What may be bewildering to people reading this is how the bottle of Tio Pepe they tasted five years ago was so different from my description. Let me help you with that problem. My bottle was FRESH. Freeeeessssh. It makes all the difference. If your bottle was open for a few weeks and sitting on a back bar at a restaurant, you haven’t really tasted Tio Pepe.

If you’re a restaurateur reading this, and you own that bottle half full sitting on the back bar for the last two months, do everyone a favor. Throw it away. Or cook with it.

Fresh Tio Pepe is bracing. And it’s an icon. The salt and the tang are all tied up together in the lemons, limes, oranges, green apples and almonds. It finishes with dried apple skins.