Don’t call it tequila: This new spirit is made from agave, but it comes from South Africa — specifically wild African Agave Americana grown in the Karoo desert and Agave Salmiana from South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.

So that’s the basics. Here’s what else the distillery has to say:

Sango is an African take on tequila that pays homage to Mexican agave mythology. The name Sango stems from the revered deity, Shango, the African god of thunder and lightning. In Mexican agave mythology, the agave plant was cooked by a lightning bolt striking from a thunderous sky, and the magical spirit that resulted from the agave being split open and releasing its juices was considered an elixir of the gods.

Agave Americana and Agave Salmiana find their second home in Africa and are found across several African countries, so they were a natural choice for the base of Sango. Whilst the African agave spirits industry is relatively nascent, Sango is bold in its approach and is the first African agave spirit to focus on a U.S. launch.

Sango is hand harvested, double distilled and bottled additive-free in KwaZulu-Natal. Spearhead sources much of its Americana Agave and Salmiana Agave from the arid, semi-desert region of Karoo and Eastern cape province, respectively, and is also experimenting with other varieties from other parts of Africa, such as Tanzania and Kenya. Spearhead hand-selects plants for Sango with a field-tested brix of between 24-35 before harvesting by hand. The agave is roasted using artisanal methods in a combination of ovens and fire pits before being double distilled. No additives are added to the spirit before bottling.

Sango has been available in South Africa for the past year and this summer it will be released into the U.S., the leading market for agave spirits globally.

So if it’s made like tequila but it’s not from Mexico, well, then what? We received samples of both Sango’s blanco and reposado expressions and are here to talk about it.

Both are 80 proof.

Sango Agave Spirit Blanco Tasting Notes

Unaged. Familiar on the nose, but different in a way that’s complex to describe. It’s green but not vegetal in the way Mexican agave often expresses itself — more grassy, with emerging notes of lemon leaf and a subdued white pepper character, later a rather ashy, lightly smoky quality. The palate comes off as quite unexpected. First, it’s very sweet, with bold initial notes of coconut cream, lemon-infused pastry cream, and eventually bubblegum. Things get weird from there, as the sweetness takes a vaguely saccharine turn, striking the palate as a touch industrial, albeit with overtones of almond oil. A bit of petrol dominates the finish, though a white sugar sweetness otherwise endures. It’s a bit too far out there on its own, but I could see this working in a margarita. B / $45 [BUY IT NOW FROM RESERVEBAR]

Sango Agave Spirit Reposado Tasting Notes

Aged in South African red wine barrels for up to 12 months. The barrel gives the nose of this spirit some needed depth, tempering the grassier notes with some wafting aromas of vanilla, dark chocolate, caramel, and a pinch of spice. All told, this smells a lot more like a traditional reposado tequila than the Sango blanco does to a blanco tequila — and that’s probably a good thing. On the palate, those lighter dessert tones dominate again, particularly almond and coconut, though whether they are driven by the spirit or the barrel or both is a bit of a mystery. There’s ample baking spice here to perk up the spirit with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg, but the pastry cream element remains strong, as does the creamy coconut element, which is particularly enduring on the finish. Again the spirit remains rather sweet throughout, though with the reposado this works better, and those more industrial notes have been tempered out for the most part. B+ / $55 [BUY IT NOW FROM RESERVEBAR]

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