Tequila Education and Reviews
How to Choose a Distillery for Your Tequila Brand
This is Todd Bottorff. He is one of the co-founders of TC Craft, Additive-Free Premium Tequila. Man, what a location. It's my first time here. It is absolutely gorgeous. How did you pick this one, and what is the process like?Well, we started out, and we hired a tequila scout, and we talked to them about additive-free flavor profile, exactly what we wanted. And they narrowed it down to about a dozen. Blind taste, tested it with ourselves and a group of bartenders, liquor store owners, all our friends. Wow!And ranked them 1 to 12. And so that got us to the distillery. We settled on Azteca because it was exactly what we wanted.And then, came down here and worked up the recipe for the specific profile we wanted for TC Craft.That's a rigorous mathematical process. You actually did a lot of testing, even to narrow it down to the distillery. That's really amazing.
Learn more3 Tequilas that use Wild Yeast
These tequilas have a lot of guts. Absolutely. Almost all tequila brands, even those that have open fermentation tanks, use propagated yeast, right? So they've got yeast that they've kept for years or decades, right? And every time they make a new batch, they put some of the yeast in, and that's what kind of starts the fermentation.But there are some brands that don't do that, and it's actually really risky because if you have completely wild fermentation, what triggers the process of turning sugars into alcohol is just what's in the air, right? So you've got weather changes. You've got different stuff in the air, depending on what plants are flowering each season.So a lot of things can go wrong, and you can get a lot of really inconsistent batches. Yeah. But some tequila's like, we love that. We want to do that. And here's three that we really think are cool.Entremanos that uses wild fermentation. It is Blanco only. This one is Caballito Cerrero. They are legendary agave spirit outlaws.Yeah.We visited them in Mexico. Very cool. And then this is Alma del Jaguar, which has Blanco, Repo, and an Añejo coming soon.
Learn moreApple Cider Barrel Tequila!? Nosotros Anejo Review
Is this apple delicious or rotten? Such an interesting project from Nosotros. It is an Añejo aged in wet apple cider cask that previously owned, Woodford Reserve Bourbon, aged 20 months as well. Comes in a super sweet handmade box. 1,500 bottles made only. It's like $325 though, but it is a really, yeah, no, woohoo. That's a really limited edition. Let's see what we think here. All right. That's a strong nose. That's enchanting. It's yeah, it's like an apple candle. It is like an apple candle. Like an apple cinnamon candle that you get at the store. Uhhuh. Oh my gosh. it just smells like fall. You can taste the apple in it too.Yeah. And it's buttery. Yeah, it goes down very easily. Wow. That's a delicious tequila. I wouldn't say I wouldn't say this tastes so much like tequila. No. No, not at all. But it tastes... As a beverage, it's delicious. It's like syrup, like you'd have it with dessert.Or waffles. I would make this... I would've this in waffles would be my combo meal. That's really good. That's very good. Yeah. And I would give this to people who are like, "I don't like tequilas." Try this. Because they'd be like blown away. I dig it. Yeah. I'll probably take a point off for the price because it is up there a little bit, but.. 8 for me for sure. Yep. And I'm giving it an 8 as well. Delicious dessert tequila. Nice job in the experimentation Nosotros. Keep it up.
Learn moreEl Ateo High Proof Tequila Review
100% additive-free. All the agaves are from Guanajuato, which is actually really unusual and very cool. This is 50. Yeah. 50%, yep. So this is lot 1 that was a Mexican only release, lot 2 is coming to the USA soon. It's going to be I think $85 or something like that, really? So you know, up there for sure for a blanco, but let's see how we like it.All right. Cheers. It's a relatively light nose actually, considering how much agave is packed in there.Yeah. It's got some soil character in it. It's not straight agave nose or kind of citrus. It's got a little more like, like forest flora depth to it. Yeah. Holy cow. There's a lot of flavor in that for it being a 50%.That's almost syrupy. I mean, the mouthfeel on that is so thick and juicy and ripe, but like that's wow! It's like coating my whole mouth. Yeah. That's a bomb of agave, holy mackerel. That's one of the most agave for tequilas I've ever had. That is right up my alley. Yeah, it is.I am a fan of that approach for sure. For me that's a 9. Wow! A 9, ok. 9 for me. All right, I'm going to give it a 7. High-proof Blancos aren't always my thing. It's a lot for you. Yeah, it's a lot for me, but it's still good. Yeah. And a really cool bottle and awesome packaging too. So coming out relatively soon, El Ateo the big bang.Look for it.
Learn moreNew Trend: Aged Blanco Tequilas
New trend alert. Aging Blanco tequilas in barrels. Seeing more and more brands do this, it softens the flavor just a little bit. Now, by law, you can put a blanco in a barrel for up to 60 days.And these brands are starting to do some of that, and just, it makes it a little, just a little softer, a little rounder, just a little more flavor, just a little kiss. It's a really interesting technique. Yeah. It adds just a teeny bit of color, as you can kind of see in some of these bottles. This is Inspiro. They do 30 days in barrels. Tierra de Ensueño does 14 days in barrels. ArteNOM 1123 does 30 days or so. So in brandy casks that previously held mezcal, so it actually gets a little smoky as well, which is kind of cool. So I really like this trend. Yeah. Have you guys tried a Blanco aged in barrels? Let us know in the comments.
Learn more28 Great Tequilas for Margaritas
You want to know this? The best tequilas for margaritas. It's Memorial Day weekend, which means it's officially margarita season. Woo. Okay. Don't waste so much of money on tequila for margaritas because you can't taste it anyway, with a lot of lime juice. We made you a list. We made you a list of 28 best Blanco tequilas under $50. Including El Viejito, one of our favorites.You can also get these amazing glasses for your margaritas in our online store. Maddie, how can they get the list? Just go to MargaritaList.com and we'll send it to you.
Learn moreUsing Fermentation to Change Tequila Flavors
Wow, this is so interesting. Melly Barajas makes several tequilas, including the excellent TC Craft, and she adjusts the fermentation time for each brand to alter the flavor. And because TC Craft is the most complex tequila she makes, she only makes it in the winter because fermentation is slower. Here's more of our conversation about this.It's so great to be here. You make several brands of tequila here, uh, and the way you differentiate between the brand in many cases is in fermentation. I'd love for you to describe how that works.Your question is very interesting, Jay. No one has ever asked me that question. We make the tequila the same, but we differentiate each brand in the fermentation. For me, the fermentation is the magic, complete magic. And in the distillation process, we make cuts for each brand. For of each the brand, we do more distillation time, and others less, depending on the aromas and flavors we want to obtain from each one.
Learn moreTop 10 Fastest Growing Additive-Free Tequila Brands
Here are the top 10 additive-free tequila brands by sales growth at retail from last year to the end of the first quarter till this year, in the end of the first quarter. Now, 18 of the 20 fastest-growing tequila brands overall in the United States are either additive-free on the Tequila Matchmaker list or at least claim to be additive-free.Here are the top 10 in terms of growth that actually are on the Tequila Matchmaker list. Fastest-growing Aguasol, 16000% growth. Second is Cierto. Third Cazcanes. Fourth is G4. Then Fuenteseca. Mijenta, Lalo, Arette, Tapatio, and Volans. Those are the top 10 fastest-growing tequila brands. additive-free in the United States retail last year to this year.Congratulations! More on the way.
Learn moreCasamigas - Casamigos Jalapeno Tequila Review
And now, Jay's making me drink Jalapeño Casamigos. Well, we're doing it for the fans. This is a new one from Casamigos, invented by Cindy Crawford, allegedly, because she likes Casamigas Casamigas. She likes spicy stuff. This is so smelly. You can smell this from miles away. Yeah. It is the strongest smelling tequila I've ever had.Yeah. And that's saying something, honestly. It's crazy. All right, I appreciate your willingness. Really good. The good news is we sell these glasses in our store and you should get some, they're amazing. Great glasses even if the tequila's not so great. The flavors, a strange combination. It really is.It's more weird than bad. It is bad, but it's also weird because it's sweet/hot. Yeah, it's like vanilla jalapeño. Which is not something typically you would associate. Yeah. This is really bad. It smells worse. 5 for me. I think I will be generous and give it a 5 as well. Could be a 4.
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