Lets talk tequila

[Avotius]

Ok so here is the scenario, I brought back two bottles of margarita mix from the states for a special occasion and since the the school year is about to end it might be a good time to have a small party with some friends. Question about tequila, here there is a rather limited selection. Usually in the past I always got gold Jose Cuervo but now I cant seem to find it in stores anymore. All I can find is gold and silver Olmeca, gold Pepe Lopez, and silver Camino.

I have a bottle of Lime margarita mix and a bottle of strawberry daiquiri mix, both of the jose cuervo variety. Im wondering what your suggestions would be regarding the above tequila's and which would go best with these mixes. Most chinese find non chinese wine to be rather dull as 60-80% alcohol is common, most people here dont have a taste for the subtle, its the same with chinese food... that said I prefer to present something a tad more authentic (I know what im doing can hardly be called authentic but humor me on this one) so if you have and special insights or advice im all ears!

 

[Avotius]

Btw, they dont have margarita's here really, at least not on this side of china, so this should be quite interesting. My friends and I always have the most interesting parties, especially at my house when we all bbq on my homemade grill. My friend is bringing a 12 year old bottle of chinese Great Wall red wine over which is quite exquisite by my limited scale, but then even the french artists the frequent this area have high praise of the red wines produced here.

 

[JohnM]

If you're making them with a pre-mix, it won't be all that important which brand of tequilla you use. The mix tends to dominate the result. Just buy one of 'em and have fun.

If you were starting from scratch, it would be more important, but even then, probably not worth spending that much time on.

This is one we use....I think one of my friends copied it from the liner notes on a Jimmy Buffett boxed set.

Crushed ice
3 wedges lime
2 ounces gold tequila (Cuervo 1800)
1/2 ounce tequila (Cuervo white)
1 1/4 ounces Rose's Lime Juice
1/2 ounce triple sec (Bols)
1 splash orange Curaçao (Bols)

Put all ingredients except the 3 lime wedges into a shaker. Squeeze 2 of the lime wedges into the shaker. SHAKE WELL! Rim outside of glass only with lime. Salt only the outside of the glass. Add fresh crushed ice to glass. Strain mixture over ice. Squeeze remaining lime wedge in glass.

 

[Avotius]

No mixing. Tequila straight up. Just like Vodka.🙂

that is usualy my preferred method, especially for vodka (Wyborowa and Stolichnaya being my favs) but its a party! A little spice eh? But yes, sometimes...

 

[Avotius]

make sure it's real agave --- there are many top shelf tequillas that are over $100 / bottle --- for a real adventure, try mescal -- it has the worm...

🙁 im always up for adventure, but the unfortunate thing is the couple of tequilas listed above are the only ones here, and believe it or not you can only find them at wallmart...

 

[steamer]

Save the gold for shots, a real margarita is about 1 shot tequila, 1 shot lime juice and 1 shot triple sec or cointreau orange liquer, rub the rim of a glass (martini glass is good but whatever you have will do) with lime and dip in salt. Shake the tequila, lime and cointreau with ice cubes in a cocktail shaker and pour straight up into the glass. This is the real margarita as drank in deeply funky super non-trendy shack bars in Tijuana more than 30 years ago.

 

[Avotius]

One recipe I saw says that you can uses Bols in it (from amsterdam? I think I have seen it here a few times) but I have never used the stuff before. Also lime juice is not something that you can find too well here, I wonder if it is just a bunch of limes, I can do that if I can find limes.

 

[steamer]

Yeah fresh squeezed lime juice is the only way to go. Maybe if bols has some curacao (orange liqueur) that is not blue you could substitute that for the cointreau.

 

[Avotius]

My kind of man. Always start with vodka. Another good one is Ratzeputz. German schnaps with 58%. Its good and fun, but I always get a really bad hangover. I think you can mix it with apple cider for the girls😉

hm...that is an interesting idea for my next vodka bash. We ususaly drink it straight up or mixed in sprite with lemon slices and ice (for the uninitiated). The have something here called apple vinegar but it isnt vinegar, its the closest thing I can think to being cider, and in fact I have a feeling that is what it really is, some cheap cider that comes in bottles and is drunk straight up. Hm...great ideas here...

 

[Marc-A.]

No mixing. Tequila straight up. Just like Vodka.🙂

Yep!
Other way (quite common ... but so good): salt, Tequila neat (bottoms up!) and lime.

Memphis: have you ever had to eat the worm? Usually, the last to drink has to eat the worm, right?

 

[steamer]

Well a little different than vodka, first you put a bit of salt on your hand on the fleshy part between the thumb and forefinger. lick the salt, this makes your mouth water, down the hatch with the shot and then bite into a wedge of lime or in south Mexico sometimes a sweeter kind of lime called a lima. In Oaxaca sometimes the mezcal has a small bag of salt mixed with dried worm. but honestly I'd almost rather drink hair tonic than mescal.

 

[steamer]

Memphis
Mescal is made from the agave, mescaline is one of the many alkaloids in peyote. don't eat the worm after you take mescaline.

 

[Avotius]

Well a little different than vodka, first you put a bit of salt on your hand on the fleshy part between the thumb and forefinger. lick the salt, this makes your mouth water, down the hatch with the shot and then bite into a wedge of lime or in south Mexico sometimes a sweeter kind of lime called a lima. In Oaxaca sometimes the mezcal has a small bag of salt mixed with dried worm. but honestly I'd almost rather drink hair tonic than mescal.

we do the lime thing all the time, once during my birthday we were in a bar and I ordered this and no one in the bar knew what the hell I was talking about. I had to get behind the counter before I found what I wanted...my gf took one shot, walked two feet and fell on her ass, she cant take it... 🙂

 

[Marc-A.]

I have in the day drank a whole bottle of mescal to get the worm -- i can't do that kind of indulgence any more -- but it's a delicacy -- you say had to like it's a bad thing --- i've had my share of worms from mescal -- i usually drink jack daniels mostly nowadays....

A whole bottle to get the worm ... man you wanted it badly. But it's good to know it's a delicacy. I have to try that. Memphis, once I would like to drink with you (even Jack Daniels 😀 ) and shoot guitar players! Sounds great!

Question for alcoholics 😀 : in the past (not a long time ago), I could drink almost a bottle of tequila (or whisky, btw) without being sick. But I couldn't drink two glasses of gin without puking (reason why I don't drink gin) ... have you experienced this kind of reaction? Have you got an explanation?

 

[steamer]

Avotius
You are a youngblood so you can do that kind of stuff, as I get older I find the tequila shots always happen after I'm already pretty drunk and though it seemed like a good idea at the time, in reality it never is.

 

[Rico]

... or in south Mexico sometimes a sweeter kind of lime called a lima.

My boss (who is Mexican) says the definitive lime for a Margarita is the Colima lime. Colima is a state of Mexico. While I consider mixed drinks silly, I made this one with some regularity, using real ingredients. Now, I settle for a single shot neat before bedtime. A good Reposado like Herradura is refined yet feisty.

 

[steamer]

The lima is just for biting into after you take a shot. It tastes like a less sour, less powerful lime. Regular Mexican Limones are the thing for a margarita, I'm sure the ones from Colima would be good.

 

[tedwhite]

Steamer, you the man! Have you ever tried pulque, that one step beyond mescal (and downward - kind of like Orpheus, "out of the clean light down.") ? It can be a giant and possibly fatal step. They have those special bars in Mexico called pulquerias. Usually painted garishly. Avoid. Hair tonic is gourmet stuff in comparison. Oh, I forgot. Pulque tends to rot the brain, like wormwood in Absinthe (the original stuff).

Having grown up on the Mexican border, Herradura and Jose Cuervo used to the ones available for us, at about $3.00 a bottle. Then came La Viuda, and now you can pay $24 for a shot of some brand I never heard of. A friend bought me a shot the other night. Sure, it was good, but as someone said, after two, it doesn't matter what brand you're drinking.

Right now I'm into Old Grandad over ice with a dash of club soda.

 

[steamer]

Ted, since minors may see this site I was trying to avoid the mention of Pulque, the only thing more vile than mescal, the pulquerias are just as described except you don't mention the casual gringo is lucky to escape with his life after quaffing his bowl of slime, aww those were the days. I went through my tequila drinking phase in a pre-gourmet world and in Mexico the white Herradura seemed to be the most popular brand.

 

[vol72]

I used to travel Mexico on business. The top selling tequila in Mexico is Herradura, probably the Reposado: good stuff. I also like Don Julio and Patron. I found that Mexicans make the poorest Margaritas I ever tasted, although I was not in the predominantly tourist areas. I prefer to drink Tequila either alone or as La Bandera (the Mexican flag), which is a popular Mexican way to drink tequila: a shot of Tequila, a shot of lime juice, and a shot of Sangrita. White, green, and red - just like the Mexican flag, La Bandera!