Tequla. I’ve never gotten along with the stuff. Rather, my stomach has never gotten along with the stuff. I could tell you stories, but I won’t as I wouldn’t want you, dear reader, to become as nauseous as I was after a deluge of tequila poppers at Carlos & Charlie’s in Acapulco two years ago.

Oh, you don’t know what a tequila popper is? Consider yourself lucky. This shot is an unholy union of warm tequila, grenadine and 7-Up, which (like just about everything in Mexico) tastes like tequila for some reason. The shot is ‘popped’ (read: slammed) on the bar/table/friend’s head so that it fizzes like a lab experiment gone wrong and tastes like one too. At the bleary end of this humid night, I made a woozy vow to anyone who would listen never to drink tequila again. The Mexican six-year-old outside my hotel just wanted me to buy his black-market Chiclets.

As with most vows made in various states of inebriation, I went back on my word and dabbled tentatively in tequila, but I think it may be time to officially lift the agave embargo. With the local influx of Mexican restaurants, it would be racist not to, wouldn’t you say? As a good citizen of Philadelphia, I’m willing to sacrifice my liver in the name of equality.

Nobody gives a more eloquent overview of tequila than Cantina Los Caballitos, the tangerine hipster haven with a menu dedicated to the Mexican spirit. Here are the CliffsNotes:

Tequila is made from the blue agave plant, part of the lily family native to the Jalisco state of Mexico. Plata (silver) and blanco (white) tequilas are un-aged and thus perfectly clear. Because they aren’t matured, their flavors are harsher than reposado (rested) tequilas, which must age a minimum of two months in oak barrels. The oak imbues reposados with their signature light caramel color and smoother, more nuanced flavor. Better still is añejo (aged), stored in the oak barrels for a minimum of one year. The darkest and mellowest of tequilas, the complexities of añejos are akin to oaked chardonnays. This leaves oro (gold) tequila, the stuff of Spring Break nightmares. Oro is blanco or plata tequila that’s been naturally or artificially colored and/or flavored to make it appear like a better, aged imposter.

The Cantina offers several dozen types of tequila, including plenty of ultra-preem añejo, should you be so inclined. Try an educational--and tasty--flight of tragitos (little swallows) or a clever cocktail like the Hervidor: tequila, lime and tangy grapefruit soda. For $25 a month you can join their monthly tequila club, which includes dinners with tequila pairings.

At Society Hill’s Xochitl tequila enthusiasts can sip flights composed by producer (all three ageings of Patrón, for example) or by style (three different blancos, reposados or añejos). Aficionados can also compose their own flights to the restaurant’s A-to-Zafarrancho selection, while novices can lay their trust in Xochitl’s tequila-based cocktails blended with Latino ingredients like prickly pear juice, jalapeno, guava nectar and tamarind and hibiscus aguas frescas.

Armed with this new tequila knowledge, why not head over to Lolita, where diners BYOT? You supply the booze, the restaurant supplies the pitchers of watermelon-mint and blood orange margarita mix. I have a rezzie there next week, and I’ll no doubt have a decent bottle of reposado en tow. No tequila poppers, por favor.