Bar & Bites: After ‘more hits than the Beatles’, former Perth chef Laszlo Till revs up Hot Torque Tequila

From chef to tech bro to tequila, Perth’s Laszlo Till has had a career trajectory few high school guidance councillors would envisage nor recommend. Till is the driving force behind Hot Torque Tequila, a 100 per cent Mexican agave spirit brand hoping to become both your favourite sipping tequila and the bedrock of your margaritas. After a decade cheffing in Perth restaurants ranging from the Hyatt Regency to the Blue Duck, Till developed HotTorque, a social media app connecting NASCAR fans with their favourite teams. Partnerships with NASCAR team bosses Joe Falk and Richard Childress led the Perth software developer to move to Florida, where his love of tequila flourished. A member of a NASCAR team took him south of the border, where he struck up a deal with a Jalisco distillery to make tequila for the US market. However, the relationship soured right at the point when Till was ready to launch Hot Torque. While he has some toe-curling stories about doing business in Mexico, the undeterred distiller forged a new partnership with an emerging distiller. Then COVID-19 stymied his venture, with Till telling Bar & Bites over a tasting at Elizabeth Quay restaurant Six Senses that he’s had “more hits than the Beatles”. There’s so much more to Hot Torque’s back story, but let’s focus on the liquid, which finally hits shelves and bars right when Aussie drinkers have made tequila the fastest growing spirit category of the past few years. Till has launched a blanco (straight out of the still), reposado (aged for three to six months in scorched American white oak barrels) and anejo (18 months to two years in barrels). He also plans to release a coffee tequila using his blanco as the base. The blanco is ideal for cocktails. Offering lingering notes of agave nectar, the reposado works in sours and old fashioneds, while also being a good sipping tequila. The anejo is like a smooth single malt; drink it neat, sip and savour — it’s delicious. All retail for north of $100. Till is passionate about his product, discussing everything from the soil on the Jalisco highlands where the agave is grown to the bats that propagate the plants to his hair-raising escapades through the Mexican countryside. Insisting B&B mentions that he’s the first West Aussie to make a proper tequila, Till brings not only a chef’s palate but also a true spirit of adventure to his latest career. Hot Torque Tequila is available at several Good Grocer IGA Stores, Cellabrations Subiaco, Crafty Corner in Hamilton Hill and other stores. It’s also behind the bar at the Six Senses restaurants, The Lucky Shag, Cassia in Fremantle and Stables Bar in the city, plus the Left Bank outside Crown in Melbourne and on P&O Cruises out of Sydney.