A refurbished 1940s house located three kilometers west of Guadalajara’s center has become home to a wide ranging collection related to tequila and its enjoyment.
Te Quiero Tequila (I Love You, Tequila), as the museum is called, is open every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., costs 50 pesos to enter and is the first and only of its kind in the city. (Similar museums exist in outlying areas, such as in the town of Tequila, although they are often run by individual tequila producers and carry only their own brand for tasting and purchase.) As such, the museum may be a good alternative to more expensive and time consuming options.
Located on Avenida La Paz not far from Centro Magno shopping center, Te Quiero Tequila consists of some nine pristine rooms on two floors, with a tasting room and gift shop on the first floor.
The exhibit includes paintings and photos that depict tequila lore and myths, collections of blown-glass caballitos (small tequila glasses), miniature models of a tequilera and its distillation and bottling process, some of singer and tequila lover Vicente Fernandez’s belongings, an intimate room with a home bar and a huge collection of bottled tequila (not for sale) that was donated by the Consejo Regulador del Tequila (Tequila Regulatory Council). One of them, as my guide Karla Herrera explained, is worth three million pesos, partly because the bottle is decorated with diamonds and silver.
The tequila downstairs on the main floor is for sale, as well as for tasting, and Herrera said that the stocked brands include some unusual ones.
“There are some organic tequilas and some that are less commercial,” she noted.
During the tasting, which in my case consisted of normal tequila and a rose-petal-flavored variety (whose hot pink color and delicate flavor, my guide insisted, were natural), I was instructed in the requisite inhaling, sipping, swishing around and, finally, swallowing. Consumed straight up in this manner, the tequila was far tastier than any I had ever tried, and Herrera bolstered my conclusion by poo-pooing the mixing of tequila with refrescos.
As to the antiquity of tequila, Hererra said that when the Spanish arrived in Mexico, they found that tequila was already commercialized here and that the Spanish, in fact, at first wanted to ban tequila, because it offered competition to the beverages they had brought with them.
The museum gift shop on the main floor has a small but interesting collection of handicrafts and clothes, much of it related to tequila.
Museo Te Quiero Tequila, Avenida La Paz 2402 at the corner of Federico Javier Gamboa, Guadalajara. Open daily 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. English guides are available for the normal admission price, but call first. Admission price (50 pesos; 30 pesos for children, teachers, students and seniors) includes a tour for one or many people. (33) 3615-3551. www.tequierotequila.mx.