Maybe we’re been watching too much the Food Network lately, but on a recent island vacation a “Tequila Smackdown” sounded like a great idea. So, we assembled a bunch of…
I just spotted an interesting story on just-drinks.com. Most interestingly is what they’re saying about our beloved beverage: Tequila posted the fifth-largest volume increase, and Tequila’s rising prominence on the…
During our last trip to Mexico, I was busy shooting many pictures of everything that looked interesting, and everything looks interesting in Jalisco. I was armed with two cameras that…
Our trip to Jalisco last month included some time visiting with Rafael, a real life jimador who works for the Tres Mujeres distillery. We were able to watch as he…
Scarlet and I were sitting at Casa Fuerte, a restaurant in Tlaquepaque, Mexico, scanning through the tequila menu. I spotted something that I never heard of – Pueblo Viejo. Usually this excites us, because we love trying new tequila.
I looked at the price and my excitement faded. It was too cheap. I was certain that this couldn’t be very good because it wasn’t expensive enough, since I tend to shy away from any shot that doesn’t set me back at least $15, and this one was about 60 pesos (under $6).
I ordered it anyway, Pueblo Viejo Añejo, with sangrita.
Scarlet ordered a Tamarind Margarita, a drink that is unique to this restaurant.
When our drinks came to the table, the shot of Pueblo Viejo looked really good. It had a nice golden color, and it smelled like a beautiful blend of agave and vanilla. It had some crazy legs and my excitement was restored.
I tasted it. Warm, rich, and very, very smooth. A nice agave warmth in the back of my mouth lingered pleasantly for a bit, and then faded out gracefully, inviting me to taste again.
In short, I really liked it, and I was certain that Scarlet would too. I handed the glass to her, and she agreed. We were both pleasantly surprised.
I wasn’t the only happy drinker at the table, though. Scarlet was really enjoying her Tamarind Margarita. Sweet, a little spicy, but yet not overly-sweet. Definitely something she would order again (and she did.)
For the rest of our stay in Mexico, I was on the lookout for Pueblo Viejo Añejo, and was able to find it in a few places. Each time I would order it, almost as if I was still in disbelief.
We found ourselves in a cool bar in Guadalajara (we’re going to write about this place later) and I spotted it behind the bar. I ordered it just so I could watch the bartender pour it from the bottle so I could verify that it wasn’t just a fluke – and it was the same nice tequila, for the same cheap price.
I’ve been recommending it to all of my tequila-loving friends here in the US. I was unable to find it at BevMo, so I ended up buying it online for $30 at TheCellarOnline.com.
We’ve been drinking it at home ever since. Good tequila that doesn’t break the bank — recession tequila!
Casa Fuerte is at Calle Independencia 224, Guadalajara, Jalisco.
Pueblo Viejo Anejo is produced by Casa San Matias.
I was in my image archive today, looking for something totally unrelated to tequila when I spotted a picture of our tequila collection taken in July 2008, right after we moved into our current apartment.
I didn’t actually realize how different it looks today – and how much money we must be spending on this stuff. Our collection is constantly growing, and when we get down to the bottom of a bottle, we tend to hold off on drinking any more of it because we don’t want to be “out” of anything.
**UPDATE: A new, and even better (in our opinion) sangrita recipe has been discovered. We even made a video of us following the recipe! We’ve already mentioned sangrita in previous…
Our plane touched down at the Guadalajara airport in January, 2008. After a few days of fun in a hectic Mexico City, we were ready to wind down and, hopefully, tour some tequila distilleries and listen to a whole lot of mariachi music. Happily, we did both.
I was in non-stop picture-taking mode, and went especially crazy while we toured the tequila distilleries.
Just a few days after we moved into our new apartment in San Francisco’s Mission District, we took one of our leisurely strolls. The entire area was new to us, so vigorous exploring needed to be done.
This particular walk took us to the “other” side of Mission Street, a part of the neighborhood we don’t often visit. We were in search of a bar that had both tequila and food, but didn’t really find one.
As my credit card company can tell you, I am no stranger to buying high-priced shots in restaurants, but sometimes the bill creeps up and surprises me.
The first time this happened was in a Mexican food restaurant in Pleasanton, California. My friend Brad (another photographer) and I used to frequent a place called “Alberto’s Cantina.” It’s a restaurant with typical Mexican food – not necessarily authentic, but in the U.S., what is?
I wasn’t always an obnoxious tequila snob. Nope. In my earlier days, I was a beer-drinking, hot-dog-eating, 8-track-tape-owning “guy behind the camera” photojournalist. I worked as a staff photographer for newspapers in Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, New York, and Minnesota.
When I was 31 years-old, I had my first-ever taste of an avocado. It was on the same day I first ate sushi. Today, these are some of my favorite things in life. It took a while, but I finally caught on.
Somewhere in my 39th year, sitting in the back of Tommy’s Mexican Restuarant in San Francisco, I had my first real tequila experience. Scarlet just moved into town, and a group of friends walked to the famed San Francisco tequila destination, just around the corner from her apartment.