Rancho Tequila: July 2011

Monday, July 25, 2011

LiLo Skull-Rocks with Kah!

U R SOOO KAAAHHH!

SLOW NEWS DAY FLASH!

Lindsay Lohan was caught skull-handed rockin' some Kah tequila blanco at a house-party with friends. This TMZ report says in the headline: "Lindsay + Worm +..." Not sure what the worm is referring to, unless TMZ mistakenly thinks that Tequila has a worm in the bottle.

Anyhoo...

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Tequilas For Twenty!

Hola! Señor! We are the Ultimo in affordable tequila!

One Andrew Jackson! A pair of Hamiltons! That's all it takes to get a bottle of decent 100% gave tequila any more. No reason to settle for a mixto, or worse, pay Patrón prices for a 750 of the good stuff. Tequila prices are coming down faster than Lindsay Lohan's pants. This is due to a combination of factors: New production tecniques, a worldwide glut, competition from too many brands, AND, apparently, TOO MUCH AGAVE*. There is a surplus of agave, dropping prices to new lows, and leading some farmers to plow under their blue-green pencas in favor of corn for making ethanol.

Rough for Mexican tequila producers; muy bueno for tequila consumers.

Here are some tasty $20 tequilas:

Espolón blanco and reposado
Camarena blanco and reposado
El Último Agave blanco and reposado
Milagro Silver
El Jímador
El Charro
Azúl
Cién Años 100% agave reposado
Agavales
D'los Altos blanco

Most of these we mihgt consider good mixers and not sippers, but for twenty bucks what's not to like?
There are a lot more out there. Have fun finding them!

*"There's lots of agave that cannot be consumed. Additionally, there are 130 million liters in inventory within the distilleries," explained González Figueroa

My Tequila Discovery, 1992

My agave quest began a relatively long time ago -- long before the more recent Patron-driven 100% agave revolution began in the USA. It was October of 1992. My band was playing the prestigious CMJ (College Media Journal) Music Conference in NYC. We had the great fortune to be placed at Rodeo Bar, one of the convention's official venues. This was appropriate because then, as now, we played a twangy Texas-style music. The big thing about playing the Rodeo was that 1) they paid the bands and 2) they fed the bands for free and 3) they even provided free drinks! Great place! See, they were the ONLY place that paid the bands. At all the other venues the bands played these "SHOWCASES" for free, and it was really pay-to-play because of the expense of doing it. So like I said, we were lucky as hell.
So we played and had a good gig and enjoyed the other bands on the bill and ate at the adjoining (excellent) Tex-Mex restaurant, then called "Albuquerque". The bar itself was a converted actual cattle car, and this very nice bartender named Erin took a liking to us. The night wore on, and before you knew it, only my bass-player and myself remained at the cattle-bar with Erin. We had been drinking beers and were now in the mood for a tequila shot. Erin then says, "Guys, you need to try some REAL tequila!" She pointed up to the top of the bar to some dusty bottles hidden in the shadow above the bar-lights. "Our Mexican cooks bring this stuff up from Mexico when they come back from visiting home. It's their private stash," Erin said. Our eyes got big. Would there be worms? Scorpions?
But without further ado and at no charge she lined us up three shots from three different bottles and we tasted them.
Damn dude!
The lights went on in technicolor. Flavor! Spice! Smoothness! Wood! Baby!

Then the lights went out.

We literally fell off our bar-stools and staggered our way out to the NY streets at about 3 am. I still have NO memory of getting back to the hotel.
I had no idea what labels were on those bottles, so I couldn't tell you what I drank that night. But for the rest of the 90's and up until now I have sought out the best tequila available. And in the mid '90s there was not much available. At first it was stuff like Hornitos and Conmemorativo. Then I think, yes, it was Don Julio that a Mexican buddy of mine brought back from Mexico. It was not yet available in the US, or at least around here. Then came Tradicional and Herradura and El Jimador and Cabo Wabo and El Tesoro and then Patron came along and the blue floodgates of agave opened.

Thank you Erin, wherever you are! This is all your fault!

Rancho Tequila

www.ranchotequila.net

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Mules + Tahona + Highland Agave = 7 Leagues of Love!

Monday, July 25, 2011

LiLo Skull-Rocks with Kah!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Tequilas For Twenty!