Dia de Margarita!

Hi, I'm Ginger, but you can call me Rita!

What do you know? Today is National Margarita Day! Well, here on the Rancho it's always a good day for a 'Rita. So in honor of the, um, "holiday," I guess I better put a recipe up, bloggy-style.

Give my Polar Gingerita a try-- it's a combination of reposado, diet ginger ale, and lime juice. Cheers!

Polar Gingerita:
2 oz Reposado Tequila (Suggested: Camarena, Espolón, Corralejo)
4 oz Polar Diet Ginger Ale
...1/2 oz freshly squeezed Lime Juice
Shake and pour ingredients into an ice-filled highball glass. Garnish with a lime or lemon wheel.


It's also my wife's birthday, but her name isn't Rita.

I'll drink a margarita to her, ANY day!

Agave Newbie?

Best entry-level tequila for the rookie: Familia Camarena Reposado. It's real easy and smooth on the palette, with that Highland sweetness and spice. Sip it neat or use it as an excellent mixer. And the price, she is nice...

Best first tequila for the whiskey-lover: Don Julio 70. The more I drink this, the more I appreciate it's "whiskey-ness." I do love the taste of American Oak. It will remind one of a nice aged bourbon but without bourbon's overly sweet taste or it's burn.

2011 Tequila Trilogy Pt. 3, Añejo and Extra Añejo

DJ 70, Claro Que Sí!

The hard part of committing to a three-part blog is that you actually have to write all three parts. And who has the time to do that these days? Not me! So without further ado, here's part three, amigos: Añejos.

I have tried Partida Añejo before, but not in recent memory. Why? Because at $65 it's at the higher-end of my budget. I was lucky enough to get this bottle for $33. As always, Partida comes through smooth and full-bodied. Its multitude of flavors - agave, citrus, vanilla, smoke and wood - are balanced to perfection. I give Partida an extra point for having perhaps the most beautiful golden-amber color I have ever seen. It literally looks like honey in the bottle. 4.5 Pencas!
Partida Tequila Añejo, Tequila.net Best of 2011 Award-Winner

Germán Gonzales is back on the list with his exquisite Tequila Uno T-1 Añejo Estelár. Words that spring to mind when I taste this tequila are, "chocolate," "coffee," "brandy," and "almond." Apparently, I think of this as an after-dinner treat. It really does remind me of a nicely-aged scotch, which is appropriate because Estelár spends up to two years in scotch barrels. Germán's masterful creation is a true sipper, and one to be cherished. This beautiful bronze tequila comes in a classy carafe-style decanter. The name says it all: Stellar! Five Pencas!
T1 Estelár, a 2011 Tequila Whisperer favorite.

Don Julio 70 Añejo Claro is the new limited-edition tequila, released to commemorate the 70th anniversary of DJ's first distillery. It showed-up recently at the local bar where I work as the house sound-guy. The bar has nothing much to speak-of in terms of tequila, so I had been encouraging the owner to stock a bottle or two of good stuff for me. Then in November, it just so happened that his local liquor rep gave him this bottle of DJ70 for free. Like any good business man, the bar-owner immediately started selling the free tequila to me for $7 a shot. Like Maestro Dobel, this is one of these new "blanco" añejos, where the color has been filtered out. It confuses the brain, because you get this very oaky, brandy or whiskey-like taste from a clear liquor. Imagine your favorite red-wine with all the color removed. The DJ70 goes down WAY too easily, that's for sure! My knock on it is that it's overly smoothed out and woodified, lacking any real agave punch. Kind of a mind-freak. Four Pencas!
Don Julio 70 Añejo Claro, Tequila.net Best of 2011 Award Winner

Since we are speaking of the famous highland brand, I have worshipped Don Julio 1942 from afar for a long time now. Drinking it has simply been beyond my wildest price-range. Finally, in 2011 I had my chance to get this heralded juice on to my palette. The wife and I were at a Mexican restaurant where DJ42 was $22 per shot, which is certainly not cheap, but about $10 less than any other place I've seen it. Was it worth it? Oh, yes it was! Smoky notes of caramel, vanilla, brown sugar and pear play across the tongue, with the smoothest finish imaginable. Absolute velvet in a glass!
Five Pencas!
Don Julio 1942 Añejo, Tequila.net Best of 2011 Award Winner

Kah, Kah, Kah. What can I say about Kah Day of the Dead Añejo? It comes in a killer hand-painted black skull-bottle, and that's cool. The juice inside, while having some charm, lacks depth or bigness. I will agree with Tequila Whisperer that Kah añejo is "grassy" in a nice way. Ultimately, the best thing about "Kah-ñejo" is its pretty (scary) face. Three Pencas.
Kah review on Tequila.net

In the "Never Judge a Book by it's Cover" category, Caballo Estrella showed up in my local store in 2011 sorta looking like something the cat dragged in. Dirt-cheap and on a low shelf, I initially got the impression that this was a well-brand Cuervo pretender. All three expressions are $19.99. The bottle looks cheap, but because it says %100 Agave on the label, I decided to do a little Googling. I couldn't find any reviews, and their web-site was lame, so I passed Caballo by. Then, much to my shock and awe, the añejo showed up on Tequila.net's best of 2011. Huh! I wasted no time getting over to the store and plunking down my Andrew Jackson. The stuff is really not terrible! To me, it tastes a little processed, or flavored, maybe. Could it be artificially colored? It's a blend of Highland and Lowland agave, so perhaps that's what I'm tasting. I would not hesitate to use it in a cocktail, or even shoot it, old-school. For $20, this horse is a winner! 3.5 Pencas.
Caballo Estrella Añejo, Tequila.net Best of 2011 Award-Winner


La Partida de Partida

Finally, I will remember 2011 as the year when high-end tequila bars finally hit Boston. At one of them, the excellent Papagayo, I tasted what I consider the finest tequila I have had so-far; the sublime Partida Elegante Extra Añejo. It reminded me of the best spirit I've ever had the good fortune to drink, Cognac Louis VIII de Rémy Martin. Elegante, el mejor de todo! Five Pencas AND the Piña!

Let's see what 2012 has in store! Salúd!

Pale Rider, out.

Año de Agave, 2011 Tequila Highlights, Parte Dos

Part 2) Reposados:

Interestingly, looking back on 2011, I did not explore much new territory in the world of reposado tequila. I enjoyed plenty of old stand-byes, like El Tesoro, Corralejo and 7 Leguas. But overall it was a year of blancos and añejos.


Maestro Dobél: Multiple-personality disorder in a bottle?

It's a bit hard to believe but it looks like I only have four notable repos to talk about. The first is the outstanding Siembra Azúl, a beautiful Highland offering that is truly top-shelf. Well, in terms of taste, that is; I have joked numerous times about how the screw-top generic bottle and labeling belie the wonderful juice inside. S. A. is a soft, sweet and silky-smooth tequila, with just enough wood mellowing to create a perfect balance of agave and oak (and when I say perfect, in my book that's an 80/20 ratio). It's a classy and refined spirit. Now they should make a bottle to match. See my previous review here. 4.5 Pencas!
Siembra Azul Reposado, Tequila.net Best of 2011 Award Winner.

Next on the list would be Maestro Dobél, the so-called "Diamond" tequila. Despite looking like a blanco, it is a blend of reposados and añejos that has been filtered to remove the coloring. The result is a diamond-clear spirit. Honestly, I'm not sure why they are removing the color. I wonder if it's a marketing device to attract the large segment of Patrón Silver drinkers, who may be of the mindset that to be good, the juice needs to be clear. In this case the clear tequila has the benefit of the woody mellowing and flavorful overtones of hand-crafted and well-rested tequila. Don't get me wrong, Dobél is a nice sipper with a delectably rich taste, but at it's original price of $75, I would never have touched it. A big part of what you're paying for here is the luxruy packaging. There has been one last lonely bottle left on the shelf of my local store for like, a year. So when they lowered it to a blowout of $35, I seized my opportunity. I like it, it's not my favorite, but if you can get it for under $50, it's a worthy addition to your tequila bar. Extra points for bottle design - muy elegante. 3.5 Pencas!


"Don't open that bottle! You'll let out the....ooh, too late!"

Then there is the little devil, Chamucos. I was attracted by the funky label with the folkloric, hand-drawn figure of El Chamuco. In Spanish it means "boogie man." I went to great lengths to get this hard-to-come-by bottle. I ended up with a NOM 1558 product. Apparently Chamucos had had a hard-time finding a permanent distillery. I notice that reviews of the 1558 juice tend to run much more favorable than those of the product from the previous distillery. When I first cracked this open, it did not immediately impress. "Firewater," thought I. However, I let it decant for a couple of weeks and went back to it. You have to do that sometimes. It was surprisingly much better the second time, and even better the time after that, sort of like, well, you know... Chamook has a demonic bite with an herbal, more pungunt/punchy taste than many. Finishes with a blanco-like burn. It's a good, ol' fashioned shooter! Party Juice! Fiesta Demonica! But what else would you expect from a tequila with a name like Chamucos? Three Pencas!

The caboose of my 2011 Repo train is Familia Camrena reposado. This bottle, like the blanco, sells for around $21. There's a big push on to get Camarena in your face. The stores have big display boxes and posters, featuring the blanco and repo side-by-side, both at the same low price. Whereas the blanco is thin and sort of just, "meh," this spunky little repo has a nice agave pop, coated in the spicy sizzle of cinnamon and the sweet notes of vanilla. It's a surprisingly bright, bold beverage, with plenty of evidence of it's highland upbringing. This may be the perfect entry-level tequila for Noobs. Cama-repo is my new go-to for maragritas, because it both stands-up and blends really decently. And yes, I would - and DO - sip this tequila. El priceo es niceo! Three Pencas!
Camarena Reposado, Tequila.net Best of 2011 Award-Winner.

Stay tuned for part 3, Añejos!

Año de Agave: Pale Rider's 2011 Tequila Highlights

Part 1) Blancos:

I got to try quite a few new tequilas in 2011. A few of them were genuinely new offerings on the market, most were simply new to me. And of course there were some old favorites. In many cases I had so go to some pretty significant lengths to get these tequilas.

El Maestro de Tequila: Germán Gonzales with T1

Let's lay them out by expression, shall we?

BLANCOS:
The best blanco I got to try (again) this year was T1 Blanco Ultra Fino by Germán Gonzales. It's silky smooth with a great mouth feel, and bears the full essence of big agave. If it isn't the holy grail of blancos, T1 U.F. is close to it. Five Pencas!

Right behind that came Arette Blanco Suave, an oldie but one I've been wanting to try for years. Finally scored a bottle and was lucky to get one of the last of the now-discontinued "hewn" bottles with the paper label. Arette is bold rich and complex, with a great balance of earth, agave and sweetness. Not bad for a lowland tequila! I'll be sad when this one's gone, and it's gettin' frighteningly low. Four Pencas!

In November I was pleasantly surprised by a new kid on the block, Peligroso Silver tequila. As I said in my review, I was not expecting greatness, and wow, these guys got it right. It's a bang zoom of a Highland blanco. Can't wait to try the the aged expressions. 3.8 Pencas!

One of the new blancos that did not get a high grade from me in 2011 was Avión Silver, as seen on TV's Entourage.It's flavor-profile has been de-agave-ized, and generally designed for hipsters who might also like Grey Goose Vodka. What can be said is that it's hot and peppery, but other than that has not much going for it. Like the TV show it was featured on, or maybe like Hollywood itself, Avión is all surface, with no soul. At $39 it's too expensive to use in a margarita, so why bother? Two Pencas!

Speaking of mixers, one of tequila's old highland families, The Camarenas, introduced a down-priced 100% agave line bearing their own name. The blanco, for $21.00 is not a sipper (although a couple of my Patrón-loving young friends like shooting it straight), but it makes a dandy mixer, with enough Highland sweetness flavor to stand up pretty nicely in a 'rita or other cocktail. It's pretty harmless. 2.5 Pencas!

I also enjoyed many of my old favorite blancos in 2011; among them were El Tesoro, Partida, 7 Leguas, Milagro (now in many local bars) and Don Julio, which I always disliked in the past. I gave it one last chance, thanks to a free gift bottle from a friend, and this time it stuck.

Muy Peligroso!

Didn't want to like you, but despite the hype, I DO! I do like you, you dangerous sunnofabitch!

I have a problem with overly-hyped tequilas that are owned by American rock-stars or businessmen who usually sell hair products or trade bonds on Wall Street. Yes, I'm talking about YOU Cabo, and especially YOU, Patrón!

I recently tried "Avión Silver," the tequila made popular on the TV show Entourage. It was pretty much what I expected; triple distilled, overly smoothed, and with that harmless flavor profile designed for people who wouldn't know a real Weber blue agave if it chased them around the yard. What's the difference between Avión and some fashionable Vodka-du-jour being posed-with by a Miami Supermodel? Nothing, that's what! It's all marketing hype. Meanwhile, the actual substance inside - the JUICE - is average at best.

With all of these prejudices in mind, today I walked in to the neighborhood BevMo store here in San Jose (where I am hanging for a few days) and proceded to hover around the well-appointed and very reasonably-priced tequila shelf. Just as I was deciding whether to get the new Don Julio 70 Joven tequila, or perhaps a bottle of Tonalá reposado, a couple of the store employees took notice of me and came over. They immediately started pitching me on this new tequila, which just coincidentally was on-sale, called "Peligroso." I know retail pretty well, and I know tequila better than both of the people at the store, and what I gathered was they were trying to "push" this new brand. They didn't know whether it was highlqands or lowlands and they kept saying something about citrus and spice and white pepper. It sounded a lot like a not-too-well-memorized "schpeel." BUT, since it was on sale for $30-something bucks and I always say everything starts with a good blanco, I bought a bottle of the blanco - sorry, I mean "Silver" - on their totally trustworthy recommendation. As I checked out, I actually said to the check-out guy, "This better be worth the hype, because I know a good blanco when I taste it."

I really did say that.

Upon returning to the bungalow I Googled "Peligroso" and found all the signs of the things I am wary of: A couple young American kids start up a tequila company in SoCal. It's rad. It's rock 'n' roll. It's surfing. It's naked girls. It's tatoos. It's party-time all-the-time, baby. It's tequila for kids with money to burn, dude! Peligroso-dangeroso tequila baby, woo-hoo! And it's a 42% alcohol/84-proof liquor, so hey, let's get wasted!

So I'm thinking, "Really? Here we go again. Give me a break. It's all about marketing and a slick web-site."


Logo, or Tramp-Stamp Tattoo?


At any rate, I wasn't going to wait one more minute to try the stuff. And as a serious tequila aficionado, I had low, low expectations.

Well, ba-low me down! It's GOOD! This Peligroso juice is good blanco. I think they got it right! They clearly went in to this knowing something about real tequila, or at least with a good pallette, and with the right attitude. Right off the bat I'll say it's a little sweet even for a highlands lover like me, but she's a spunky little blanco, with a touch of the spicy kick we like. Mostly, it's loaded, and I mean loaded with agave goodness. This tequila has flavor to spare. It tastes like someone squeezed agave nectar in to the bottle. There's a nice soft entry of caramelized agave, followed by a zesty mid-palette of hot ginger and sugar-cane, and ending with a very slight bite and alcohol burn. It's not as-if a thousand exotic chili-peppers just danced on my tongue, and there's no 'earthyness" to speak of either. I also did not get much in the way of citrus - maybe orange - even though other reviews mention it. But thank God they didn't try to remove the heart and soul of tequila like some of these other worthless posers. In other words, agave is NOT the secret ingredient in this tequila.


THEY GOT IT RIGHT! Agave is NOT the secret ingredient!

And yes, Peligroso DOES happen to be highland agave - my favorite. NOM 1107 is Tequila de Viejito, and although I've never had any of their other brands, their location is certainly good in my book. I'd say this to anyone serious enough about getting in to real tequila: If you don't like this, you don't like tequila, period. Run the other way and drink a Bombay Sapphire with Stevie Nicks. Peligroso COULD BE the real deal. I didn't taste a lot of this "white pepper" I'd been told about - but what do I know? What the hell does white-pepper taste like anyway? I certainly did get some sweet spice, like ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon, along with honey. There's a "pop" in there, to be sure. As we all know, these are the marquee flavors of the famous Los Altos piña. It's the agave we call "Highlands". And with a high alcohol content, to-boot, the burn is tolerable, even sublime. Kind of astonishing.

This blanco goes down TOO easy.

They have a ways to go to be the next Siete Leguas, but Peligroso has made a tremendous rookie effort, certainly for their blanco. I mean, "silver."

And all this is coming from a blanco lover. As I always do, I say a good blanco bodes well for the rest of the line. Speaking of which, if I am reading the lit correctly, in the making of the reposado, Peligroso uses new American oak - not cured by bourbon. I have never been a fan of bourbon-barrel flavoring in tequila or scotch (because, well, I don't like bourbon), but I'm a BIG fan of virgin oak. So if this is the case, bring on the repo!

Would need free samples, though....... :-) Hint. Hello Peligroso....

Great bottle, too! Really artful bottle designs on the three expressions.

GO DANGEROUS, OR GO HOME!

Peligroso Tequila on Facebook

Tequila Whisperer show reviews Peligroso.

Dos de Los Altos: 7 Leguas & Siembra Azul...

Highland Girl: Up here we like our tequilas like we like our women - full-bodied!

Last night I had a chance to do a taste-comparison between two outstanding highland reposado tequilas: 7 Leguas, and Siembra Azul.

In a previous review, I had commented that Siembra was very smooth and soft, maybe overly so. But on this occasion, maybe because the SA bottle has been open and there has been a period of decanting, I detected more nuts and spice - sort of an unexpected nutmeggy or cinnamon thing. There was a fuller flavor-profile, and I liked it even better than before (and still found it to be as smooth as a baby's bottom).

The venerable incumbent 7 Leguas is known for it's big bold taste, led by the hearty presence of highland agave. The 7L bursts with tones of sweetness, spice and wood, with a very slightly less refined taste than the SA. There's a bit more alcohol bite and a little more edge in-general, none of which gets in the way of 7L's famous agave bloom.

In fact, both of these offerings have the "corazon y alma" of the Los Altos agave taste. When you open the present, that is what's inside both of these superb tequilas. Only the "wrapping paper" is slightly different between the two. But that's the 3% that we pay the biggest money for, isn't it? It's that sublime 'enth degree of quality and subtlety that aficionados will revel in.

Some tequila people will say that the 7L wins because it's got more spunk, that you can "taste the tahona," and believe me, that's why it's an every day repo for me, being my top three or four. Also, it's a lot easier than Siembra Azul to find, let's mention.

But I gotta tell ya, what the lovely Siembra Azul revealed to me last night was more of her plumpness. She's more Rubenesque than I thought. And I found her quite sexy, indeed.

The verdict is that these are both superb tequilas, and one cannot go wrong with either. So...get both! Like they always say, "Variety is the spice of life!"

7 Leguas Review on Tequila.net

Siembra Azul review on Tequila.net

Happy Day of the Dead!

Dia de los Muertos is here again! What tequila will you drink to celebrate the old Mexican festival?

Our cinnamon-haired spokes-model - I'll call her Carmen - is holding a skull full of KAH, which calls itself "Day of the Dead" tequila. So, sure, I'll enjoy a shot of KAH añejo. It's not my favorite, but it has a grassy, woody thing happening. However, looking over my "colleción," I see some other nice choices. I'm thinking a cold-shot of Arette blanco, followed by a nice sipper of 7 Leguas reposado.

I'll also listen to some music - probably The Dead...

Saludos!

Siembra Azul: The Blue Harvest

Harvest Blue: The Plain-Jane bottle holds SWEET nectar inside.

I managed to acquire - with great difficulty - a bottle of Siembra Azul reposado. It's a delightful highlands tequila from NOM 1414. This juice is truly like liquid silk - buttery, with caramel, vanilla, wood, and maybe I detect a hint of maple syrup in there. It's sweet and light with a well-balanced presence of that delicious highland agave.

The only down-side is that it's maybe too smoothed out for some people. It's not earthy, smoky or spicy at all. Not much of a zing to it. But I do like it as a sipper, and I think tequila newbies would find it extremely palatable. The flavor-profile has really been designed to have no rough edges. There's really nothing NOT to like about Siembra Azul. I look forward to trying the blanco at some point.

One note about the bottle: People say beware fancy bottles, and I know we pay extra for that, but I really DO love the fancy tequila bottles. Siembra made the decision to go with a standard (cheap) commercial bottle and a really generic label design. That's a departure from other boutique tequila brands, and I don't know whether it helps or hurts....

Review by tequila.net