How does tequila build its fruity top note?
Tequila is distilled from agave, a desert succulent with no obvious kinship to fruit — yet the finished spirit carries a distinct fruity brightness. Three medium-chain ethyl esters are doing that work.
All three esters form during fermentation as yeast esterifies fatty acids with ethanol — a metabolic byproduct, not a design choice. Their stacked OAVs explain why tequila reads as fruit-forward despite containing no fruit whatsoever.
See exactly how far over the detection threshold each compound is — the part of the chemistry that explains why this pairing works. Plus the full ranked list for any ingredient, compound index, and Compare tool.
OAV (Odor Activity Value) = concentration ÷ detection threshold. Numbers above 1 mean the compound contributes detectably to aroma.