aromatic/flavor compounds of terpenes, meanwhile, are implied to be captured and maintained by some novel process that El Sativo does not fully explain. I inquired about this particular point, and received the following reply from El Sativo co-founder Dr. Robert Summers: “Our Compound Focused distillation process uses historical practices but improves it by targeting and maintaining specific beneficial elements in the agave. These terpenes are known to have mood lifting and energy boosting properties.”