We’re back at the SFT Tequila Bar in Sayulita, Mexico with another question. What type of tequila goes good with food? Mark Alberto Holt and Gabbi Villarrubia talk about this from behind Mark’s extensive tequila bar.

(Ever notice how a person standing behind a bar seems to be taken more seriously than just about anyone else? Why is that?)

(click image to see video)

Both Mark and Gabbi agree that a reposado tequila, like El Tequileño, would be a great match with most food. Unfortunately, you can’t get your hands on El Tequileño in the USA (yet), but a similar substitute would be the reposados from Gran Centennario, Cazadores or Casa Noble.

One reason why El Tequileño reposado is so good – and the reason we make sure to pack our suitcases full of it each time we visit Mexico – is that it is aged just a few weeks shy of an añejo. By law, a reposado cannot be aged in barrels longer than a year (otherwise it becomes an añejo).

The smart folks at El Tequileño age their tequila for about 11 months and 2 weeks, which is what makes it such a smooth and delightful reposado.

Does tequila make a great holiday gift? Hell yes! With so many to choose from, how can you be sure you’re getting the right one for the right person?

We get emails, instant messages, text messages and phone calls from our friends seeking tequila advice. Sometimes we get cell phone pictures of tequila menus and bars looking for guidance. We always do our best to answer.

The other day we received an email from Traci, a friend of ours who lives in New York City (who also appeared in our first “Tequila Smackdown” video.)

We thought we’d share her question, and our answer, just in case you were wondering which tequila to buy as a gift.

Hi Scarlet and Grover,

I am looking for recommendations on tequilas to give my booze-loving family for Christmas (you two are just that inspiring so no one gets Irish whisky this year). What are your suggestions for a mid and higher priced tequila.

Merry Merry and a ho ho ho to you both!

Traci

Traci,

Good question! We are hoping that many of our readers will go the tequila route when making holiday purchases this season so we hope you don’t mind if we make your email (and answer) public:

Since your family is mostly into whisky we are recommending that you stick with an añejo, based on the fact that they are used to tasting flavors from the barrel, rather than the agave-alcohol taste that some people prefer in the un-aged blancos.

So, in the $40-$60 range:

Pueblo Viejo Añejo – Excellent for the money. Smooth, even, and still retains the agave flavor.

Pueblo Añejo Orgullo – OMG this is so good, if you can find it. We get it at BevMo in California.

Gran Centenario Añejo – A crowd pleaser that is not too sweet or too pungent.

Dos Lunas Añejo – A little sweet but full of flavor and well rounded

Cazadores Añejo – Rich and full bodied; vanilla and caramel flavors.

Tres Generationes Añejo – Sweet with a lot of barrel but smooth and widely distributed.

In the $60-$100 range:

Casa Noble Añejo – sweet, almost like a dessert tequila but great for the holidays and after dinner. We’ve met some hardcore whisky drinkers who love this one.

Don Julio 1942 ($99 in some locations, $109 in others) – This is the biggest crowd pleaser of them all. Smooth, rich, and perfectly balanced. Loved by just about any kind of drinker – you can’t go wrong with it. (Also, try to avoid the Don Julio Añejo – it is very different than the 1942. Totally different experience.)

Partida Añejo – Do your relatives like it rich and a little spicy? Then this is the tequila for you.

All of these tequilas are available in the United States. If we were in Mexico, we’d have a slightly different list for you.

Happy Holidays, Traci! To you and all our tequileños.

- Scarlet and Grover

http://www.meetup.com/tastetequila-sf

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, you should sign up to our free meetup group. Our first event is coming up in January, and we’ll be conducting a free tequila tasting at Cava22, a tequila bar located in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District.

This event already has a tequila sponsor, which means we’ll get to taste some new premium tequila – stuff we’re almost certain that you’ve never tried before – even if you’re a seasoned expert.

Out meetup group isn’t like other groups – it’s free, and it’s supposed to be fun. Although we sometimes take our tequila tasting seriously, we think it’s supposed to be fun first. Hopefully our meetup group meetings will reflect this.

All people are invited to attend, and you don’t have to be an expert.

We have decided to use the Meetup.com system to keep track of who’s coming because space is limited in the various establishments we’ll be gathering in. We plan to switch locations so that we can visit various different tequila-friendly bars in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Please join our meetup group so you can be instantly informed each time a new event is added. We hope to see you there!

For folks not in the SF Bay Area, please get your name on our tasting alert list. We plan to conduct tasting events in other cities, and we’ll let you know if/when we’re planning to roll into your town, too.

Patron gets kudos for raising the profile of tequila in the United States and abroad. However, due to the brand’s enormous marketing efforts many people believe that Patron is the best tequila you can buy, when in fact there are scores of better – and cheaper — tequilas available (in our opinion.)

We love tequila, but we don’t drink Patron. It’s not even stocked in our bar at home. We don’t like it because it has a very watery taste in your mouth and has a bite of alcohol in the back. We don’t find this a pleasant drinking experience.

(click to see the video)

Patron is made for Americans, and until very recently has been export-only, meaning it isn’t available for sale in Mexico. The taste is watered-down because they figured that Americans would rather buy something less flavorful than a full bodied tequila. We disagree with that choice.

We recently brought up this topic with Mark Alberto Holt, owner of the SFT Tequila Bar in Sayulita, Mexico and it sparked this rather amusing video.

If you’re a Patron lover, that’s fine. We embrace all tequila drinkers and their preferences. All we want to do is open your mind up to some other excellent tequilas.

We thank Mark for making that point very clear!

-Scarlet & Grover

It was late at night, and the hotel bar was closed. Luckily, the cleaning crew was on call to keep the tequila flowing, so we sat and talked for hours about Mexico, about tequila, and about life. We were only one day away from the end of our “tequila vacation,” and there was much to talk about.

At the bottom of our shot glasses were little glass-blown figures that were almost always covered by tequila (thanks to the attentive cleaning crew.) My shot glass contained a Mexican flag, and Grover’s glass had a tiny blue agave plant. Every once in a while we’d be treated to one of our favorite mariachi songs playing quietly in the background through the hotel sound system.

I met Grover through my friend, Alexis. One evening I watched him slam a perfectly good shot of 100% agave tequila as if it were the same nasty stuff he drank in college, and encouraged him to slow down and taste it. He did, and he was hooked.

Soon after we found ourselves meeting up in tequila bars all across San Francisco, trying all of the tequilas we could get our hands on. Bar after bar, we talked about traveling to the Tequila region of Mexico, to visit the motherland of our bonding beverage. This would be our “tequila vacation.”

Two years later, we made that trip – as friends.

In January 2008, we stayed at the Quinta Don Jose Boutique Hotel, in Tlaquepaque, Mexico. This is located right in the center of Jalisco, the region of Mexico where tequila is made.

We were wrapping up our late night conversation in the hotel when we were suddenly interrupted, not by the cleaning crew, but by Grover himself.

“You just got to the flag,” he said, pointing to my shot glass. With my last sip, the level of tequila was now below the little glass-blown flag.

“Oh, I think this will have to be the last shot for me,” I responded, thinking he meant I was due for yet another refill.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” he said. “I promised myself that I would tell you something as soon as you got to the flag. And well, now you’re at the flag, so I have to tell you.”

“Oh, uh, OK,” I said nervously.

Continued…