My first at-home tasting

We had the pleasure of having a small dinner party at our house Sunday evening and some good use out of a new cookbook magazine that Leah and I found at Target. It's strictly for Mexican cuisine, but what piqued my interest was the section on Tequila. For more information on the food and how that turned out please go to Leah's blog SeldomMade. The link will take you directly to that specific post. If you want to browse through other recipes/dinner just click through to the main page - I would highly recommend this method.

But back to the review, the food was excellent. While Leah was working on creating dinner, I was working away at making Sangrita. It has nothing to do with Sangria so don't think this is some type of watered down alcoholic beverage. It's a wierd combination of items that you wouldn't think worked well. You use 2c Tomato Juice, 1/2 cup lime juice, 1/2 cup orange juice(fresh squeezed for sure), 2tbsp Worcestershire, 2tbsp Grenadine(yup, wierd one), and then salt, pepper, and chili powder. I added a little cayenne pepper for safe measure since we didn't have any hot chili powder. What you end up with is a decent v8 like drink that's used as a palette cleanser. Add a little salt on the side to give a little more to the senses. I used it in conjunction with a little lime juice to add more flavour.

 I was planning a good sampling out of my tequila cabinet. We have Gran Centenario Anejo. I learned about this one from a bartender at Z'Tejas in Phoenix, AZ. After finishing off one of our favourite meals, Leah asked the bartender if he knew of Los Azulejos Anejo( which he didn't), but recommended this as his favourite. It is very good and I ended up with a bottle of it after we finished our vacation. The second is Los Azulejos Reposado. I "settled" for the reposado in hopes that would be as good as it's older brother, the Anejo. That's the tequila that my cousin introduced me to in Oklahoma. The Anejo is the best I've ever had! This one is good, but it's on a different level. The last one on the list is Tonala Suprema Reserva Anejo. I was out looking for an extra aged Anejo and came across this one. It's a very inexpensive bottle compared to other Extra Anejo's out there, but came highly recommended.

The tasting would be with dinner so no one is actually going nuts with the tequila. This is only to taste and find out what you like. You use about 1/2 oz. of tequila per taste. To be honest, I don't care what kind of glass you use. Some folks use snifters for sipping tequilas, but I am just as happy with a caballito - tall, thin shot glass. Before you down the tequila, you'll want to smell it first. You do this through both the mouth and the nose. Surprisingly, it does add something to the mix! You'll then want to take a small sip and leave it on your tongue for a few seconds. Then take a larger sip and swallow. Depending on the type and manufacturer of the tequila  this could be smooth or have some fire at the end. Also, most reposado's and anejo's are at room temperature with a silver/blanco tequila chilled. You can see that I tend towards the room temperature types.
The tastings certainly went well. This was my first time using any of my store bought tequila to do this. I think it does add a little more complexity to drinking. This isn't to get drunk. It's to enjoy the beverage and the social interaction that comes with it. You actually have more to say about each tequila than just making a drink and saying that's good. You can talk about smell, feel, taste, and enjoyment. So if you're looking to do something like this you certainly don't need to get the same items as above. You can also get some mini's and spend less money to see if this is something you'd prefer. Be smart with it.

-D

P.S. - no need to go overboard on explaining how the tequila's tasted. That's for the more adventurous that are willing to go out and try this method out.