Tequila and margarita tasting on Disney Cruise Line

All about the tequila and margarita tasting on Disney Cruise Line:

One of my favorite things about Disney Cruise Line is its drink seminars. I might have been a little overly ambitious when I booked the activities for my Disney Fantasy cruise because I ended up booking three drink tastings! But it was well worth it, as they all were great.

The first one of these was the Tequila and Margarita tasting. I had not done this one before, and I love a good margarita – so it seemed like a great choice. 

You can typically find the Tequila and Margarita tasting on all of their ships, and for this one on the Disney Fantasy it was held in the Skyline Lounge. This is such an awesome space (though actually known for its martinis).

There was a group of us all seated together (some people I was traveling with, some not). We all ended up having a great time together and it made the whole experience even more fun.

This class started with a lot more of a lecture for the first twenty minutes or so. In other classes, they sometimes spread it out between drinks, but I have a feeling with the tequila tasting they need to get most of that out of the way first – once you get a few drinks in, I’m not sure you’re remembering much after that!

How we get tequila

The cast member was very knowledgeable and started off by telling us all about tequila. How it’s made, where it comes from, and what it needs to be to be called tequila. There are some spirits similar to tequila, but tequila itself can only be called that if it’s made with blue agave in Mexico. At least 51% of the sugar has to be from the blue agave or else it’s not officially tequila.

We also learned how it is made and the distilling process. It takes a lot to actually get it to be tequila! First the agave is harvested, but it needs to be 7-9 years before it is mature. Most of the harvesting is still done by hand. Then it is brought to a distillery, chopped up, and put into brick ovens to be roasted. This converts the starch into sugar.

Next the juice is extracted using a tool called a tahona, which he described as crushing it with a stone wheel pulled by a donkey. 

Then comes fermentation. The agave juice is put into a hot tub with yeast, which eats the sugar and releases carbon dioxide. After that the liquid is distilled. 

And after that? You need to do it all again! Diluting it if needed to reach the correct alcohol level. If they are planning to age the tequila, you then wait for a few more years (more on that below).

I think I appreciate tequila even more now after hearing how much work goes into making it!

Types of tequila

There are several types of tequila. We got to learn about (and try) most of these:

• Tequila blanco – this is your white tequila, the youngest (not aged, typically spends 0-2 months in the barrel). It smells grassy and earthy.
• Tequila rosa – actually a type of tequila blanco, it gets its pink color by being stored in a wine barrel for about 2 months.
• Reposado – this tequila has been aged anywhere from 2-12 months, and gets a bit more color through the aging process. It smells sweeter, too.
• Anejo – a sipping tequila that is typically aged 1-3 years (no more than 7 years max). 
• Mezcal – a smoky tasting tequila. It’s made a bit differently, which gives it that flavor. It can also be made from any agave (not just blue agave), so mezcal is not necessarily always “Tequila.”

Tequila tasting

After learning all about the history of tequila and how it’s made, we moved on to trying them as we heard about the different types!

First up was a tequila blanco – the one we tried was Dos Amigos. We were instructed that this type of tequila is not a sipping tequila. You know what that means? We’re doing shots! 

Yes, we did shots of tequila in a Disney-led event. I didn’t think that would happen but hey, you gotta have the tequila in the way it’s intended! We were given lime and salt to chase it. As the cast member said, the lime protects your stomach, and the salt protects your mouth.

After that, we tried another kind of tequila, which we also did as a shot! This was a reposado from Patron. We used a different chaser this time – orange and cinnamon.

There was a third tequila, but this one was an anejo, so it was a sipping tequila. The brand we had was Teremana (which is the one owned by Dwayne Johnson!). It had notes of caramel and vanilla.

Margarita tasting

Trying three kinds of tequila was good, but we weren’t done yet – this was called the “Tequila AND Margarita tasting,” after all! Which meant it was time to try tequila in some mixed drinks.

Luckily these margaritas were a smaller size, but they were still pretty potent. We started with a classic margarita. This contained the Teremana Anejo tequila, cointreau, lime, and a small splash of orange juice. It was really, really nice.

We had one more margarita before the day was done. It was time to try a flavored margarita, and this was a unique drink. The alcohol in it was a Jalapeno-infused mezcal, so you got some spicy and smoky flavors. It also had Grand Mariner and blood orange juice. I’m not sure I could have a full size of this margarita because I’m not huge on spicy drinks, but it was very good to get a taste of it!

The tequila and margarita tasting on Disney Cruise Line was a really great time, and I’m so glad I did it. I really learned a lot, and I appreciated all of the history and background.

Like all the drink tastings I’ve done on Disney cruises, I’d highly recommend this one if you’re a fan of tequila and want to learn more!

Would you try this tequila and margarita tasting on Disney Cruise Line? Which tequila do you think you would enjoy the most?