Celebrate National Tequila Day

NORFOLK

It's late afternoon Monday, a few days before National Tequila Day, and Karina Ramirez stands behind the bar explaining what goes inside a bottle of tequila.

She works at a new Mexican restaurant, Plaza del Sol, on Colonial Avenue at 22nd Street in Norfolk. At first, she seems hesitant, like a tequila drinker about to take a first sip. She grabs a bottle of Patron brand from the shelf and points to the label.

"Anejo means 'aged,' " Ramirez says. "I always tell my friends, if it says anejo, it's going to be good."

Today's National Tequila Day is one of those "national holidays" that really aren't. To be a true national holiday, the U.S. Congress would have to proclaim it. But unofficially, almost every day is something: Old Rock Day (Jan. 7), to appreciate old rocks and fossils, leads to Pistol Patent Day (Feb. 25), to Extraterrestrial Abductions Day (March 20), to Lost Sock Memorial Day (May 9), to today's National Tequila Day.

It's promoted by - guess who? - tequila brands like Don Julio, Patron, Cuervo and 1800 Tequila.

Ramirez serves a margarita made with 1800 Tequila and a splash of Grand Marnier on top. She becomes less hesitant to talk, like a customer who has finished a margarita.

"The funny part about tequila - you drink two and the rest are like nothing. You want more and more and more."

Turns out her father has a tequila company in Mexico that he started five years ago, but it takes as much as seven years for the key ingredient - the agave plant - to mature, and he still hasn't started selling.

"What they use is not the plant, the green stuff," she explains. "In the ground, it's like a pineapple buried in there. Once it's mature, it's going to weigh like 150 pounds."

Her aunt, Leticia Alonso, opened Plaza del Sol about six months ago and has numerous tequila brands available. She comes over to explain that in her native Mexico, as well as in this country, the image of tequila is changing.

"In Mexico," she says, "when I was a little girl, any wedding that served tequila was poor people. But tequila alone is a drink. You sip it like a good cognac."

But you might want to sip it slowly, because one thing about tequila hasn't changed. You don't want Friday to become National Throbbing Head Day.

Lon Wagner, (757) 446-2341, Lon.Wagner@pilotonline.com