Food & Spirits

Amaranta Restaurant Tequilatopia

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For those of you who have mastered the art of wine tasting, there is a new gustatory challenge on the horizon. Tequila tasting. You might wonder – are there enough varieties of tequila to warrant developing one’s palate and cultivating snobbery around the beverage?  I’m here to tell you, there are. You might then wonder – isn’t that a dangerous endeavor, downing a bevy of samples of such a potent alcohol? I’m not here to deny it – it is.

At Amaranta Restaurant’s grand opening last Thursday evening there were just three featured varieties to be sampled, so luckily, there wasn’t much damage done.  But dangerously, behind the bar, artfully displayed in a floor-to-ceiling glowing grid, were over 400 more.

Amaranta Restaurant

Amaranta is the latest venture of husband and wife restaurateurs Eduardo and Sylvia Rallo.  Located in the Topanga Canyon Westfield Shopping Centre, the restaurant features familiar everyday foods of Mexico in a modern and elegant setting.  The cuisine seeks to honor traditional Mexican fare and integrate the robust and aromatic flavors of the country’s myriad regions.  Eduardo and Sylvia knew each other as children in the small town of Cuernavaca, México, and reconnected by chance years later while studying at Harvard.  The twelve year marriage of this charismatic pair has produced six restaurants and three children, presumably the result of several hot tequila nights.

Amaranta Restaurant

Tequila has a long and honorable history as North America’s first indigenous distilled spirit, made from the blue agave plant.  The Aztecs made a fermented beverage from the spiky succulent which they called octli (and later called pulque). When the Spanish conquistadors were running low on brandy, they followed suit and began to distill the pulque, producing a powerful brew they dubbed tequila.  Some 80 years later, around 1600, Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle, the Marquis of Altamira, began mass-producing at the first tequila factory in the territory of modern-day Jalisco.

Here’s a primer for those of you who are ready to take your tequila tasting to the next level and add a little snobbery (or at least knowledge) to your inebriation.

Tequila varieties fall into five different categories:

    • oro (gold) – un-aged tequila, to which caramel, fructose, glycerin and/or wood flavoring is added for a gold color.
    • plata (silver) – un-aged white tequila.
    • reposado (rested) – aged a minimum of two months, but less than a year in oak barrels.
    • añejo (aged) – aged a minimum of one year, but less than 3 years in oak barrels.
    • extra añejo (extra aged) – aged a minimum of three years in oak barrels.

Like other spirits that are fermented in barrels, tequila absorbs the flavors of the wood, while time mellows the harshness of the alcohol. The aging process naturally darkens the color of tequila, but color is not a reliable way to measure maturity, as additives are often used to achieve the appearance of añejo. Aged tequilas and 100% agave tequilas typically have less bite and more complex flavors then their younger and less pure counterparts.

Amaranta RestaurantAmaranta Restaurant offers many varieties of these aged and pure tequilas, which should be sipped slowly and require no salt and lime chaser. Once a month, Amaranta has a tequila-tasting night where various lines and flights of tequila can be sampled while learning about the tequila-making process and the different tequila regions. The $35.00 per person price includes tasting the entire line of the featured tequilas, meeting with the experts and a buffet-style tapas menu.

I would be remiss if within all my tequila-talk I failed to mention the food at Amaranta. Though I only sampled a few appetizers at the grand opening, they were all quite tasty. The guacamole in particular was wonderful- creamy and smooth in flavor, chunky in texture.  When dining, it is prepared tableside and blended to the customer’s taste. The Quesadillas Mixtas (fried corn tortillas, full of an Oaxaca and Jack cheese blend) were decadently delicious – but how can you go wrong with fried cheese? There was also Tinga de Pollo (shredded chicken with mole poblano sauce on fresh, crispy tortilla rounds) and Ceviche de Pescado (made with a mild tilapia fish flavored with a delicate balance of lime and cilantro). Though not normally a fan of ceviche, I had four.  The quality of the food is really fortunate for those hoping to provide a good buffer against the effects of tequila, lowering the danger-factor significantly. With over 400 varieties, one would be wise to load up on the fried cheese.

Amaranta features live music every other Wednesday and a daily happy hour from 3 pm– 7 pm. Tequila tastings are held on the last Monday of every month. Amaranta Restaurant is located at 600 Topanga Canyon Blvd. Suite 1029 Canoga Park, CA 91303. To take part in the tequila tasting, please contact the restaurant at: [email protected] or call 818-610-3599.

Happy tasting!

About the author

Julie Restivo Murphy