Serious Cocktails: Taking the Tarnish off Tequila
For a spirit that’s earned a reputation over the decades as a skull-thumping, inhibition-be-gone, regret-inducing, everyone-gone-wild kind of drink, tequila is getting a lot of respectable love nowadays. And as Jonathan Miles wrote in last weekend’s New York Times, and as I wrote in the August issue of Wine & Spirits, bartenders are increasingly turning to tequila in their pursuit of new frontiers for mixological exploration.
It's been a long time coming. Mostly absent from American bars until the second half of the 20th-century, tequila quickly became a hard-partying kind of drink, and all sorts of alcoholic indiscretions have been blamed on the fiery spirit. As Miles describes it, until recently, "Tequila specials were like petri dishes for misdemeanors." But starting in the late 1990s and picking up steam in the past few years, bartenders and spirits aficionados have embraced the flavor of agave, first on its own in a rapidly expanding line of blancos, reposados, anejos, and extra anejos, and more recently in craft cocktails that bear about as much resemblance to a slushy machine-made margarita as an iPhone does to a tin can with a string hanging out of it.
Helping to lead the charge are bartenders such as Phil Ward and Mayur Subbarao at the East Village bar Mayahuel, perhaps the first bar dedicated primarily to the creation of adventurous cocktails based on tequila (and on tequila’s cousin mescal, itself stained with the memories of countless college misadventures). With drinks such as the jalapeno-tinged Watermelon Sugar or the Italian Inquisition, made with Italian amaro and a blood-orange liqueur, Mayahuel is introducing customers to the breadth of flavor and character that agave spirits can bring to a cocktail. This growing interest in tequila isn’t limited to New York; bartenders such as Ryan Fitzgerald in San Francisco and Robert Heugel in Houston are digging deeper into the spirit’s characteristics and are taking tequila cocktails to a new level far removed from that of the typical margarita.
This tequila exploration is taking place across the country. Have you encountered it in some of your favorite watering holes? What are some tequila drinks that have improved your opinion of the spirit that’s fueled so many hazily remembered spring-break experiences?
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
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8 Comments:
I used to suggest top-shelf Tequila (usually Patron Silver) with ginger beer and a lime twist. It's a really nice combination of flavours. Fresh lemon and soda work well too...drop a crushed cherry in to make a grown-up Tequilla Sunrise. I also for awhile kept a dish of sugar mixed with Kosher salt. Chill a glass, rub the rim with lemon, lime or orange, dip the rim in the sugar/salt, shake the tequila on ice and serve with the garnish of your choice. Try putting some fresh rubbed mint leaves into the shaker.
Also, take a bottle of ordinary-but-not-poisonous tequila, and put chopped strawberries in it (you'll need to take some of the tequila out...I'm sure you'll find a use for it). Put it in the fridge for a few weeks. Add some of the strawberry leaves if you can. Shake it with lots of ice. Serve it with just enough soda to make it fizzy, maybe a lemon garnish.
NotAmerican at 3:22PM on 07/22/09
For me, there is nothing like sipping Don Julio 1942 neat--unless it is
Jose Cuervo 's La Familia.
cookingathome at 7:56PM on 07/22/09
@ Not American - the ginger beer and lime idea sounds amazing.
I must say I love the iPhone metaphor. I like tequila, and the taste of the agave. I have always heard that it is such a 'hard-partying' liquor, but it seems to me to be much more pleasant than Vodka, for instance.
toasteebagel at 10:31PM on 07/22/09
@Not American - All your ideas sound fantastic! I'm heading to the liquor store right after work on Friday.
Marls Barkley at 12:43AM on 07/23/09
I thought I hated tequila until I had my first sip of Patron Silver. Now it's my favorite 'sippin spirit'. Sorry Single Barrel Jack Daniels, you've been replaced.
Rottenmom at 9:37AM on 07/23/09
I made a trio of classic tequila cocktails, all from the 30s and 40s for a meeting recently. You can check out the results and recipes here if you're interested: http://lupecdenver.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/tequila-our-forgotten-friend/
It was quite hard finding these recipes, but the end results were well worth it. Three words: strawberry infused tequila.
AnaPowell at 10:50AM on 07/23/09
Oops, didn't read Not American's comment first, but that strawberry infusion mentioned is one I made!
AnaPowell at 10:51AM on 07/23/09
I've always been a fan of good aged tequila, and last Christmas my brother got me a bottle of this tequila liqueur that he found in his travels. It was very similar to Grande Marnier, but made with tequila instead of Cognac. Very tasty stuff.
jboylan at 8:06PM on 07/23/09