Flavored tequila isn't expected to be a big hit in Mexico.
		By Guillermo Arias, AP

Mexican authorities are working at two levels — to shut out the imitators, while at the same time legalize flavored varieties, at the risk of enraging the purists. Watermelon flavor? In a globalized world, it seems, anything goes.

The problems started in the 1990s when tequila's popularity soared, creating a scarcity of its source, the agave plant. Agave prices soared by 1,600%, tequila production dropped by about a quarter, and the price of a good tequila shot above $20 per bottle.

So began the agave rush. Mexican farmers planted so many that prices are falling again, threatening a tequila glut in about three years.

Now the Tequila Regulatory Council has proposed following vodka's example and allowing flavoring — though not in the pure, 100% agave variety, only in the lesser blends.

Flavoring isn't expected to be a big hit in Mexico.

"The consumer here is very demanding and very traditionalist," said Alberto Becharano of the Tequilas de La Donas distillery.

But Dave McQueen's Nevada-based Tukys company plans to start selling five flavors of tequila — watermelon, lime, coffee, strawberry and orange — in the United States this year.

"The only ones who don't like it are the Mexicans," he said.

Taste tests in the United States indicate the flavored products like watermelon margaritas are a hit among women aged 21 to 35.

That demographic has even mainline bottlers interested.

"We see this as a business opportunity," said Cristobal Mariscal, external affairs director for Jose Cuervo, one of the largest tequila makers.

Mariscal, however, refused to confirm whether Cuervo is working on a flavor line.

While the flavored tequilas may soak up part of the agave glut, there is a bigger problem: thousands of farmers who grow agave in states that fall outside tequila's 1997 domain-area law.

During the agave shortage, these farmers began producing new, cheaper drinks with made-up names like "distilled agave" or "elixir of agave."

The Tequila Regulatory Council has now asked the government to crack down on the near-tequilas and plans a poster campaign urging consumers to buy only the real thing.

Elitist? Not at all, insisted Ramon Gonzalez, the council's director.

"We're going to have products for every social class," he pledged. "We're not going to abandon the common man here in Mexico, because that's where tequila's roots are."

But makers of near-tequila "are using symbols and terms that refer to tequila, like '100 percent agave' and 'reposado' (aged) and we feel they are deceiving the public," he said.

"If you ask anybody about agave, they think tequila. But these drinks have nothing to do with tequila."

Becharano insisted there's no difference.

"I can tell a lot of things about a tequila from tasting it," said Becharano, "but I can't distinguish where the agave was grown, and I don't think there are many people who can."

His company makes a smooth, 100% agave liquor from plants grown outside the domain area, and a "destilado," a 51-percent agave drink. Becharano acknowledged the new breed of products should be regulated, but said overprotection would hurt farmers from non-tequila regions.

Jose Cuervo's Mariscal suggested the new agave drinks could be identified as mescal.

But Becharano noted that mescal has an overpowering taste which has prevented it from gaining much popularity outside Mexico; nor has the marketing gimmick of putting a worm in the bottle helped it much.

At any rate, most destilados stay in Mexico, aimed at a market that cannot afford tequila.

Some are of such dubious quality they are believed to be crudely blended in plastic basins in private homes. One such bottler — who had no listed number — gave his product a name apparently intended to match the liquor's effects: "Vertigo."