Best Shot of Tequila

Victor Esqueda, one partner in the Guadalajara Café, is firmly against alcohol abuse. "You order a cognac and Coke, I give you a glass of ice, a glass of cognac and a glass of coke. But you have to mix them. I can't do it." His opinions are similarly strong about shooting tequila. Good tequila should be sipped from a snifter. "The only way I shoot is if someone is in my house without permission," Esqueda says. Esqueda (who is, in fact, from Guadalajara) is doing his best to help people understand that real tequila is tequila only if it comes from the Mexican state of Jalisco, the way that real champagne comes only from Champagne, France, and everything else is just sparkling wine. The Guadalajara Café boasts sixty different brands, including Mexico's most popular: Casadorro Reposado, Herradura and Cuervo Tradicional. Plus, the Guadalajara Café offers a tequila tutorial for $15. If only Esqueda had been around during our initiation to tequila, maybe our best friend's purse wouldn't have ended up holding pukle.