Although tequila has been besmirched by strip-mall-restaurant marketing and shrouded in faux yuppie mythology involving worms, its true history is loosely tied to the Aztecs, arguably making it the first spirit distilled in the Western Hemisphere.

mescal - once known as tequila's Everclear equivalent, but now more often viewed as its equal.

There are four types of tequila or mescal: white or silver, gold, reposado, and añejo. The white is bottled directly after the second distillation process and is the least refined. Gold tequila or mescal is the white type with caramel added. Reposado and añejo are aged in oak barrels. Añejo is the premium tequila or mescal, because it's aged for more than one year.

Often a fine tequila is remembered by how much of an ass you make of yourself at the bar, rather than by its distinct flavor. There are many brands of tequila and mescal, and we suggest you experiment.

A good sign that you're drinking a quality tequila is that the next morning, you still view the maguey plant better than did J. F. Elton, an Englishman who followed the French armies around Mexico with his diary during the 1860s: "The eternal maguey ... from which is extracted a white, milky juice, and when fermented, the wine of the country. One cannot walk but a few yards without coming across this plant. I feel sure that it will be a very long time before I shall ever be able to contemplate calmly this last production of the vegetable kingdom without at least suffering from a partial loss of temper."