• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

For Tequila Lovers

#141
I looked for Sangrita locally, couldn't find it. Found this recipe on line: Orange Juice Version:
1 oz fresh squeezed orange juice
3/4 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 oz grenadine
3 dashes hot sauce or 1/4 tsp chile powder
slice of jalapeno pepper for garnish (optional)
I made it with chile powder & Tabasco Sauce.
It's very good. Thanks for mentioning it.
 
#142
MJ5150 said:
I was thinking about having a couple bottles around. Might not be a bad idea actually. I'm trying to spread the tequila love around to my friends, but so far no interest.

-Mike
Click to expand...

Think of it this way: It costs the same whether you buy several bottles at once or one at a time. The stuff doesn't go bad, so as long as you know you will eventually drink whatever you buy, there's no reason to worry about buying too much. I can think of at least three reasons to have multiple bottles on hand at any one time rather than just buying sequentially:

1. As someone else noted, it gives you the chance to do direct A/B comparisons, which will help you decide what to buy or not buy in the future. (A/B comparison is a fun thing to do with friends, too.)

2. You can take advantage of good sale prices whenever they crop up, whether you have open bottles at home or not. I sometimes even buy a bottle of something I already have at home if I happen to find a great deal, and just stick it in a cabinet until needed.

3. On occasions when you're going to have a few, it's a good idea to start with "the good stuff" -- which might be pricey -- and then have something cheaper on hand to switch to once you start to become, um..., less discriminating.

Personally, I always have a half-dozen or so (different) open bottles at a give time, including one or two "high-end" bottles.
 
#144
sleepy_monkey said:
The best tequila IMO....and I drink tequila as my liquor of choice:
Under $30 = Hornitos Reposado, Cazadores Reposado

$50-ish
Don Julio Anejo, Avion Silver

$70
Don Julio 70 (blanco)

$100+
Don Julio 1942, Don Julio Real, Gran Patron
Click to expand...
Hey thanks for posting this!

I know that the Don Julio has always tasted good to me, with the 1942 being my favorite too, but most of the time it's been Patron Silver.

I'll try to keep an eye out for a couple of these.
 
#145
Patron silver is a decent tequila, to be sure, but it is vastly overpriced for the quality. (I'm not alone in this assessment: Try Googling "Patron + overpriced" and read through some of the 3 million+ hits.) Its popularity owes mainly to a genius (and expensive) marketing campaign.

There are lots of blancos out there that IMHO are far superior to Patron and that cost less -- possibly much less, depending on your local market. A few personal favorites that come to mind are Casa Noble Crystal, Paqui, and (for even less) Tres Agaves. If you want something comparable to Patron silver, at about half the price, give Corazon a try.
 
#146
So a funny thing happened on my way to band practice the other night....

I stopped at a liquor store near my friend's house to pick up some tequila, as I usually do on my way to practice there. This particular store has an unusually large tequila selection, so I often stop to pick up a bottle to bring to practice, as well as something to bring home that I can't find near my own place.

As I walked down this (extensive) tequila aisle I met a couple who were standing there looking rather perplexed. When I asked them why, they said they couldn't decide what to get, and then asked me if I knew anything about tequila. "Why, yes, yes I do!" I happily responded (always being eager to spread the Gospel about the Almighty Agave at every opportunity). I spent about 15 minutes with them and was late for practice, but it was worth it.

I asked them a few questions about their usual drink preferences and such to help them make a good choice. They wanted to buy a bottle to share; they wanted to sip it either neat or on the rocks; and had a budget of about 30 bucks. The guy had some experience with tequila: He knew the difference between mixtos and puros, and he'd been experimenting with some different tequilas recently and was liking it. However, he had been restricted himself exclusively to anejos, based on the (faulty) assumption that they were "better than" blancos and reposados. When I explained to him that, unlike some whiskeys and wines, that really wasn't true of tequila -- that it was really a matter of taste, and that many tequila aficionados actually prefer blancos and reposados -- he was thrilled, and was immediately eager to try a good blanco. The woman, admitted to knowing little about tequila: She was mainly a Scotch drinker, but was psyched to give good tequila a try. I told her that an anejo would be closest to her comfort zone.

So, he was eager to try a good blanco, and she an anejo, but they wanted to share a bottle, so (of course) I suggested that they meet in the middle and share a good reposado. As I turned to look at the selection before us, I discovered that we happened to be standing right in front Tres Agaves -- and its big bright "sale" tag announcing that the reposado was 5 (or maybe it was 6?) bucks off regular price. They had budgeted 30 bucks, and this was 32 at the sale price, so I grabbed a bottle off the shelf, handed it to them, and said "Get this." (Of course, I also grabbed a bottle for myself, which I happen to be sipping as I write this. Yum.)

My only regret is that I wish I had thought to give them my email address or something; as is, I'll probably never know how this worked out. Nevertheless, I came away feeling like I had done my good deed for the day, and confident that that they enjoyed their evening.

BTW, the band just totally killed it at practice. Inspired playing alll around. Probably unrelated, but worth noting....
 
#147
I mentioned in my story from a week ago (above) that I picked up a bottle of the Tres Agaves reposado. I recommended it to some because I remembered loving it on the few occasions I had tried it previously (and it happened to be on sale at a great price at the moment), though frankly I didn't remember exactly what it was that I liked about it so much. Well, it didn't take me very long to go through that bottle, and now that I've been reminded I thought I'd share my thoughts about it.

As I've probably mentioned in several posts here, I'm mainly a blanco guy. The thing I most love about good tequila is the very thing that makes tequila different from everything else, and that's agave. I want big, bold, bright, fruity agave flavor to jump out of the glass and slap me across the face. That particular quality of course tends to diminish with aging, so reposados tend to have less of it and anejos less still. But, resposados can be aged anywhere from 1 to 12 months, which is a very large range in tequila time, and consequently they vary widely in the degree to which they retain big juicy agave flavor: Some are more blanco-like and others more anejos-like.

So to get to the point.... Tres Agaves is a reposado for blanco lovers like me -- indeed, the best I can remember ever having. It retains all of the big bold agave flavor as their blanco (which I buy often), while smoothing out the edges just a tad and adding just enough woody character to round out the flavor profile. You can tell just by the color, which is a very pale straw color much lighter than most repos. Unlike so many repos, in which you give up some of that agave goodness in exchange for other qualities, this one is IMHO the best of both worlds.
 
#148
Lobster11 said:
So to get to the point.... Tres Agaves is a reposado for blanco lovers like me -- indeed, the best I can remember ever having. It retains all of the big bold agave flavor as their blanco (which I buy often), while smoothing out the edges just a tad and adding just enough woody character to round out the flavor profile. You can tell just by the color, which is a very pale straw color much lighter than most repos. Unlike so many repos, in which you give up some of that agave goodness in exchange for other qualities, this one is IMHO the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...

I'm sold. Thanks.
 
#150
I'm still working through the Hornitas Plata. As the only tequila drinker in the house, and so far with friends resistant to the idea of even trying it, it's a slow go for me. I have been enjoying a shot or two here and there. Quite often, I bring the glass to my nose and just breath in a few times to really soak up the essence of the tequila. Not quite as good as actually drinking it of course, but for me it does enhance the experience.

I don't have enough experience with tequila to give a real review of this one, but it is quite smooth to me while having a nice almost peppery bite to it.

-Mike
 
#152
Lobster11 said:
Patron silver is a decent tequila, to be sure, but it is vastly overpriced for the quality.
Click to expand...

Once a year or so - sometimes every other year - I will bring in a bottle of Gran Patron (Platinum) and IMO it's amazing. Yeah, it's probably overpriced but you do get a cute bottle and a nice birdseye maple box ;-) It is not everyday tequila.

This year was a 'Zero Year' birthday and so my splurge tequila was a bottle of Bourreos. Very, very interersting stuff...

Also had an opportunity at a big foodie confab a couple of years ago to try a Casa Dragones 'sipping tequila.' It's probably next on my Big Tequila Splurge list - but no time soon, probably... I keep spending tequila money on basses...
 
#155
pedroims said:
Got a bottle of Don Julio anejo... Funny that my wife does not like alcohol but she wont hesitate to have a shot of Don Julio.
Click to expand...
My first taste of Don Julio was unforgettable.

I'd been playing for tips and drinks during the afternoon, as I wasn't supposed to be on until night time, when the bartender hands me the phone in a bar that none of my friends even knew I was playing in.

It was a couple that had been buying me drinks calling from a different bar with an offer of cash and more drinks if I'd come over there.

Well they'd been buying me Patron Silver but hadn't told the bartender that, so she poured me a Cuervo Gold! You know, I can drink Cuervo, but I never enjoy the flavor - it's just a shot and after about a year of only drinking Patron it hit me as the worst surprise a friend could trick me with.

So they got the bartender up to date and she said she didn't have any Patron, but she had something better. That was the best tequila that I'd ever had and it took me months to find out that it wasn't just Don Julio, but 1942!

Great stuff, Don Julio 1942, and even better when I remember that first shot.
 
#158
Lobster11 said:
That's quite an impressive lineup there. The only exception is the 1800, which just isn't in the same class at the others. (Personally, I kinda like the 1800 blanco, despite the recent marketing blitz, but I've never cared much for their repo.)







If you go back to the very beginning of this thread you'll find some posts that explain the difference between tequila and mezcal, and why the most popular Cuervo products "should be banned." (Cuervo does make some nice higher-end tequilas, though, to be fair.)
Click to expand...


Thanks. The 1800 isn't bad, but I'm basically a tequila novice. I haven't tried any of the higher end Cuervo offerings simply because the gold is basically unpalatable, and because of that I figured the rest would be the same. I'll give the brand another shot, though. Any recommendations where to start?
 
#159
Tbone76 said:
Thanks. The 1800 isn't bad, but I'm basically a tequila novice. I haven't tried any of the higher end Cuervo offerings simply because the gold is basically unpalatable, and because of that I figured the rest would be the same. I'll give the brand another shot, though. Any recommendations where to start?
Click to expand...

Right. The Cuervo gold is unpalatable because it isn't 100% de agave -- and it is only "gold" because they add caramel color. Their "Tradicional," available as both a blanco and reposado, is a decent, inexpensive (but 100% de agave) tequila, and their Reserva de la Familia is an outstanding anejo -- though probably not quite so outstanding as to justify the price tag.

I'll be interested to hear what you like and don't like among the stuff you've already got in your bar, and would be happy to recommend other stuff you might like based on that. The first question to be answered is whether you prefer blancos, reposados, or anejos....
 
#160
Lobster11 said:
Right. The Cuervo gold is unpalatable because it isn't 100% de agave -- and it is only "gold" because they add caramel color. Their "Tradicional," available as both a blanco and reposado, is a decent, inexpensive (but 100% de agave) tequila, and their Reserva de la Familia is an outstanding anejo -- though probably not quite so outstanding as to justify the price tag.



I'll be interested to hear what you like and don't like among the stuff you've already got in your bar, and would be happy to recommend other stuff you might like based on that. The first question to be answered is whether you prefer blancos, reposados, or anejos....
Click to expand...


Don't kill me, but I make margaritas with my tequilas. I was told that if you want to make a good mixed drink, use good liquor. The bottle of 1942 was a gift from a friend, and I didn't think that it should be mixed. I've been interested in trying them straight, but I don't know the accepted way of drinking it straight. I always drink my whiskeys on the rocks, but I've never heard of tequila being imbibed like that. Give me a starting point, and I'll give it the old college try! Then I'll start really trying to open my palate up to it.
It took me a little while to appreciate straight whiskey, and now I love it. I hope the same is true with tequila. And if you want any recommendations as far as whiskeys, let me know.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back