Prior to prohibition in the United States, gathering together in a party atmosphere, collecting fine quality ingredients, and precisely mixing/serving cocktails was a popular pastime.

Much like microbrewing, much of the lore of fine cocktailing was lost during prohibition. After prohibition ended, the large liquor and beer companies lobbied like hell to pass laws to prevent the resurrection of the craft alcohol and microbrew markets.

In the past 15 or so years, we have enjoyed a huge resurgence of craft brewing. Similarly, about the last decade has seen a growing interest in the art of fine cocktail mixology.

While this has included the rise of some very fine drinking establishments focused on classic cocktails, the hobbyist mixology market is growing rapidly, too.

If you are going to get into Mixology, you need a good recipe guide. Many paper guides exist, the best (that I know of) being Cunningham’s Bartender’s Black Book.

However, you can’t easily search a book by ingredient or flavor. You can’t be standing in a liquor store and think “I have bourbon, what do I need to make a couple of fine cocktails”. Nor can you experience a minor quake while in the liquor store and immediately look up quake related cocktails.

For that, you need an electronic guide and, with the advent of the iPhone application store, wouldn’t it be nice if such a guide were to be available in a device that you are likely already carrying anyway?

Enter Skorpiostech’s Cocktails.

With over 1,400 cocktail recipes, Cocktails contains a fairly comprehensive list of classic and modern cocktails.

Drinks are indexed by ingredients, flavors, base ingredient, and several other categories.

It is easy to search for a particular ingredient, making it possible to get an idea of the set of drinks you might be able to make given what you have on hand.

As well, you can easily share drinks via email or twitterrific.

All in all, the app is a very solid offering for 1.0. There are some obvious areas for refinement or expansion and I’m looking forward to watching this app evolve.

However, that isn’t the reason why I’m reviewing this otherwise very useful application.

Specifically, I’m calling it out because of the design value.

Cocktails is simply a beautiful app to look at and use. While the list of cocktails is relatively normal looking, the glass icon being the graphical element standout, it is really the recipe page — seen to the right — that shows an incredible attention to detail.

The typography is precise and crisp, with appropriate bits of unicode characters used when necessary.

Also, the background changes color depending on the age of the drink. For example, the Manhattan cocktail dates back to 1888, yet there are many modern versions, too. If you were to flick that recipe to the left, the backgrounds of the recipe would become lighter as the age of the recipe lessens.

A minor detail, sure, but it actually contributes considerably to the usability when simply browsing for a recipe!

Great stuff. Thank you for taking the time to respond (mostly– one or two jackasses out there, no surprise).

I wanted to respond inline, but there were so many comments so fast, that I couldn’t keep up. So, I have selected the ones that I wanted to respond to, pulled out quotes, and responded in this post.

The next post will be my personal list of favorite tequilas. It will be long. And opinionated. And highly centric to the current state of the market in the San Francisco bay area.

@DMB:

A typical cork-sniffer’s review, as if it has to be “from the heartland” and from “highlands” to be any good. I’ve been to Mexico and asked actual Mexicans what they like to drink and what’s the best stuff to buy. I came back with a couple of bottles of Don Julio Reposado.

Heh. This made me laugh. To take such an air of superiority and to cop such an attitude and then close with “I came back with a couple of bottles of Don Julio Reposado”.

Don Julio is a solid product. Good stuff– I’ll buy it if I can find it at a great price. But if that is the best you could find upon return from Mexico, then… well… epic fail. There are so many products that are of a better quality, flavor, and experience than Don Julio. Many of which are pictured to the left.

Of course, that you wrote off heartlands — lowlands — versus highlands demonstrates your outright ignorance. There is a distinct difference in the way agave grows between the two and this carries through to the tequila.

Go away, troll, there are plenty of boards full of clueless jackasses for you to torment.

@heimerwisen:

I look forward to finding a copy of The Tequila Book: A Complete Guide, by Bob Emmons. It sounds interesting.

However, it looks like the information within the book was mostly compiled prior to 1997 and, thus, is likely no longer a good quantification of the market. The tequila market has changed radically in the last decade in that the rise of boutique brands has been huge. Thus, many new products have come into existence in the last 10 years and many products that were of stellar quality then no longer are because they have opted to build brand and efficiency instead of focusing on continued qualities.

I agree about mixers, too — yuck! So much easier to do better at home with fresh ingredients. Tommy’s Nectar of the Gods is the one exception.

@rhesuspieces00:

If you can find it, give Espolón Reposado a try. Corazón is to Espolón as Cabrito is to Centinela; it is the slightly cheaper version of the distilleries premium product.

Either way, delicious stuff. I try to keep a bottle of Corazón or Espolón on hand as a staple tequila.

@Ben Lewis:

Great post. I feel compelled to mention that Tommy’s is on approximately 25th and Geary in San Francisco, and is well worth a visit for anyone who found this post interesting (I do not work there and am not affiliated with them in any way). I got basically this entire lesson from the bartender there one day – while I was drinking samples of everything mentioned. When you drink good tequila, and only good tequila, my opinion is that it’s the best alcohol buzz around.

Thank you.

I have been going to Tommy’s for a long, long time, and have taken many many friends (actually, the photo at the top of the Tommy’s web site is one of mine). Fantastic homestyle Yucatan style cuisine, too.

In terms of the Blue Agave club, I’m at the demi-god level, having visited 9 distilleries in Mexico at this point. Can’t wait to go back.

Julio’s — the bartender’s — knowledge of tequila is unparalleled and Tommy’s library of tequilas is the most expansive in the world. Seriously — Julio has product that hasn’t been made in 20 years or for which the production run was measured in dozens of bottles!

@Marcos:

Centinela is awesome stuff!! It is made just outside the town of Arandas and has that distinct highland agave spiciness. Another staple tequila for me.

My wife and I visited the distillery a couple of years ago and they were extremely gracious hosts.

Cabrito is made in the same distillery and to just about the same standards. It is just slightly harsher and just slightly less refined, but it is also considerably cheaper and more widely available. I encourage you to give it a try!

Also, if you can find it, the Centinela 3 Años and the Centinela 7 Años — their extra anejos — are just flat out stunning products. I try to bring back at least one bottle of either whenever I’m returning from Mexico. I haven’t seen a bottle of the 7 year stateside outside of Tommy’s.

Herradura makes amazing products, too, and it is also another distillery I have visited. Herradura is unique in that they use entirely wild fermentation agents (claiming more than just yeast) and, to ensure a healthy population, maintain a beautiful, huge, set of flower and fruit gardens that are just loaded with microorganisms. Seriously, their fermentation building is covered in gigantic stalagmites of micro-critters just waiting to turn agave into alcohol.

@Bill Morgan:

I simply didn’t mention mezcals. I have tried several really good mezcals and was impressed by the refined nature of their taste.

However, I’m simply not a fan. Most of the mezcals I have found to be too smoky or too herbacious. Intensely so. Amazing in and of itself, just not too my liking.

I would definitely encourage anyone to give ‘em a try, though!

@Alderete:

For additional blog posts on tequila, I wrote a couple a while back. Similar stuff to Bill’s post, with different thoughts and omissions. The posts are older, and some information about specific brands is a little dated, but overall they might be useful:

Tequila 101
Everything you need to know about ordering tequila
Tequila Recommendations

Finally, let me +1 the recommendation to go to Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant, sit in the bar, and learn about tequila in the best English-speaking classroom in the world on the subject.

Michael and Rochelle have been pursuing all things tequila for a lot longer than I have. They were some of the first of the demi-gods I met at Tommy’s and one of the big reasons why I kept going back to Tommy’s again and again.

So, What Michael Said. Go read his weblog posts, too. Great stuff!

In particular, the Tequila 101 post covers the making of tequila in detail and is an excellent read.

@Mike:

I like to explore some of the more varied Anejos versus Reposados. Speaking of El Tesoro, one of my favorites tequila’s is El Tesoro’s Paradiso. I could sit around slowly drinking that all day long. People who come from a strong whiskey background may be right at home with it. I had never heard of the term “Extra Anejo” before you mentioned here. Though I have a bottle sitting on my desk…On my honeymoon in Mexico, I brought back a bottle of Herradura Seleccion Suprema. Much cheaper in Mexico then buying it back here. However, it didn’t live up to its reputation. Though the scroll in the box proclaims that it is Mexico’s best tequila ever made, I have to disagree.

El Tesoro Paradiso is pretty close to the top of my list of extra anejos. It is just a spectacular product.

In Mexico, you can also find Tapatio Exelencia, which is distilled by the same family. Better or worse? Matter of personal taste, but I do believe you would find it to be every bit as uniquely spectacular as Paradiso!

That big glass in the picture on the right? That is a glass of Herradura Seleccion Suprema. It is a really great tequila, but I’m not entirely surprised at your reaction.

Herradura is a heartlands — lowlands — tequila and, thus, has a much smoother flavor and character that is strikingly different from the spicy and explosive flavors of a highlands tequila like Paradiso.

If you like Paradiso, it is easy to imagine that Suprema would come off as a bit underwhelming.

In the bay area, Paradiso can be found for $95 to $110 / bottle, if you look hard enough.

@Tom

For 25 years I’ve been under the impression tequila is the one liquor that continues to age once bottled, as wine does. Have I been misled?

As long as the seal is good — the cork doesn’t go bad — a bottled tequila will remain stable in flavor and color. Light, air flow and temperature changes can quickly destroy a tequila, though.

Tommy’s has tequilas that were last bottled in the early 90s that taste the same as they did 15 years ago!

I keep an eye on my meager collection (extremely meager compared to most). Any bottle that changes color or liquid level immediately moves to the “OK to consume” cabinet.

@El Jefe:

Dude knows his stuff! Go read his comment — all of it — as it illuminates a number of interesting changes in tequila over time.

First, distillers like El Tesoro that are all about traditional production and focus on high quality products will produce tequilas that change over time. Much like wines change from year to year, but agave is not an annual and, thus, a “batch” or “lot no” will not correspond to a calendar year.

Some extra anejos go the overly “scotchy” route, but I actually like that when it is done well. For example, I find San Matias’s Rey Sol to be absolutely sublime. On the flip side, Don Julio’s 1942 is not to my taste– it is delicious, but too candy for me.

El Jefe also wrote:

Cabrito used to be 100% agave. It was dumbed down to a mixto around 2001, when the agave shortage pushed reposado prices through the roof. (Priced a bottle of Herradura lately? 378p for the .950 bottle down south. I used to get it for 87!) El Jimador (Casa Herradura) was also dumbed down.

Correct. When there was an agave shortage in the late ’90s, many distillers moved to taking their low end brands and turning them into Mixtos — into adulterated products that were nearly 1/2 sugar cane based alcohol (cheap rum).

Many of the “switchers” returned to the products to 100% blue agave once the agave availability recovered and I’m fairly sure that Cabrito returned to being 100% blue agave in the past few years. El Jimador remains a mixto.

Tequilasomethingorother:

Nice site and explains the different variations…although I find them questionable since the Mexican distilleries usually decides what to call it. Not much government regulation.

This is completely incorrect.

The tequila industry is very heavily regulated and the labeling is quite precisely controlled. Distilleries are typically visited daily by the regulatory agency.

While I’m sure there is corruption in the industry, as in any industry, it is far from being the norm and running afoul of the regulatory agency is an extremely costly mistake to make.

@CapnVan:

Good primer. One point: there’s no real scientific evidence to suggest that hangovers are related in any way to the “quality” or “purity” of an alcoholic beverage. In other words, it’s just as easy to have a bad hangover from Cuervo as it is from drinking the same amount of a real tequila.

I know of no scientific studies, but I do have a considerable set of anecdotal evidence amongst myself and my friends.

I also know many many people that swore off tequila forever because of a “Cuervo Incident” who sat down and drank an equivalent amount of 100% blue agave product and remained comparatively unscathed.

Agave is a unique source of fermentable sugars. It is of no surprise to me that the resulting buzz and aftermath would be different — as different as a hangover produced by red wine (ouch! sinus attack!) vs. scotch (ouch! peat bog rammed in my head!) vs. rum (ouch! my eyes are trying to throb their way out of my head!).

Worse, the mixtos often have all kinds of nasty flavorings and additives.

However, I will say, I have occasionally found myself in a world of pain after having consumed 100% blue agave products. It can be done!

This weblog post is at least a decade in the making. Seriously. I wrote the original version of this sometime in the late ’90s as a mailing list post, then revised it again when someone at Apple asked for tequila recommendations. Likely forwarded it a dozen times or so in the interim years.

Every time I forward it, I said “I should weblog this thing”. So, here it is — with some additional edits, too. Like my “So you wanna buy a big green egg” post, I’ll likely edit this over the coming years, too.

I’m going to break this into two separate posts; one about tequila and one about margaritas. Eventually, I’ll make a third post about cooking, agave, and tequila.

First, Cuervo Gold is not good tequila. It is actually a really terrible product, quality wise, backed by some brilliant market. Sadly, most of the tequila consumed in the United States is Cuervo Gold or something equally as bad. And by “bad”, I mean bad taste and vicious hangover.

Good tequila is almost always a tequila that is made from alcohol distilled from 100% blue agave. Specifically, the species Agave Weber Tequilana. This plant of the class Liliopsida (Lilies) has nothing to do with cactus. Blue agave is grown primarily in the Mexican state of Jalisco.

More specifically, Cuervo gold is a Tequila Mixto, Joven Abocado or, more precisely, young and adulterated tequila.

By Mexican law, adulterated tequilas are at least 51% blue agave. The other 49% is generally comprised of the absolute cheapest, nastiest, sugar cane based liquor. If you are familiar with big city corner bodegas, the cheap rum in the plastic bottle on the bottom shelf behind the counter. “Bum rum” we called it in NYC.

Adulterated tequila would not have any color. To give it color and take a bit of edge off, Cuervo (and others) add caramel. This ultra-nasty combination of cheap cane sugar alcohol and low quality agave distillate is the reason for the vicious hangover. Those massive nasty sugar molecules break down into all sorts of evils that take your body a long time to metabolize. Hence, a Cuervo/adulterated tequila hangover is a trip through hell.

If all you have had is Cuervo (or Mezcal with a worm in it), then you really ought to give a true 100% blue agave tequila a chance… it is a night and day kind of experience.

Not all adulterated tequilas are bad. There are some excellent adulterated tequilas available, but they are very hard to find. Visit Tommy’s and Julio has ‘em all.

Of the 100% blue agave tequilas, there are 3 4 kinds; blanco, reposado, anejo, and extra anejo. Extra anejo was created in 2006 as a new market segment identifier.

It is important to note that, in all segments, there are examples of tequilas that are excellent for sipping straight and others that are really only appropriate in a mix.

Blanco or Silver

A relatively unaged tequila. That is, the tequila is made from alcohol fermented from sugars found in the blue agave plant and then distilled. This is generally filtered such that it is bottled as a clear liquid, typically once fermentation is finished. Some blancos will be rested for upwards of 45 days, typically in large stainless steel tanks. Some distilleries will oxygenate the tequila during this period of time, taking a bit of the edge off of the flavors.

Blanco or silver tequilas are generally fruitier and will have a bit of a bite to them. Personally, a good blanco margarita is my favorite kind. El Tesoro, Herradura, and Fortaleza all make stellar blanco tequilas.

Note that El Tesoro Platinum (blanco) has just a tiny bit of color. Unlike most tequilas, it is actually distilled to proof — that is, distilled to the bottling strength and not diluted down to bottle strength with water. It has less filtration and, thus, just a bit of color usually. El Tesoro Platinum provides one of the most herbaceous of the silver tequilas, offering the distinct flavors of the highland agave from which it is made.

The Partida bottle on the right in the first picture in this post is Partida’s excellent blanco, the absolutely clarity of which is obvious in that picture.

The tequila pouring out of the spout and through the bit of cheese cloth is about 70% alcohol agave distillate that, with water added to bring it down to 40% ABV, would be Centinela blanco.

Reposado

This is a slightly aged or “rested” tequila. The tequila in this segment is aged for more than 2 months but less than a year in oak barrels of any size; often hundreds of gallons. The aging process takes a bit of the bite and fruitiness off of the tequila, replacing it with a touch of the wood within which the liquid is stored.

Many common and relatively cheap, decent quality, brands are often reposados. Some examples include Hornitos (a Sauza brand), Cazadores, and Cabrito. Of the three, Cabrito — Centinela’s discounted label — is, by far, the best. Of these, I would only use them in margaritas.

I prefer reposados because they carry forth both the distinct flavors of the agave used in production and the style of distillation and aging implied by the distillery.

My two favorite general purpose sipping (i.e. awesome quality casual sipping or mixing tequilas) tequilas are both reposados. From the town of Tequila in the heartlands of Jalisco comes Fortaleza, made by Guillermo Erickson Sauza (fifth generation in the Sauza family). El Tesoro Reposado is made in the highlands town of Arandas by the Camarena family.

In the united states, once you move beyond the mixtos, the most commonly sold tequilas are either silvers or anejos.

Not so in Mexico. The most commonly sold tequilas in Jalisco are reposados. When a family — an extended family in US terms — gathers for a meal, you’ll typically see a bottle of reposado or two on the table. Some drink it straight, some mixed with grapefruit juice and/or fresca.

This isn’t surprising. Reposados offer a bit more smoothness — more sippable oakiness — than blancos, while still preserving the characteristic vegetal flavors from the agave.

And they are considerably cheaper than anejos.

Nothing beats a lazy sunday afternoon meal of tortillas, carnitas, various veggies and salsas, accompanied by a great reposado and a handful of different refreshing fruit juices and sodas to mix it with!

Anejo

To be in this class, a tequila must be aged in small oak barrels. Typically, in 55 gallon bourbon, whiskey or cognac barrels (though occasionally aged in anything from port to new oak barrels). Due to the aging in small batches in previously used liquor barrels, an Anejo tequila will take on the flavor of whatever was aged in the barrel.

Aging can last anywhere from 1 to 3 years, after which it becomes an extra anejo.

Some tequilas are aged in multiple kinds of barrels and then blended afterwords, possibly with more aging and often falling, again, in the category of extra anejo.

During aging in these smaller barrels, upwards of 20% of the liquid in the barrel is lost per year due to evaporation. This loss is called the angel’s share and, given the volume lost, there must be some awesome angel parties in Mexico. The loss can be reduced by humidifying the aging warehouse / cave, but doing so both changes the nature of the resulting product and runs the risk of molds or other evil bugs taking up residence in the barrel wood, potentially ruining whole barrels.

Flavors for well made Anejos move more towards scotches, whiskeys, bourbons, and the like. That is, you’ll taste more of the wood, it will typically be smoother, and there will be less of a vegetal flavor.

Extra Anejo

This category was created in 2006 to provide an at-a-glance means of identifying the relatively rare tequilas that are aged for more than 3 years. Obviously, the angel’s share for a 3+ year old tequila is significantly larger and, thus, most of the tequila’s in this class are considerably more expensive.

This is also the category where you will find tequilas that have been aged in multiple barrel types, blended and then aged more.

Flavors in this category tend to be more unique and more intense, with some extra anejos approaching 20+ year old scotch in intensity and smoothness.

Interestingly, tequila really doesn’t change much when it is left in the barrel for more than 7 years. Because the evaporation rate is high, the claim is that the aging process is accelerated. That does seem to be the case in that tequila picks up the flavors of the wood and gains an aged smoothness much more rapidly than scotches. Certainly, after 7 years in the barrel with 10% or 15% of the remaining volume lost per year, the concentration of the flavors in the remaining liquid will increase rapidly!

There exists awesome tequilas in all of the above market segments and any good tequila will make a good margarita, too. A good margarita should carry through the flavors of the tequila used, though some of the subtleties of an anejo or extra anejo will be lost.

I have been harsh on Cuervo. Cuervo does make some great tequilas. Their “Reserva De L’Familia” line is 100% blue agave and it is quite delicious. However, it is relatively expensive and I find the flavors to be overwhelming. For considerably less money, it is easy to find much better quality products.

We held our annual crab party yesterday and it was a total blast! Christine and I served all 200 pounds of dungeness crabs, 30 lbs of smoked pork, and our guests brought an amazing array of other yummy edibles and drinkables!

Thank you to everyone who could make it! It was incredible!

Guillermo Erickson Sauza shared a lot of his amazing Tequila Los Abuelos / Tequila Fortaleza. Certainly my favorite heartlands tequila. Distribution is relatively limited. If you are in the Cupertino area, you can purchase Los Abuelos / Fortaleza at Coach House Liquors.

Julio Bermejo made the awesome T-shirts and whipped up batch after batch of his famous margaritas. Visit Julio at Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco — world’s best tequila bar and an excellent Yucatan home style restaurant, too.

Lilianna, Julio’s wife and member of the Camarena family, shared her family’s El Tesoro de Don Felipe tequila. Made in Arandas, Jalisco, El Tesoro is easily my favorite highlands tequila. It is deliciously spicy and incredibly smooth.

Julio used Tequila Arette blanco to make the margaritas. An awesome tequila that can be found in most decent liquor stores.

I also thiefed out a bit of tequila from my barrel. It is Pueblo Viejo Reposado that has been sitting in the barrel for 6 months.

It is surprisingly delicious; lots of caramely wood flavor with a bit of bite on the finish (due to the young age).

I’ll need to bottle it soon as it is “done”. Now that I have thiefed out about a liter of the 4.5 in the barrel, I might just refill the barrel and let it sit for a while longer.

Truly a legendary party.

Make a Muddled Mango Margarita!!

1. place a half of a mango (yeah — “mango”… not “margarita” like I original said — though that might be a good start, too ) in a tall drinking glass

2. add a few leaves of mint

3. muddle well (mango should largely liquify and the mint should be good and bruised)

4. add 2 to 4 ounces of good tequila (Herradura’s Blanco is an awesome choice — rested 40 days such that it is smoother than a regular silver yet still carries all the vegetal agave flavors)

5. add a bunch of ice — maybe fill the glass to halfway

6. If you can get it, nearly fill the glass with Tommy’s Heavenly Margarita Mix. If not, squeeze in the juice of one meyer’s lemon, add about a teaspoon or so of cane sugar (to taste), and nearly fill with either water or soda water.

7. Float cran-raspberry juice on top. Or, to acknowledge current popular culture (because, you know, I just care so much about popular culture), float some pomegranate juice on top (no, pomegranates are not new — ancient fruit — just that pomegranate juice seems to be all the rage these days).

The result is delicious and refreshing. Vary the ratios depending on taste.

Last weekend was the crab party. 175 lbs of crab. 140+ people. 30 lbs of smoked pork. Over 9 liters of really fine tequila. Home brew. Delicious food. Awesome company.

This was Crabtacular IV: The Boiling. Beyond being bigger than ever, the party achieved a couple of additional milestones. More crab than ever at 175 lbs of live dungeness. Corporate sponsorship in the form of weenie roasters and amazing tequila.

And I didn’t take a single photo. There were far, far more capable photographers attending than I and they took some amazing shots.

I owe a lot of people a huge thank you. Ben Holt for helping to engineer the massive tarps that we hung over the backyard (and for tying all the knots) — lowest spot was 8 feet, making it feel like a whole outdoor room had been added to the house. Duncan & Pinar for taking this amazing set of pictures (including the one seen at left). Buzz Anderson grabbed some great shots, including an awesome shot of myself with Guillermo Erickson Sauza and a crab.

And, of course, to Christine– my awesome wife and co-host of the party. Could not have thrown such an amazing party without her.

And, of course, a huge thank you to everyone who came to the party!

Crab was the center piece of the party. Lots and lots of crab. While most of the crab was served boiled, a number of folks made all kinds of delicious crab recipes or combined crab with other foods in delicious combinations. Bacon wrapped jalapeno peppers stuffed with crab anyone?

We were honored by the presence of Guillermo Erickson Sauza, Julio Bermejo of Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant (the best tequila bar on the planet), and Lilianna Camarena Bermejo.

Guillermo shared many bottles of Los Abuelos with us. Los Abuelos is an awesome tequila, as I have mentioned before.

Lily brought a bottle of El Tesoro Añejo. Delicious tequila. Whereas Los Abuelos makes my favorite reposado, El Tesoro makes my favorite Añejo — smooth, with just a slight bit of peppery spice. Delicious. And that is the original label — not generally available in the US.

I also broke open my 5 liter barrel of tequila that had been aging in my garage for 21 days. As it was Herradura Blanco Suave, it was already rested for 40 days at the distillery. Given that I had it in a new barrel with a heavy char, it picked up considerable color and flavor for only having rested for three weeks. It is excellent stuff.

As rain was likely (and it did sprinkle all day), Ben and I constructed a tarp based covering over a good 50% of the back yard. Attached to the house such that the backyard would truly be a dry extension of the main room of the house. As the yard was a bit soft, I picked a whole bunch of astroturf from Home Depot and rolled that out under the ad-hoc tent.

Worked beautifully! Ours is not the largest house and, while crowded, there was always open space into which folks could escape.

On Sunday, Ben and I tore down the backyard. We cleaned some crab and I made crab cakes using this simple recipe. Damned easy to make. I chose to deep fry the cakes as I know have a professional class small fryer (thanks to my totally awesome wife Christine). The key, though, was to add a bit of meyer’s lemon to the cakes and then to create a dip of a home made bbq sauce (thanks to Ben’s awesome wife Abbie) combined with a little chili sauce and madras curry powder. Delicious.

I’m betting I could make a killer smoked pork cake…

Tequila Los Abuelos is now available at Coach House Wine, Liquor and Deli at the corner of Prospect & De Anza right at the border between Cupertino & Saratoga.

Los Abuelos is 100% Blue Agave tequila made in the traditional fashion. No flavoring, no oxygenation, nothing but 100% pure Agave tequila!

If you are looking to add a tequila to your bar that will blow people away, find Los Abuelos! (Josh busted me — it said “our bar”. Maybe I’ll try mass hypnosis next.)

Los Abuelos is a boutique brand. I was introduced to this fine tequila by Guillermo Sauza, the fifth generation son of the Sauza family. Yes, that Sauza family.

Guillermo has restored his grandfather’s original distillery to make Los Abuelos (which means, literally, “the grandparents”).

Los Abuelos uses stone ovens to roast the agave, a tahona — large stone wheel — to crush the roasted penas, actual wood fermentation barrels (very very rare in tequila making these days) and, of course, wood aging barrels.

The end result is an amazing product. I have raved about it on my weblog before.

It is an incredibly smooth and drinkable product. I would highly recommend that you start with the reposado as it seems to most distinctly highlight the quality that has resulted from Guillermo’s attention to detail and respect for tradition.

I have more photos from Distileria La Fortaleza that I will post along with a full write up. The above photo was actually taken inside of the caves at the distillery that will eventually be used for aging the tequila. When I visited, we were invited into the cave to enjoy some music and, of course, some Los Abuelos tequila!

Start of day 3… brushing teeth with Tequila again. Mmm… Pura Sangre Blanco. I really need toothpaste. After rolling out of bed, grabbing breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we strapped all of our stuff to the van and headed to Tequila Espolon. Good-bye to the Hotel Santa Barbera — if you ever go to Arandas, it is an awesome place to stay.

Tequila Espolon is located on the outskirts of the town of Arandas in the middle of huge fields of Agave, mostly their own. Espolon is a delicious highlands tequila, with the aged product carrying through hints of mocha/caramel and an excellent spice. Excellent, solid product. Beautiful bottles, too, with embossed metalized labels.

Definitely a worthy addition to any bar.

Read on for a photo tour of Espolon’s tequila making process…

Tequila Espolon is a fairly large facility, for such an artisan quality tequila. Espolon also has one of the most modern laboratories in the industry. From the genetics of the yeast(s) used for fermentation through to regulation of methyl alcohol content through to the subtleties associated with the aging process, many distilleries have some impressive lab equipment.

Espolon is surrounded by beautiful fields of Agave (that I completely neglected to photograph). Some of the neatest, best kept, fields we saw on the trip.

Once harvested, the agave penas are brought to the patio. Basically, the patio is the area where the penas are offloaded from the truck and prepped for loading into the ovens, be they traditional stone ovens or autoclaves.

Tequila Espolon uses a unique device to split particular large agave penas into quarters for loading into the ovens.

It is called a guillotine and it is basically a big hydraulic press loaded with blades that splits the agave into quarters quite cleanly.

Frankly, I’m not sure if lifting and wrestling a pena into the guillotine is any easier than simply splitting them with an axe (which I did later in the week).

Once the penas are split, they are loaded into one of the five autoclaves at Tequila Espolon.

The autoclaves are huge. Each one holds thousands and thousands of pounds of agave penas.

The agave is cooked with steam. The liquid that pools in the bottom of the autoclave is drained off and tossed as it contains whatever bugs and dirt were on the agave.

Being autoclaves, the ovens will build up a small bit of pressure. The doors are bolted shut, but they are not tightly sealed. Less pressure than your average kitchen pressure cooker.

Once the Agave is cooked, the ovens are allowed to cool off a bit before the ovens are opened.

The ovens are opened and the roasted agave is offloaded into a conveyer built that carries it to the next phase of processing.

The oven is only about half full as January is an off month for production after the holiday rush.

We were able to taste the fresh roasted agave. It is delicious. Very very sweet and leaves your hands quite sticky.

The roasted agave is carried along to what is, effedctively, a wood chipper. It breaks the agave down into relatively small chunks that are then fed into a series of roller mills.

The roller mills are basically big metal wheels that have interlocking grooves. Water is sprayed on the agave as it passes through the roller mill, with the goal being to squeeze out all of the sugars that have been roasted out of the agave.

There are lots of theories regarding the use of roller mills versus the traditional tahona (big stone wheel). There are also conflicting theories regarding the number of roller mills should be used.

All of this revolves around maximizing the amount of extracted sugars that ferment into Ethyl Alcohol (good stuff) vs. extracting stuff that ferments into Methyl Alcohol (bad stuff).

The distilleries are typically fairly old or old looking buildings. They often tout the tradition of Mexico, of Tequila and of the area or town around the distillery.

But don’t let the “antique” look fool you. Distilleries often have very modern labs. This is just the genetics lab of Tequila Espolon. In this lab, the company keeps a close eye on the quality and health of the yeast used to ferment the agave mash.

Tequila Espolon has another, much larger, lab that includes a mass spectrometer and other equipment that can be used to very accurately quantify every step of the tequila making process.

While tradition dictates the methodology used, science ensures a consistent and high quality product!

The goop that is mashed out of the roast agave is sent to big fermentation tanks. It is typically inoculated with anywhere from 5% to 20% volume of yeast cultures.

The yeast eats the sugars and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide as waste. Obviously, fermenting in a well ventilated space is a requirement.

In the picture is actually one of Espolon’s stills. In particular, it is a rather large column still that stuck out the already very tall roof of the building.

Stills work by boiling off the alcohol from the water in the musto — the fermented agave goop. This raises the ABV — alcohol by volume — from around 20% or so to somewhere north of 40% ABV, depending on process employed.

Tequila is a double distilled spirit. That is, the liquid coming off the pictured still is distilled again to up the purity and ABV.

We tasted the raw tequila coming off the first distillation and it was actually quite delicious. Very very strong stuff, but had a great vegetal flavor that tasted distinctly of the agave.

Once distilled, the raw tequila is moved to large stainless steel tanks for at least a couple of weeks of aging. This allows the tequila to “settle down” a bit prior to either being bottled as a blanco — a silver — tequila or placed into barrels for aging.

Tequila Espolon, pictured, new white oak barrels to age their tequila for anywhere from a few months for the reposado to a couple of years+ for their anejo.

The barrels aren’t typically moved. Most companies will pump tequila into and out of the barrels in place.

The master distillery (whose name I forgot! Gah!) was kind enough to give us the tour. Once finished, we sat down to some snacks and, of course, a sampling of Tequila Espolon’s very fine products. Personally, I really enjoyed the blanco as it carried through so much of the high quality highlands agave they grow and use. However, their anejo and reposado are both extremely delicious.

Excellent stuff.

From Cazadores, it was back to Tapatio / El Tesoro de Don Felipe for a tour of the facilities. El Tesoro is the export label for what is known as Tapatio in Mexico. Sort of — there are other differences mainly due to the legal requirements of exporting into the American market versus the tastes of the Mexican market. El Tesoro is available in Mexico, but with the old school labels.

El Tesoro de Don Felipe’s products are all delicious, crafted with great care. Unlike just about every other Tequila distiller, El Tesoro products are distilled down to the target ABV. For others, the cask ABV is typically higher than the bottle ABV and de-mineralized water is added upon de-casking, right before bottling.

We visited the bottling line at El Tesoro while the team was bottling the very delicious El Tesoro Anejo. It was mesmerizing to watch. Here is a group of people from teenagers to one of the patriach’s family all working together as a team — as an extended family — to ensure that the right amount of an excellent product was placed in every bottle.

First, the empty bottles are placed onto the bottle washer. They don’t use plain water or some nasty chemicals to sterilize the bottls. Oh, no! They use El Tesoro Blanco to wash the bottles. It is used for a handful of days and, once dirty, it is filtered and used later in the process to moisten the label glue during labeling!

The actual bottle filling station is quite the contraption. It is basically a spinning table with a drain in the middle. Bottles are placed under filling nozzles and may go around once, twice or more — hard to tell, but more than once, certainly — while being filled.

The person manning the bottling station pulls the full bottles, shakes out any excess into the drain in the middle of the machine to return to bottling, and inserts a full bottle. All in one fluid motion. While the table is spinning.

I would break bottles or, more likely, lose several fingers in a matter of seconds in front of that thing! Yet, no tequila went wasted and there might have been one bottle broken the entire time we were there.

The bottles are placed onto a conveyer belt that carries them through capping — done by hand — and then along in front of a light panel on the wall. Each bottle is inverted in front of the panel to see if there is any debris in the bottle.

From there, the bottles are placed into a wooden crate and taken back to boxing and storage. Again, each is inspected for debris.

That is right. Every bottle of El Tesoro is hand bottled, hand labeled and hand inspected a couple of times. These people seriously care about their product. Seriously.

Puts that price tag in a bit more perspective; 10 years in the field, a week to a month to bottle and distill/l, anywhere from a couple of months to several years in casks, hand bottled and shipped out over the course of a month or so. Wow! At least a decade, if not 15 years, from field to your liquor cabinet.

Speaking of aging, we visited the aging room that contains many barrels of tequila being aged in a naturally temperature controlled environment. The barrels are almost exclusively made of american white oak and may be new or may be purchased from whiskey or bourbon distillers.

It is amazing that some of the barrels hold liquid at all! Rarely, they don’t: they will split enough to leak out a bit of liquid. Tasty stuff, but bad for overall production.

A huge note of Thank You to Tapatio / El Tesoro de Don Felipe. Your hospitality was awesome and very much appreciated. You made us feel like a part of the family, letting us taste some truly unique products that I’m sure will be huge successes if and when they hit the market.

Folks in the United States should keep an eye out for a some new products from this fine company! El Tesoro / Tapatio is rapidly approaching its 70th anniversary, after all! Seems like a great time to release a new product (though, maybe, like Apple, they’ll do it next year , one year after the actual anniversary.)

Once we herded the cats into the van, we headed to Tequila Don Nacho for a tour and tasting. Tequila Dan Nacho is a small to medium sized distillery that mixes traditional brick ovens with more modern stainless steel double distillation processing. It is actually a very young distillery that is owned by Ignacio Hernandez Gutierrez, known as Don Nacho. While the distillery is young, the family has been growing Agave for many decades and their Agave has an excellent reputation for consistently high quality.

The holidays are the busiest time of the year in the tequila industry. As such, many distilleries shut down for a period of time in October / early November or they will shut down in January. During this time of rest, repairs and upgrades are made.

There is a significant amount of infrastructure associated with a distillery. Beyond the fermentation tanks and stills, you have ovens or autoclaves for roasting, a masher or extractor for pulling the sugars off the roasted agave, and a water processing and heating plant to drive it all. As steam is used in many parts of the tequila making process, distilleries typically have a steam plant and water conditioning plant on site.

Don Nacho was in the process of distilling down some Tequila, but there ovens were offline for annual repairs and upgrades. We were able to taste the product of both the first and second distillation at the natural alcohol-by-volume (ABV) that they came off the stills. Delicious. The product of the first distillation is often somewhere around 30% to 50% ABV and it has a strong vegetal kick; you taste the agave quite strongly. For most companies, the second distillation typically yields about 50% to 70% ABV which is subsequently watered down a bit for bottling.

We were joined by two of the owner’s sons, who gave us a wonderful tour, shared tequila with us and were all around very warm and welcoming hosts!

From Don Nacho, we then headed to Carnitas Jaime for an awesome lunch. Pork, tortillas, great live traditional music, and a liter of Tapatio Anejo. As I was soon to observe, pretty much every table and every meal included a bottle of tequila shared amongst those at the table.

Always a good bottle, too. And no hesitation to mix it with Squirt, lime juice, spicy tomato juice, or any of a number of other mixers. We all split a bottle of Tapitio Anejo.

After lunch, it was on to a brief visit at Tapatio / El Tesoro don Felipe. A very traditional distillery, it also happens to be owned by the family that Julio married into. We visited long enough to taste some product that isn’t on the market yet — a extra anejo that was simply spectacular– and to provide opinion regarding future labeling.

Of course, we bough some tequila, too! Not possible to pass up nearly a liter of Tapatio Anejo for less than $30! Just so damned good, that Tequila is. As can be seen in the photo, original label El Tesoro products are also available.

But we would be returning later in the day….

From Tapatio, we hopped back into the bus and headed over to Cazadores. They showed us a very scratched and slightly over-produced video discussing the production and philosophy behind Cazadores. Felt like I was watching the tequila version of MTV. It was interesting, though.

Once we got through the video, they sat us down with some snacks (Pork Rinds and Chile!!! YUM!) and poured an awesome selection of Cazadores products. It further confirmed that, in Mexico, it is much more common to mix tequila with Fresca, Squirt, fruit juice or Coca-Cola. The slightly aged tequilas — the reposodas — are the most popular type.

Thank you to Tequila Don Nacho and Cazadores. Both places treated us well — very well. Neither distillery was actually open on Monday, both being down for maintenance, etc.. And, yet, they welcomed us in, took us under wing, and taught us a lot about making highlands tequila!