happy valentine's day! try agavero tequila

There are two things that Mexico is most famous for. The world's finest tequila and a culture that is known for its love of passion. Today our quest brings us to an amazing bottle of tequila liqueur that we must share as a Valentine's Day treat for all of you. Agavero. This unique blend was created as long ago as the 17th century by Lazaro Gallardo, a well known figure in the history of tequila. He created a distillery in Jalisco called Los Camichines that to this day still produces this unique blend and is also well known for its Gran Centenario brand.
Agavero is a simple blend of either Repasado or Anejo tequila with the essence of Damiana flower. Damiana is a plant that has long been known and sought after for its aphrodesiac qualities. Apparently this liqueur has a neon-green hue and is quite thick and sweet. It is said to taste very good. We recomend that it be consumed during social occcasions and most importantly with intimate friends.
It may be hard to find in the US and abroad but can be ordered directly from Mexico. It is not very expensive, so get a bottle and keep it on the shelf for Valentine's Day or any other occasion when you may want to induce more passion.
We hope you love it!

la certeza & lunazul tequila brands part of joint venture

Tierra de Agaves, the Mexican spirits company founded by Francisco Beckmann and sons, former co-owner of Jose Cuervo is now involved in joint ownership of the Lunazul and La Certeza Tequila brands with Heaven Hills, a US family owned distillery. This venture combines Heaven Hill's global distribution network and marketing expertise with Tierra de Agaves' multi-generational focus on growing premium agave plants and producing the best 100% estate-grown Tequilas.
Heaven Hill is adding Lunazul and La Certeza to their leading spirits brands such as Christian Brothers Brandy, Evan Williams Bourbon, Hpnotiq and Pama Pomegranate Liqueur. Lunazul will be offered in both Blanco and Reposado varieties. La Certeza is an award-winning 100% Blue Weber Agave Tequila available in Blanco, Reposado and Anejo varieties.
Both Lunazul and La Certeza are estate-grown on the 3,500 acres of Blue Weber Agave that the Beckmann family and their past generations have controlled since 1758. They are then produced at state-of-the-art distillery completed in 2002 in Tequila, Mexico.

cabo wabo sold for $80 million!

Wow! 2007 was a very good year for Sammy Hagar and Cabo Wabo Tequila. The once lead singer for the rock group Van Halen was noted as having one of the top 20 paydays in 2007 by Forbes Magazine. Hagar was paid $80 million for 80% of the company by Gruppo Campari, the makers of Camparri and Skyy Vodka. 20% of Cabo Wabo is still owned by Hagar. Gruppo Campari has the option to buy the remaining 20% within the next 5 to 8 years. It looks like Sammy may see yet another pay day at some point in the near future.
In 1996 when Hagar left Van Halen he almost immediately invested in the creation of Cabo Wabo brand. He apparently came up with the name after watching a man "wobbling" down the beach in Cabo San Lucas.

distiller of the year:2007

According to a November issue of Wine Enthusiast Magazine, Casa Herradura is the 2007 distiller of the year. It is one of the oldest and most respected Tequila distilleries in all of Mexico. Herradura was founded by Ambrosio Rosales and Aurelio Lopez 138 years ago in Jalisco, the heart of Mexico’s Tequila region.
As featured in Wine Enthusiast, Tequila Herradura is 100-percent blue agave Tequila, carefully crafted using traditional methods, such as using clay ovens and fermenting the cooked agave hearts naturally with wild yeast. Tequila Herradura is all natural, estate grown and estate bottled. The distillery introduced the first Reposado Tequila in 1974, and later launched the first Extra Añejo, Seleccion Suprema.
In 1994, Casa Herradura released El Jimador Tequila to honor the men who harvest agave plants. Today, El Jimador is the No. 1 Tequila in Mexico.
Purchased in January 2007 by Brown-Forman of Louisville, Kentucky, a company that has the highest respect for quality and tradition, expect Casa Herradura to prosper despite the change in ownership

dos lunas grand reserve - $2500 per bottle!!!

Richard C. Poe II, owner of El Paso, Texas based Dos Lunas Tequila has come up with what is being called the most expensive and oldest tequila ever bottled.

We are confused by this information. We recently posted a story about AsomBroso Tequila and how they age their anejo for 11 years. We have also recently read of a bottle of aged tequila that was auctioned off for $225,000. That is a quarter of a million dollars!
Dos Lunas Grand Reserve has been released in limited quantity. There are only 1000 bottles being sold. It is an anejo that has been aged for 10 years in french oak casks that were originally used for aging Spanish Sherry.
In our opinion, the best part of this release is the Baccarat decanter that it is bottled in. It truly looks like a very chic bottle of cologne or cognac. We have read everything from rave reviews to harsh criticism about this limited and very expensive bottle. At this point it would not be fair to pass judgement on the contents of the crystal decanter until we get a chance to taste it for ourselves. If any of you out there have had a taste or know someone who has had a taste, please let us know. If you are one of those lucky 1000, have a glass for the rest of us who may never get the chance.

frida kahlo tequila

Today our quest brings us to an interesting yet controversial brand of tequila. Frida Kahlo Tequila. It was created by Isolda P. Kahlo, the niece of the influential Mexican painter. She is the founder of "The Frida Kahlo Corporation" who markets the brand. She also claims the right to license products using the artist’s name and image.
As you can see above the bottle design was done in a style that seems to capture Frida's true essence. Lorenzo Bustillos Galavis a 32 year old industrial designer originally from Caracas worked with JuanCo to artfully design the label. Unfortunately when we went to the JuanCo website it would not open any further than the front page.
The controversy around this issue was brought to our attention on a blog by Mark Vallen called "Art For A Change". Mark insists that we all boycott Frida Kahlo Tequila. He claims that "turning the Frida Kahlo legacy into a brand name tequila is the final straw when it comes to the "Fridamania" cult promoted by the unscrupulous capitalists the artist railed against her entire life".
Vallen's blog post goes on to argue his case by mentioning how art critic and author Raquel Tibol, who befriended Kahlo at the end of the artist’s life, displayed outrage over the painter’s niece exploiting the legacy of Kahlo. Tibol is quoted as saying "This is a dirty shame! Who gave them permission to use her name? Isolda has gone mad in her desire to make money from her family name. This time she’s stepped over the line, it’s a total lack of respect!"
Apparently Tibol’s criticism is well founded. In 1955, just a few years before his death, Diego Rivera established the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, an institution run by the Banco De Mexico. The trust was created to hold the works, possessions, and homes of the two artists as a public treasure. It would appear the trust is the only organization authorized to legally give permission to use Kahlo’s name for commercial purposes, or as Tibol put it, "According to the will of Diego Rivera and the establishment of the Foundation, all profitable use of Frida Kahlo must go to the Foundation."
Isolda P. Kahlo and her Frida Kahlo Corporation are marketing lies when they equate Frida’s consumption of tequila with "her love for Mexico, her strength and her passion for life. Tequila, her favorite drink, accompanied her in the greatest moments of her life." The idea of the artist’s alcoholism being somehow romantic could not be further from the truth. It was not a sense of romanticism that led Kahlo to drink a bottle of tequila a day, but the debilitating pain she endured from the accident suffered in her youth. Add to that the grief she experienced with husband Diego, and it’s plain to see that drink was not so much a pleasure for Frida as it was an escape.
So..... We would encourage all of you to think carefully before buying and consuming a bottle of this tequila. It is our job to promote the conscious consumption of tequila, not to tell you what to do.
If you do choose to drink Frida Kahlo Tequila, please do it with reverence for Frida's art and her legacy. At the very least, raise a glass to her.
Salud Frida!

tequila sarabia

During our quest over the past few days we came accross Tequila Sarabia. One reason that we were inspired to write about this brand is the fact that it is quite obscure. After searching all over the web, we were amazed at how little information there is available.
Eduardo Sarabia is from Los Angeles, California and travels between the US, Berlin, Germany and Guadalajara, Mexico where he lives now. According to jameswagner.com he is reportedly "influenced by the intricate poetics of the black market and northern Mexican folklore. His current work creates romantic visual narratives in regards to illegal matter, fine arts and commerce".
Eduardo founded Tequila Sarabia in Guadalajara, Mexico. Since 2002, Sarabia had been researching the traditional distillation process of tequila and developed 3000 liters of his own brand. Made from 100% pure agave from the highlands of Jalisco, Tequila Sarabia offers 3 distinct types of premium tequila, Silver, Gold and Añejo. Each one is bottled in a unique hand made bottle that has a beautifully painted ceramic cap. Each bottle has a certificate of authenticity. In 2006, Eduardo Sarabia sent 300 liters to Berlin, Germany and opened Salon Aleman, a tequila bar/artist project. There did not seem to be very much information available about this project either.
We plan to continue our search for a bottle of Tequila Sarabia so we might see it and taste it for ourselves. If any of you out there know anything more about Eduardo's unique brand,, please let us know.

eco-tequila: the right thing to do

Last week MSNBC ran an article by Jennifer Alsever that featured 4 Copas organic tequila. The focus of the article was on how drinking organic beverages can help all of us minimize our impact on the ecology of the planet.
Enrico Caruso, senior vice president of sales for 4 Copas Tequila says “Sip tequila and save the world". This is the motto of 4 Copas, the Newport Beach, Calif., maker of tequila that is certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Caruso said 4 Copas uses no pesticides or chemicals in farming the agave plants used in its tequila and uses only organic yeast in fermentation".
Organic hard liquor is often priced higher than traditional bottles, (4 Copas sells its tequila for $42, $55 and $80 per bottle), and makers are eager to prove their worth. The $6 billion organic food industry is expected to grow 59% by 2012, according to Mintel Research. This sharp growth trend is bringing a lot of new focus and attention to brands like 4 Copas. The organic wine and beer markets have grown paralell to this trend during the last year. If estimates are correct, we could all see tremendous growth and opportunity during 2008.

asombroso vintage tequila

AsomBroso brand tequila, made by California Tequila LLC has unoficially created a new class of tequila. Vintage! They have come up with a very special anejo that has been aged for 11 years in 220 litre French oak casks and certified by the Tequila Regulatory Counci(CRT). According to Ricardo Gamarra, Founder and President of California Tequila, LLC, 21 years ago Enrique Fonseca Sr., a renown agave grower and tequila maker, decided to take his best organically grown agave and use it to make a special, longer aged tequila for his friends. He hand selected the 100% Blue Agave plants to become this special tequila and then took the freshly distilled premium silver tequila and sealed a cache of it into a few small casks as part of his experiment in making a longer aged Añejo. Twenty-one years after Fonseca Senior’s inspiration, and after aging 11 years in the French oak casks, his son Enrique Fonseca Jr., agreed with Gamarra to bottle and distribute some of this unique vintage anejo. Many of you may already recognize the phalic hand blown bottle that AsomBroso has chosen for its 5 varieties. Ricardo has done an amazing job getting his brand lots of attention and takes special care to see that anyone serving his tequila is carefully trained. The AsomBroso website is well done and full of information about the legend and story behind this award winning brand. Not sure about you, but we will be ordering a bottle as soon as we can so we can taste it for ourselves. If you are into fine tequila, visit their site. Better yet, order yourself a bottle and taste it.

corzo - sexy tequila!

During a recent trip to the liquor store we came across the sexiest bottle that we have ever met. After undressing it from the refined brown box- our intial impulse was validated by the chic, clear, rectangular bottle. It reminded us of a fine mens cologne bottle. The label is minimal yet bold, being offset and the spout brought visions of mod design to mind. We admired these qualities for an extended period and finally managed to open the stainless steel top and pour a few glasses. We were about to taste the blanco of all blancos.
Any of you who have ever had this tequila will most likely agree that it is one of the most tasteful tequilas made. It is incredibly smooth and refined. After a glass we were shocked to find that we were still drinking Blanco and not Anejo.
We were having a true tequila experience!
Corzo is not a brand to be taken lightly. Fabien Baron has created a masterpiece with this brand. He is a genius. If you have been waiting for tequila to rise to the next level, the time is now. Corzo also sells Reposado and Anejo.
On top of all that.... if you want to see an amazing website visit corzo.com right now!

Tres Jimadores rating: Cinco caballitos!

$$ world's most expensive tequila: hacienda la capilla distillery $$

A private collector has hit the most expensive charts with the purchase of a bottle of ‘ultra-premium’ Tequila for an astounding price of $225,000 at an auction in Mexico City in 2006!! The world’s most expensive tequila comes in a gold and platinum bottle of Tequila Ley. The bottle is filled with Pasion Azteca tequila, made from pure sap of the blue agave plant that has been fermented, distilled, and aged for six years. The spirit that fills it is a triple-distilled mix of 8-, 10- and 12-year-old agave plants and is produced by Hacienda La Capilla Distillery in Los Altos, Jalisco. Ley .925 CEO Fernando Altamirano says the liquor is aged in barrels whose provenance is “top secret"!

tequila...the new cognac?

This article in the New York Times just validates our already solid love of top shelf tequilas.
Photo via Casey Kelbaugh