Just in time for Cinco de Mayo: kosher tequila

updated 5:40 p.m. ET March 27, 2009

NEW YORK - A New York businessman is launching a new kosher tequila in time for Cinco de Mayo.

Martin Silver says Agave 99 will be on the market in time for the holiday that celebrates Mexico's defeat of French forces on May 5, 1862.

Silver, president of Long Island-based Star Industries, says he wants to satisfy the craze for high-end tequila with one that observant Jews can drink — "to help the Mexican economy and the Jews."

Silver says a half million cases of the 99-proof kosher tequila are being produced at a Mexican plant using methods certified by a rabbi. It will retail for $41.95 a bottle.

The product launch — with Mexican songs sung in Yiddish and Spanish — is set for May 5, but it will also be sold earlier, for Passover.

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