What can imitate tequila?

[The Frederick]

I'd like to make some tequila, but the blue agave is only grown in Mexico, AFAIK. Is there any fruit or vegetable that can be used for an imitation tequila?

[sparky marky]

Onions.
Google search HD for tequila and onions. Somebody has a thread about it

[Dnderhead]

na they did not work ,,you could try sun chokes,i thank some one was trying but i dont remember a follow up.

[Kentucky shinner]

The only way I know to imitate tequila is a BAD HANGOVER LOL

[Bushman]

I did about 1/2 hour search and other than purchase a blue agave plant the only thing I could come up with is essences but you will never get top tequila from essences (my opinion). Also people have purchased the plant from ebay and other online stores but it sounds like it takes a long time to grow and of course you need the right climate. If you do find a good recipe my wife loves tequila and I would like a copy! I did find a site on preparing the plant for fermentation sounds like it would be fun to try.

[The Frederick]

That's a shame. Might need to find another project then, I'm going to try brown sugar rum next.

[junkyard dawg]

You don't have to have Blue agave to make a 'tequila' type drink. Many types of agave are fermented and called mezcal. These sometimes get the reputation as rotgut, but there are some fine mezcals out there. Most of the good ones are only available in mexico tho... Another option is to use sotol. I think sotol may be a little more common than agave in much of the southern US. Hacienda de Chihuahua makes a sotol likker that is sold around Texas. It is awesome and rivals some of the more expensive tequila.

Those are two options that are similar to the taste of tequila. Don't give up on making this... just be patient and you will eventually find an agave or sotol that is suitable. Just gotta keep your eyes open for them.

[The Frederick]

I'm from Australia. I'd be astounded if I could find any type of agave.

[mash rookie]

This the Holy Grail elusive recipe. I am hopeful that we can find a way to 'mimic" the flavor of tequila. Being from the NW there are not a lot of cactus plants to play with. I have read hundreds of threads going back years looking for clues.

I think it will be a combination of unusual ferments and or flavorings that will eventually get us there.
While most posts say that they had little or no luck using Agave syrup some noted "some success" No, onions are out.

One poster said he had fermented Lemonade that tasted like Tequila. He did not back that up though. I think the PH might give problems there.

In an earlier post I said I was going to try Agave syrup and garbanzo beans. I will.

I want to try fermenting artichokes. Not because they are related to Agave but because they remind me of it.

Heck anything is worth a try at this time. We need to start experimenting. A Tequila challenge.

Who ever solves this will be imortalized forever in Tried and True !

[DAD300]

There have been several posts about sweet potatoes coming close. Seems roasting the sweet potatoes to a caramel state releases a smell close to the roasted agave.

At the right time of year I can get second grade SP's for about 10 cents a pound. Just waiting to try...

[j1gsaw]

Maretai organics in Brisbane mate, sell blue agave, its great stuff, all 100% blue weber, dark and clear etc, i just bought a big drum, and have a couple of wash down, im looking forward to running them. They sell in small bottles up to massive drums etc. Unfortunately they dont miss us $$$ wise in Aus.

[goaler29]

Im not sure where you are, but in grocery stores around me (in indiana and illinois) they sell agave nectar, and agave syrup from the blue agave plants. I have seen them in the 1lb and lower quantities. If you want more quantity you can check Gordon Food Service or Sams Club, they may have bigger volumes.

[junkyard dawg]

yes, but agave nectar alone is not going to make something that tastes like tequila. Ya gotta have the plant...

[Dnderhead]

or very little as the impuritys that give the flavor to many drinks.and these have or most have been removed.

[jason_sp8d]

I wonder if you could use yucca. Its the same subfamily as agave and its edible. Its seems to grow fairly quickly also. When i looked up agave, yucca was the first thing it reminded me of

[BrooklynTech]

I'm from Australia. I'd be astounded if I could find any type of agave.

I bet there are cactus and suculent growers in your drier regions that grow agaves.

[Kifi]

I tried making tequila once with $70 worth of 100% blue agave syrup - about a gallon - from the health food store (you can pretty much forget trying to acquire and kiln an agave in Canada). No sugar added to the wash, EC1118, then a double distillation in a Mile Hi 8 gallon pot, 80%-60% cuts.

I let it breathe for a while, but decided initially that it didn't smell or taste much like tequila - more of an agave whiskey than anything else. Left it on a few cubes of medium toasted oak (no idea what prompted me to oak it) for 18 months and forgot about it. Today I went downstairs and smelled it, and decided it wasn't a complete failure IF it's mixed AND if you've already had a few. It's KINDA like tequila. But for $70, you might be better to buy some Don Julio.....

[Fourway]

I once bought a bottle of very cheap 5 year old single malt scotch. Screw top.
It was so inexpensive that I just had to know.
Drumguish I think it was called.
When you tasted it, if you were expecting single malt you'd do a spit take. Shockingly bad.
But if you poured some in a glass and told someone it was tequila and didn't let them see the bottle they wouldn't blink.
Stuff could totally pass as tequila... had that same high reedy tannic front end and beach sand finish people associate with tequila and mescal.

I've had hot weather ferments of various things come out with some tequila-like notes.
I think the secret to getting a tequila flavor is not so much in what you use as how you use it.
Very hot fast ferment to low abv, kill the yeast in the still, look for the tequila nose in your cuts and cut to favor them, put it in those rasty mexican barrels that I suspect are made out of used office furniture, and age it somewhere sweltering.

Tequila is fermented whole pulp in open vats to something like %3 and dumped in the still fizzing.
That's where you start... probably wouldn't matter if you were using barley, sweet potatoes, expired cap'n crunch or left over wedding cake.

[junkyard dawg]

probably wouldn't matter if you were using barley, sweet potatoes, expired cap'n crunch or left over wedding cake.

I think you are onto something with the temperature of the ferment and ageing. But the roasted agave is the key to the flavor. Roasted and fermented wedding cake likkers always come out with notes of bridesmaids armpit sweat. I don't really care for that at all...

@ jason... yucca and agave taste very different. Yucca is closer to a potato... agave is like a spoiled potato...

very unique...

But I think sotol is where its at.

[johnny108]

Prickley pear cactus is pretty common (and fast growing) in the US- it's supposed to be edible. It might also have enough sugar to ferment....(or you could sugar it.)
Hmm- Blue agave is a succlulent, not a cactus. Are there any edible succulents that produce a lot of sugars that are easier to find?
Tequila is made by converting the starch in the plant with indirect heating, mezcal is made by roasting/smoking the plant to convert the sugar- giving mezcal a smoky flavor. Kind of the same as a malt vs. a peated malt whiskey.

[junkyard dawg]

Prickley pear is not at all the same. It is pretty good cooked with a lot of garlic, onions and chiles and tomato. Eat it with carne asada... or scrambled with eggs.

[EscarpmentDew]

I was going to mention the agave syrup before reading the posts. I was thinking if you bought an aloe plant you might get something interesting by doing a starch conversion. Maybe even add agave syrup for a base flavour. Aloes are easy to buy and grow and they have health benefits too.

Also, just an observation, I substituted blue agave syrup for my honey lager recipe and found the syrup had a malty flavour which resulted in a normal tasting lager. You could try experimenting with those malt extract kits instead of expensive agave syrup.

[retlaw]

i did an big mistake once that turned out some tequila flavouring,
so it didn't end up being a mistake after all, more like a learning experience,

i made my own birch charcoal and put it in a batch of spirits to try to use it as a filter like charcoal that Russian vodka uses,

i always try to make everything not only spirits but everything with the purest ingredients as close to nature as possible to try to imitate what mother nature intended us to consume, no man made crap if possible,(inferior to our our creator)

i left it in there for far to long and it tasted like campfire,
birch is one of those trees that has a lot of sugar in it,
you can make birch syrup for the tree water in spring,
i think i left it in there for several months to a year, can't remember exactly when it happened it was like five years ago,

any way i threw some water purifier charcoal in their and it cleaned it up nice after a year or so and it left it with this great flavour with a hint of smoke and loads of body,

so i am thinking that if you what a natural cheap flavouring result without waiting until your dog dies try burning up some birch wood until charred and putting it in the spirits, taste it daily, or even just put it in there for a few minutes and screen it,

this is not a 100% tequila imitation, it just might be a simple trick to get you closer to the end result you are looking for,

never know,

i going to give her a try tomorrow myself because, nothing beats a good tequila,

[mjstorm]

Under the information from the European forums of moonshiners,
hope of the best imitation of tequila assign on Jerusalem artichoke(Heliánthus tuberósus).
Also connect this hope with inulin, special enzyme which is present both in Jerusalem artichoke and at an agave.
At certain temperature it saccharify starch and a cellulose of these plants. Then do fermentation.
It is necessary to notice that opinions on similarity of a drink from Jerusalem artichoke on tequila strongly differ:
one write very similar, others - is completely not similar..........
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/ht ... n.pl?27946" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[moons]

Try aloe plant looks the same as what they make tequila from the leaves have a sweet taste. The make a aloe drink sold at some big box stores and small mom and pop shops (i found it at a little mexican store). you may know it as a cure for sun burn also known as loe vera. I have a small plant from home depot i wanna say...my 2cents

[junkyard dawg]

no...

Aloe is not like agave at all.

Aside from having a similar profile, they have nothing in common.

Aloe will not imitate tequila...

Go agave or go home.

[EscarpmentDew]

no...

Aloe is not like agave at all.

Aside from having a similar profile, they have nothing in common.

Aloe will not imitate tequila...

Go agave or go home.

This is the point of the thread. I can't buy unrefined blue agave in my area that I know of.

Anyways, there is a combination out there that will work. I personally am going to try getting some pure aloe puree from a health food store, then give it a taste and imagine I know what blue agave should taste like. I think it would be a good idea to boil the aloe for a bit for a slight roast flavour and I'm also debating infusing it will some bitter hops to see what I end up with.

[moons]

no...

Aloe is not like agave at all.

Aside from having a similar profile, they have nothing in common.

Aloe will not imitate tequila...

Go agave or go home.

Sorry didn't know they were that different; it would still be a different recipe

[junkyard dawg]

Anyways, there is a combination out there that will work.

I don't think so.

There are many varieties of sotol and agave, but I don't think there is anything out there that is going to imitate it. The whole process is unique to agave. Its a unique plant, put thru some unique processing and distilled into a unique drink. I don't think there is a shortcut...

[rad14701]

Scientists have been searching for an artificial agave but haven't found one yet... If you can't get agave syrup locally then order it online... You should be able to find multiple sources without much trouble...