A Muddled Thought

After taking a look at Don Julio’s Blanco and Reposado offerings several weeks ago, I decided to sample their 1942 offering. One of the two flagship products in the Don Julio line, the 1942 bottling is anejo offering that’s aged up to two years after going through a second distillation in a separate pot still known only as “Still Number 6″.

Don Julio 1942 starts off with a unique nose filled with hints of orange cream and mild agave.

After tasting the Don Julio 1942, the word wow popped into my head. My palate was hit with an impressive array of flavors including cocoa, hazelnut, vanilla cream and espresso. All flavors that you’d expect to find in a high quality anejo. I was then totally caught off guard by some new flavors that I wasn’t expecting to find.

Throughout each sip of the tequila, the beautiful flavor of orange marmalade resonated. It conjured childhood memories, long since passed, spent enjoying this sublime flavor during Sunday breakfasts..

Along side those magnificent notes of orange marmalade were spectacular defined pockets of sweet vanilla that cohabited each sip as if you were tasting pure vanilla beans.

Don Julio’s 1942 Tequila is a magnificent extra anejo offering that should be tried by any tequila aficionado.

Final Rating: 9.5/10

Often in reviews of spirits I try and create an original cocktail or three that utilize that particular spirit as a base.

With a tequila such as Cazadores Anejo, it was easy to come up with a few cocktails that worked using it as its base.

Cazadores Anejo is one of those spirits that you find yourself having trouble putting down while making tasting notes. From that first sip, you’re hit with flavors of cocoa, espresso, as well as vanilla bean and orange zest. With the flavors of vanilla bean and orange zest doing a waltz upon your taste buds, you’re then hit with something close to a flavor of orange creamsicle.

Based on the flavors that I observed upon sampling the spirit neat:

Final Score: 9/10

Now for a cocktail with the Cazadores Anejo.

This recipe was inspired by a drink served up by the phenomenal crew at PDT. They currently have a drink known as the Paddington that incorporates orange marmalade, rum, lillet blanc, grapefruit juice, and absinthe.

Thinking about the orange creamsicle notes that I came across in the Cazadores Anejo inspired me to create the “Laren’s Marmalade Surprise”. With the creation in hand being named after a close friend this drink hits just the right balance between both spicy and sweet, much as comes out in this individuals personality on a daily basis. Neither the drink nor the person ever comes off too sweet or too spicy.

“Laren’s Marmalade Surprise”

1 1//2 oz Cazadores Anejo
Bar Spoon of Orange Marmalade
¼ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Vanilla syrup
Muddled Jalepeno
2 Dashes Mole Bitters

Laren's Marmalade Surprise. A Combination of Cazadores Anejo, Orange Marmalade, Vanilla Syrup, Jalepeno and Mole Bitters

To follow up this first recipe, I decided to see what else I could come up with using the Cazadores Anejo as a base.

Taking inspiration from the classic Manhattan, here’s the 54th and 5th Cocktail:

1 ½ oz Cazadores Anejo
½ oz Benedictine
½ oz Carpano
¼ oz blood orange juice
2 dash mole bitter

The 54th and 5th. A combination of Cazadores Anejo, Benedictine, Carpano Antica, Blood Orange and Mole Bitters.

Don Julio Tequila starts off with high quality blue-agave grown in fields surrounding the town of Atotonilco, in Jalisco, Mexico. The Piña once hand-picked is then taken and steam-cooked for seventy two hours, and then grounded up prior to fermentation beginning. At this point, the fermented juices are distilled twice. Once distillation is complete, Don Julio bottles the Blanco immediately while the Reposado is left to age in American white oak barrels for eight months.

These precise steps create impressive representations of both a Blanco and Reposado Tequila, both with a balanced flavor profile that work great within cocktails.

Starting with a nose filled with notes of pepper, Don Julio Blanco marries these notes with tones of soft fruit. This creates a perfect unison of clean spice and sweetness with neither ever overpowering the other.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Mexican Harvest
1 ¾ oz Don Julio Blanco Tequila
1 oz Laird’s Applejack
1 oz Apple Cinnamon Syrup
½ oz Lime Juice
Muddled Jalepeno-2 Rings

The Mexican Harvest. A Combination of Don Julio Blanco, Muddled Peppers, Laird's Applejack, and Apple Cinnamon Syrup.

After being aged eight months in white American oak barrels, Don Julio Reposado is bottled with a perfume of sweet cocoa and agave that shows itself right upon removing the cap from the bottle. This is followed up with a very smooth Reposado offering that intertwines flavors of caramel, cocoa and occasional hints of espresso.

Final Score: 9/10

A Sip and a Blink
2 oz Don Julio Reposado
2 Dashes Mole Bitters
1/2 oz Carpano Antica
¼ oz Lime Juice
Eggwhite

Rinse a chilled coupe glass with a barspoons worth of Mata Hari Absinthe
(Lighter and lacks the heavier anise notes other Absinthes have)

Note:One of those drinks that if not sipped carefully, can go down very quickly.

A Sip and a Blink. A Combination of Don Julio Reposado, Mole Bitters, Carpano Antica, and Eggwhite.

After taking a look at El Diamante Del Cielo’s Anejo offering a few weeks ago,I was curious to see how the Blanco and Reposado offerings they produced fared.

Using the same triple distillation system used in the Anejo offering in which the heads and tails of the spirit are discarded and only the heart remains, allows a flavorful offering in both El Diamante’s other two offerings.

How flavorful?

Well, the Blanco hits you with a very clean, nose of pure sweet agave. It then follows this up in the first sip with notes of floral agave, followed up by minor notes of cream.

A simple yet nicely executed Blanco. With its simplistic and not overly complicated flavor profile, this would work great in any cocktail that calls for a Blanco tequila.

Final Score:8/10

The “Jan Brady” of the El Diamante Del Cielo, the Reposado sits firmly between their Blanco and Anejo offerings in its flavor profile.

While not sharing all the same flavors hidden within each sip of the Anejo offering, the Reposado starts off with a nose filled with a sweetness that made me think of a bourbon. This is due in no small part to El Diamante’s use of white oak barrels in the same fashion as bourbon manufacturers use to age their spirits.

From that first taste, I was hit with heavy notes dark chocolate, mild spice, a sweet almost akin to a caramel popcorn flavor, hazelnut and the occasional notes of toffee. You can see how aging the anejo an additional three years and one day(The Reposado is aged for 364 days) allows these flavors to mature further.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Lunazul, these guys really know to make tequila. I thought about just leaving my review with that statement, but thinking a bit more detail was in order, I’ll provide a brief background before moving on to the impression it left.

Lunazul is simple and cuts right to the chase in the process they utilized to make their tequilas.
Starting off by using blue agave harvested in fields that have been in the same family for eight generations. This agave is then double distilled in stills that were once used to produce cognac.

Distributed by Heaven Hill Distributors of Kentucky, both the Reposado and Blanco offerings are tequila’s that impress upon first sip. They also manage to hit the low price point of between $20-$25, yet are more at home as sipping tequilas then something that would be taken as a shot.

The Blanco variety of Lunazul has won numerous awards, including the 2008 and 2009 San Francisco World Spirits Competition as well as the 2009 New York Spirits Awards, for Best of Class Award. Does it deserve all these awards and accolades?

Without a doubt Lunazul Blanco deserves all these awards and more. A nose of mild agave balanced with fruit, hits you right as you open the bottle. Bringing with it the realization that this tequila is a thing of beauty. Surprisingly this spirit demonstrates flavors that normally only show themselves in aged tequila’s such as a Reposado or an Anejo.

With my first sip, I was hit with flavors of espresso, orange cream, cinnamon and sweet agave. Upon further samplings, I also noticed a hint of vanilla. Whatever Lunazul did to produce their Blanco offering, they did it right.
Upon competition of these tasting notes, I took one final sip and a smile came to my face.

Any spirit that can do that comes highly recommended.

Final Score: 9/10

So after being completely blown away by Lunazul’s Blanco offering, I was curious to see how their Reposado would compare.
My experience with Lunazul Reposado starts off with the perfume of clean, perfect sweet agave emanating from the open bottle.

The taste boggled my mind as I was hit with a cornucopia of flavors ranging from orange zest, to fruit punch cinnamon, spice, hazelnut and cream.

A harmonious combination of flavors that somehow work. Each sip brings a new surprise complete with smooth finish.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Tres Generaciones Reposado

After being invited to a Tres Generaciones tasting recently, and experiencing their Reposado offering I wanted to see how it would work in some cocktails.

With a flavor profile overflowing with flavors of cocoa, sweet chocolate, banana orange zest spice, it’s one of those tequilas that can be both sipped neat or enable cocktails to almost jump of the glass.

One of my first experiences with spirits that wasn’t a beer as a young adult was the infamous Mudslide. A frozen horrid concoction combining kahlua, vodka, baileys and chocolate syrup. Since my life has become engrossed in cocktails I’ve developed a hatred of this drink as I feel it gives a bad name to spirits.

With that in mind, I’ve been dying to take a crack at a revision of the mudslide. Given the great flavor profile of the Tres Generaciones Reposado, it lended itself to this project very easily.

Grown up and Muddy
2oz Tres Generaciones Reposado
1oz Crème De Cacao
½ oz Espresso Syrup
3 Dashes Bittermens Xocalti Mole Bitters

The Grown up and Muddy. A combination of Tres Generaciones Reposado,Creme De Cacao, Espresso Syrup and Mole Bitters.

Chai This!
2oz Chai Tea Infused Tres Generaciones Reposado
1oz Cinnamon Syrup
½ Benedictine
½ oz Lime Juice
2 Dashes Regan Orange Bitters
To infuse the Chai Tea with the Reposado, let sit in air tight container for about 15 minutes.
Do not let sit overnight as the tea will begin to overpower the flavors of the tequila.

Chai This! A combination of Tres Generaciones Reposado, Cinnamon Syrup, Benedictine, and Lime Juice.

Several months ago I took a look at Maestro Dobel Silver Aged Tequila in this article.

Filled with notes of notes of vanilla, chocolate and cream to just name a few it had me thinking how it would work in cocktails. As one would expect it and is demonstrated in the recipes that follow, Maestro Dobel plays quite nicely with other ingredients.

The Spaghetti Western
1 1/2 oz Maestro Dobel
½ oz Campari
½ Yellow Chartreuse
½ Vanilla Syrup
2 Dashes Regan Bitters
Garnish Burnt Orange Zest

Maestro Dobel Tequila, Campari, Yellow Chartreuse and Vanilla Syrup

The Mexican Symphony

1 1/2 oz Maestro Dobel
¾ oz Scorpion Mezcal
½ oz Grand Navan Vanilla Liquor
½ oz Batavia Arrack
2 Dash Mole Bitters
Dry Shake with Egg White
Shake with Ice
Serve in Coupe, topped with cinnamon.

The Mexican Symphony. A Combination of Maestro Dobel Tequila, Scorpion Mezcal, Grand Navan, and Batavia Arrack

Can a Blanco Tequila come close to leaving the same impression after one sip as as a Reposado, an Anejo or even an Extra Anejo?

Well Mejor’s Blanco offering is able to. Brilliant would be the best way to describe it. Sheer Brilliance.

Mejor Blanco began to grab my attention from the second I opened the bottle. From that moment, I was bombarded with the scent and perfume of sweet agave . So much so that I was hit with imagery of beautiful agave fields.

As it hit my tongue, I noticed how incredible smooth, almost like water the Mejor Blanco was. Perfectly balanced with just the right amount of sweet, almost akin to the sweetness of a cane sugar. As I moved further along on the tasting journey that the Mejor Blanco was, it me hit with flavors of vanilla crème, crème brulee. minor notes of banana, and somehow the occasional refreshing notes of mint.

A magnificent example of a Blanco tequila. A spirit that should be sought out, and with each sip, savored.

Final Score:10/10

I recently came across a brand of tequila I was unfamiliar with, Oro De Jalisco. Having not come across this brand before, I was curious to see how it tasted and how it stood up to other brands of tequila. Especially after hearing some of the details behind it. Oro De Jalisco starts off having a lot of potential. Oro states that they use 100% blue weber agave plants that are grown and cultivated based on a process dating back five hundred years. They then go on to mention how they use a carbon filtration system and a multi-distillation system whose process has been passed on through eleven generations of master distillers.

Oro produces four varieties of tequila, a Blanco, a Reposado, an Anjeo and a Rosse Reposado that takes on a pinkish color due to being aged in French oak barrels previously used to age Bourdeaux wine.
So far this sounded promising.

Well my curiosity was peaked, until I actually tasted Oro De Jalisco.
The first offering I decided to take a look at was Oro De Jalisco’s Anejo offering. Oro ages this Anejo for nine years in French oak casks originating from the Bordeaux region of France.

Oro De Jalisco’s Anejo starts off with a nose filled with heavy alcohol and the occasional hint of sweetness. This nose of heavy alcohol gives a glimpse of what to expect upon tasting the Oro De Jalisco Anejo. A taste of heavy alcohol mixed with a glimpse of minor sweetness that’s reminiscent of sugar cane.

After nearly ruining my taste buds with the Anejo offering, I decided to take a look at the Rosse Reposado. Oro takes their Reposado offering and then ages it for an additional six months in French oak barrels that were used to age Bourdeaux wine.

With my hopes already lowered on what to expect, I started off by inspecting the open bottle and was hit with a heavy nose of alcohol, and minor agave that keeps trying to jump out but gets pushed down by the larger bullying flavor of pure alcohol.

While the flavor profile of the Rosse Reposado has some unique flavors such as cinnamon, and flavors similar to sweet vermouth, it suffers as the Anejo did by an overpowering of alcohol flavors that cancel out everything else.

Out of all three offerings, the Reposado is the closest to a passable offering, but still isn’t able to stand on it’s own legs as a spirit.

After going through multiple tastings, it has less of an alcohol filled flavor with than the Anejo or Rosse Reposado with hints of notes of cocoa, hazelnut and baked apple, yet a battle between these flavors and that heavy alcohol flavor still occurs with both fighting it out for superiority within the spirit.

All three of the Oro De Jalisco tequila offerings sampled suffer from the same issue, a flavor of heavy alcohol. I’m not sure what the cause of this is, however there are subtle flavors hidden within each one of these tequilas, if Oro could fix this issue in the next bottling, they could definitely reveal a more impressive product.

Final Scores:
Reposado- 6/10
Anejo-3/10
Rosse Reposado-4/10

Charbay, known primarily for their impressive line of vodkas, have done something a bit on the crazy side, started producing a Blanco variety of tequila. I know what your thinking is it any good? What do guys that produce vodka, known about making a Blanco tequila.

Well apparently a lot, enough to produce a surprisingly impressive and bold Blanco offering.

Starting with blue agave that originates from the region of Jalisco, Mexico known for its mineral, rich red volcanic based soil. Each plant is grown for at least eight years until ready to be harvested.

Once harvested and brought to the distillery, the piñas are then halved, and moved to small brick ovens and baked for four days. Once this step is completed the piñas are crushed to extract the agave juice.

After selecting the sweetest and highest quality agave juice,(otherwise known as Mosto) it is then taken and pumped into small capacity open-top Durango Pine fermenters. By using a proprietary culture in conjunction with this small-batched approach to fermentation, Charbay is able to produce a high quality spirit, that’s taken to the next level by using a method of double distillation that takes place in Copper Alambieuqes pot stills.

The end result of this process is a Blanco Tequila that features heavy agave on the nose. This is followed up by a simple yet pleasant spirit with notes of sweet agave, minor spice, coupled with citrus and the occasional hint of cinnamon that will peek out roughly in every other sip.

Charbay is a family run distillery headed up by Miles and Marko Karakasevic, who, as mentioned previously are known for their vodka offerings. For a first time offering, Marko and Miles cut right to the chase. This tequila doesn’t’ pull any punches. No fancy bottle, just very simple straightforward and equally impressive tequila.

Charbay Blanco Tequila retails for $49.99 per 750ml bottle.

Final Rating: 9/10