Rabbi Abraham Srugo comes from an Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish tradition. That means, among many other important religious habits, eating kosher food. Kosher, briefly, is food that has been prepared in keeping with the complicated network of Halakhic laws, based in parts on Leviticus, the Talmud, and Rabbinic law. A large part of the focus of kosher is on eating “clean” food as it has been perceived by Jewish authorities over the course of thousands of years. Major violations of kosher include eating animals not slaughtered to specification, mixing meats with dairy, and consuming seafood that lacks fins and scales.
Srugo lived for a brief time in Mexico City where his father was a Rabbi 30 years ago. “I remember at that time there was nothing. There was no kosher,” Srugo recalls of the Mexican Jewish community there.
Over the years, a few intrepid Mexican rabbis pushed for kosher food and, slowly, they convinced a few suppliers to get kosher certification for dairy products, pareve (non-meat/dairy) and even some meats.
There are hundreds of kosher certifying agencies worldwide. If a food manufacturer wishes to tap into the kosher market, it must contract one of these agencies. The agency sends a rabbi, or in some cases a team of rabbis, to audit the new client’s suppliers and preparation processes and advise them on how to reach compliance with Jewish food preparation laws. If everything is in order, the rabbi in charge certifies the client’s product as kosher, and they are allowed to carry a kosher certified mark, called a hechsher, on their package.
Mexico, with fewer than 50,000 Jews nationwide, does not have a vast network of Orthodox rabbis working to check and certify a large variety of foods as in more Jewish countries such as the United States. With around 95 percent of that population, Mexico City has the most kosher products. There, in specialty kosher stores and restaurants can be found any food group from breads and cheeses to meats. In Guadalajara, with not more than 1,000 Jews, the pickings are a little sparer. Stores such as Costco and Superama carry a few kosher products, and the Jewish Community Center has a small store that sells a few sundry kosher foods.Nonetheless, Srugo’s company, Jay Kosher, serves the needs of many food manufacturers in Western Mexico, including some of its more internationally-recognized fare. On his list of clients, Srugo counts several tequila companies. Kosher tequila, of course, begs the question as to what exactly might make tequila non-kosher.
There are several places agave can trip up on its way to certification. For one thing, Srugo says, a lot of tequilas include glycerin to help smooth the burn on the way down. Other tequilas might add caramel coloring to even out the color of the product. Either of these things can make the tequila non-kosher. The yeast used in the fermentation process also has to be specifically kosher, a somewhat more demanding proviso. Sometimes reposado or añejo tequilas are aged in barrels from wine facilities. If the wine that was in the barrels is non-kosher, the tequila is non-kosher too.
Not every rabbi is ready to take on the challenge of kosher certification. “It takes knowledge of the Jewish code of law, between the regulations and everything, but it also takes knowledge and experience knowing procedure, knowing the manufacturing process,” Srugo warns. A company may claim to have a completely natural process and be fully transparent at their facility, but if the rabbi doesn’t know to ask the right questions, he might not discover that the vegetable oil they use comes from a facility that also processes animal fats without cleaning the tanks between production of the two products. Result: non-kosher.
This attention to detail is why Jews only count for about 20 percent of kosher purchases in the United States. U.S. Food and Drug Administration laws are in place to ensure health and safety, whereas because kosher laws are religious, they are much stricter in some ways. A minuscule amount of dairy product in a food in the United States doesn’t have to be mentioned by law, whereas kosher laws will denote that food as dairy. Muslims use it in cases that foods certified according to their own dietary laws (halal) cannot be found, vegetarians use it to help ensure a food contains no animal product and many others use it as a general indication of wholesomeness.
Thus, several tequilas, especially those aimed at the export market to the United States, have found it advantageous to acquire kosher certification. Some of Srugo’s own include 4 Copas Organic, Don Pilar, Tres Mujeres and Campo Azul.
Rabbi Abraham Srugo is leader of the Chabad of Guadalajara movement. He gives classes during the week and holds services on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..