Tequila Time!

It doesn’t feel that long ago that tequila was way down there on our list of our must-try spirits. We had distant memories of the shot-salt-lime thing although occasionally we do partake in the odd Margarita. But something weird and wonderful has been happening recently in the cocktail ether…

First we find ourselves sampling Olmeca Altos Plata and Olmeca Altos Reposado. A few weeks later we’re at the World Class Forum on Tequila doing a little more tasting and getting the low down on the agave spirit with Steffin Oghen late of Green & Red, Francisco Hajnal from the Tequila Tasting Society and Tom Aske and Tristan Stephenson from Purl.

Now, just two weeks later, we find ourselves in The Whisky Exchange at Vinopolis in the company of what feels like the Tequila inner circle…

The master of ceremonies was the hugely knowledgeable and highly entertaining Tomas Estes founder of Cafe Pacifico and La Perla Bar, Mexico’s Official Tequila Ambassador to Europe and now producer of the Ocho Tequila range. Ably assisted by his son Jesse of Callooh Callay, there was further expert support from the floor in the shape of Henry Besant of The Worldwide Cocktail Club, Simon Difford of Class Magazine and Tom Conran of Crazy Homies.

We got history, we got anecdotes and we got debate thanks to the illustrious audience members. And, we got to taste six fabulous tequilas, including Ocho Blanco 2010 Los Mangos, Arette Blanco and Ocho Extra Anejo 2007 El Vergel.

And if that wasn’t enough our host, Alex Huskinson of The Whisky Exchange, had a little something extra special up his sleeve. A bottle of Tapatio Reservas de la Excelencia, was generously produced along with the suggestion “if we cared to stay a little longer…” We’re glad we did – it was stunning.

Since that amazing night last Thursday we’ve been drinking and mixing and researching this glorious Mexican spirit. We might even be hooked…

tequileros.org
thewhiskyexchange.com/vinopolis