I’ve written before of the four bedrock drinks of cocktailia. Each based on one of the four foundation spirits of classic cocktail mixing: gin, bourbon, rum, and brandy, I refer to these cocktails as The Four Gospels. There are other great and/or popular spirits that people mix with, of course. And there is for most of them an emblematic cocktail as well. I’ll refer to these drinks as the Gnostic Gospels, since the spirits they use aren’t quite canonical for one reason or another.

With Cinco de Mayo fast approaching, let’s discuss the (Gnostic) Gospel of Tequila: The Margarita.

Margaritas! Woo Hoo!

Um, no. Not quite what I want to talk about here. The Margarita suffers from all sorts of problems, few if any of them its own fault. The biggest is that, like the Gospel of Rum (the Daiquiri), the Margarita has been largely debased from great classic cocktail into a machine-dispensed, umbrella party drink that is consumed rather than savored. It’s a shame really, because when made well, the Margarita is a delicious, sophisticated cocktail that you can order in the finest cocktail bars in the world with your head held high.

Please note, I’m not totally dismissing the frozen Margarita here. There are times when a slushy, salt-encrusted bowl of green agave bomb is just the thing. They can truly rev up a party, and if you either cannot afford or do not want to pop for the good stuff on this set of guests, Frozen Margaritas are the best way to go to hide the genuinely crappy flavors of cheap tequila.
Cheap or expensive, Tequila really does seem to have a higher than average ability to knock down inhibitions. I banned the stuff from my own parties back in my late twenties after two incidents. The first ended with me rolling up and down the hill in our back yard in the wet grass with several of the neighborhood wives. The second had my own wife finding me taking a shower in the guest bathroom, fully clothed, but dry as a bone since I’d forgotten to turn on the water.

But this blog is a high-falutin’ operation, so I’ll leave off the frozen Margarita discussion with a single piece of advice for those who came here looking for insight into cold, green, party punch for St. Patrick’s Day (South of the Border Edition). Forget the blender. It is a hassle, loud, and unlike with lots of frozen cocktails, unnecessary. If you are going to do the Margarita Party thing, just try one of these products. The freezer bucket mixes just need a bottle of cheap tequila and some freezer space, and they make a plenty serviceable faux Mexican party drink.

Let’s start with what is in a Margarita: Tequila, lime, an orange liqueur, and a bit of sweetener. Within this, there is a lot of room for variation and experimentation. Here is the recipe I use when my fancy takes me to Margaritaville:

I’ll go through each bit to show where you might want to vary the program, and why I don’t.

For the most part, I stick with silver tequilas in my Margaritas. The added character is largely wasted in this mix, and frankly, I don’t like the color as much in the final cocktail. Rather than spend your money on a reposado or anjeo, spend it on a better class of white tequila and you’ll be well ahead of the game. Whatever tequila you use in making your real Margarita, make sure it is actually drinkable.
If you take a sip and have to bite into a lime and lick salt just to survive the experience, it isn’t good enough tequila. If you do want to use a dark, aged tequila, I suggest you do it on the rocks, where the color will be less of an issue.

Which brings us to the choice of up or on the rocks. As I mentioned above, the frozen version is a fine drink, but it is not a cocktail. A good Margarita cocktail can be served either chilled or with ice, and in either a cocktail glass or a rocks. I prefer up, in a cocktail glass, because I think it is more elegant. But since it is so important that your Margarita be cold when you drink it, you may find rocks to be a better choice if you like to pour a larger portion.

In either case, please don’t use those giant, thick “Margarita” glasses. These things are ugly, clunky, and take up unnecessary space in your cabinets that could be devoted to booze. If you must use these things, do it with the slush.

Not the Devil, but it is what he drinks out of.

Cointreau is apparently the original liqueur in Margaritas. I use it because, well, I seem to use Cointreau in every damn thing I mix. Also, it is a magnificent step up from basic Triple Sec. You can also use Grand Marnier, or other orange liqueur such as Patron’s Citronage. Why you’d bother, I don’t know. Cointreau is delicious.

Fresh lime juice. ‘Nuff said there.

You may or may not want the sweetener. I like a little myself. I use agave syrup here, and in precious little else. It is not flavor neutral, and in most cocktails that is a problem. But for obvious reasons, it does go quite well with tequila.

The last big thing is the rim.

In an Art of Drink post two years ago, Darcy says a lot about the salts to use on your rim. For my part, I just want to focus on where, not what. Below is not how to rim your glass, for Margaritas, or any other salt or sugar-rimmed glass. Ever.

The salt needs to be outside the glass, not inside, and the standard bar rimmer, while fast, will put just as much or more material on the inside of the glass as the outside. Rimming materials that are inside the rim of the glass will wash into the drink. If you wanted the salt dissolved in the drink, you’d add it when you are shaking. Outside the rim, the salt will only dissolve on the drinker’s tongue, in the amount he or she desires.

To that end, always leave a gap at least a quarter of the way around the glass clear of ice, so the drinker can start out with a span of rim where they can be completely salt-free, even on their first sip. You should do this with any rimmed drink you make, salt, sugar, or Peruvian cocoa and parika dust.

Achieving this kind of rim, with the salt only on the outside and leaving a perfect gap, is harder than just slamming your damp glass into a ring of salt, but not by much really. To make the salt stick, take a freshly cut wedge of lime and run it around the outside rim of the glass as far around and down the outside as you want the salt to coat. Then lean the glass over on its side and pat its outside gently into a high pile of your chosen salt. Don’t turn the glass while it is in the salt, or you’ll get a messy rim and your salt pile will get contaminated. Instead, pat the glass down, lift and twist slightly. Repeat until you have gone as far around as you want. The result is a gorgeous, evenly crusted outer rim. With the slightest of practice, it takes 30 seconds, tops.

Before I leave you to your newly sophisticated Conco de Mayoing, I should explain why I classify the Margarita as a Gnostic Gospel. Good Margaritas have all the hallmarks of a gospel cocktail. They are delicious, simple to make, complex, beautifully showcase the quality of the base spirit, and they are the quintessential means of serving tequila.
But whereas vodka is so devoid of character it is relegated to the gnostic status, Tequila’s conversely overwhelming character makes it just too limited a spirit in its own right to merit full gospel status. It is a bitch to mix with in general. Its unique flavor profile is problematic with a host of the usual cocktail ingredients; so much so that most every tequila cocktail ends up being some kind of Margarita derivative. Also, despite tremendous money spent in recent years by the industry, with lots of creative advertising and a concurrent increase in sales, tequila remains a boutique or niche spirit. Most Americans drink it only in Mexican restaurants or on Cinco de Mayo. Similar to what I said about Old Fashioneds and Mad Men season premiers, 95% of everything you will see written about tequila this year, will be written this week.

Blogging Rule 5, the (in)judicious use of sexy images to draw attention is considered by most to be a staple of booze advertising as well. “Sex Sells” after all, right?

This new ad from Sauza Blue Tequila, a Rule 5 treat for the female readers, illustrates perfectly an important corollary of Rule 5 for advertisers, and because it does, it is well worth watching for the guys, too.

See? Now that is funny folks. And that is what an overtly sexually-tinged booze ad has to be.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this phenomenon. First and foremost, both men and women buy hooch, and if you just do a straight appeal to below-the-gut, you will usually end up appealing to only one sex or the other. Worse, you may well end up turning off the gender not targeted. Make those folks at least laugh, and everyone feels OK.

Second, humor engages the brain, which I imagine is important to an advertiser. Effective sexual imagery kinda shuts it down, no?

Well,
the big brain at least!

If the mind is too focused on “desire”, there is little room for assessing the product on offer, which is why a lot of very sexy ads ultimately fail. Humor breaks up the focus, letting the mind wander over and ponder the ad, if only briefly. But that broadening is likely what your mind needs to remember that there is even a tequila bottle in this ad to begin with.

Plus, kittens!

Drink: Vicious Virgin #2
Glass: TikiTini, Green
Available at Amazon

Behold the Vicious Virgin, No.2! Virginia (if I may call her that) illustrates three things about Tiki drinks.

First, just because a drink is blue, doesn’t mean it is bad. The somewhat sinister aquamarine of this cocktail is fully in keeping with its name and its character. Like so many cocktail ingredients, Blue Curaçao isn’t evil, what people sometimes do with it is.

Second, tequila really is an appropriate liquor to use in Tiki. I’ve largely avoided it in previous Tiki Months because, well, the Pinky Gonzalez never called me to make it again, and Margaritas are not, never have been, and never will be Tiki drinks, no matter how many of them joints like Cheeseburger in Paradise put on their “Tiki Bar Menus“. But the PeguWife has been ordering a lot of tequila-based cocktails when out on the town lately, so I thought I’d give a second look at tequila in Tiki.

Lastly, awesome names like Vicious Virgin make it worth ordering almost any drink at least once. And when the awesome name is attached to a good drink like this one, it makes repeat ordering all the better.

I first noticed this drink in a thread on TikiCentral. I recommend reading it because it shows that the current incarnation of Don the Beachcomber’s still goes to the trouble of making secret mixes that they don’t even share with their own bartenders, just like Donn did in the old days. Tradition rules.

As for how good this drink is… The PeguWife views the my endless parade of new, weird drinks in Februarys with (usually) good-natured tolerance. She polished off two of these babies and pondered another. The Vicious Virgin goes in the rotation for whenever there is grapefruit juice, Tiki Month or not.

{This recipe can be found in Beach Bum Berry Remixed but not in Beachbum Berry’s Tiki+ app. Let’s have an update, Bum!}

Hey all!

I’ve been out of town for the holidays, thus the absence of the usual frivolity the last few weeks. To celebrate my return, and in advance of actual, substantive postings….

Ha!

Well, what passes for substantive from me.

Anyway, in advance of what I’ve got coming up, I’ll just give you this photographic evidence of conclusions reached by actual scientific study done this last New Year’s Eve. It seems that tequila modifies perceptions….

(Click to enlarge. This was sent to me by my brother, who must have clipped it from some scientific journal.)

First off, I recently learned that 1800 Tequila is running a contest entitled Win the Ultimate Mancave. You may enter once per 24 hour period, between now and the closure date of August 15th, 2009. I advise you to not enter, as each entry of yours will reduce my chances of winning. The grand prize is $10,000 which you can use to help you follow this humble blog’s advice on constructing the ultimate Basement Bar.
Since I already possess the Ultimate Basement Bar, I’d probably spend the cash on expensive booze, and video games. The rest of it, I’d just waste.
But I’d like to talk a bit about mancave design as exemplified in the photo atop this post. If you visit the 1800 Mancave contest website, you’ll see an expanded view, with more stuff to the right.
First off, while I’m sure 1800 would disagree, I advise against putting 600 bucks worth of their product out on display in your basement bar. 600 dollars worth of liquor is OK, but not all the same two bottles! Especially not all tequila! In my personal, limited experience, one good party that started in the mancave pictured above would end up with grass stains on everyone’s clothing, a couple of divorces, five jail terms, two of your guests waking up naked in Bozeman, Montana, and most tragically, only 35 dollars worth of 1800 on display. With that caveat, it’s a beautiful, and instructive, layout.
The liquor display shelf is beautifully backlit. There is a large refrigerator (almost an embarrassment of riches), though I quibble with the in-door ice maker, rather than a separate device. There is cool decor in the form of the memorabilia case. The sports stuff shown in the picture is actually a bit sterile (it is a promotional photo), but I like it because it is baseball heavy. If you actually has such a collection of sports stuff, and want to feature it in your Basement Bar, you might want to spread it around to permeate the whole space.
This Basement Bar also has two things I haven’t written about in detail yet, but are both in my draft que: A kicking entertainment center, and very cool lighting. Expect more from me soon on these subjects.
The place where this design falls down is the bar itself! Do not build a bar that is thigh-high, with barstools scaled for my eight-year old daughter. She’s not allowed in your bar.
So, have a good day, and remember not to enter the contest!

This is the first post in a new series for me. Columbus, Ohio may be behind (way behind) cities like New York, Portland, or Seattle in the modern bar progression, but we do have a few sparks of light in this vast wasteland of college and alumni bars. I’ve detailed Details to death here already, but as big a fan of that watering hole as I am, the real driver toward a better class of cocktail in Central Ohio is the medium-sized chain of fine restaurants run by Cameron Mitchell. Not so very, very long ago, Cameron got bar religion. The first places in town (and still almost the only places in town) where I actually saw lime and lemons juiced right in front of me were Cameron’s restaurants, or restaurants where he consults. To my regular readership in the cocktailian world, freshly squeezed citrus is so basic as to be akin to Thou Shalt Not Kill. But to the average Central Ohio bartender or patron, explaining the value of fresh lime juice is like explaining the virtues of microwave ovens to an ancient Incan. Now, none of Cameron’s establishments are going to threaten Vessel, or Pegu Club, or the Velvet Tango Room for cocktailian supremacy any time soon, but they are the best I have to choose from around here, especially if I want a full (and damn good) meal to follow my drink.
Therefore, I will be embarking on a series of profiles of the Mitchell’s restaurants, and more to the point their bars, in the coming weeks. It’s hard work, eating in the best restaurants in town and downing good drinks, but I’m willing to do it, for you. I’m going to try to feature a specific drink and/or bartender at each location, as well.
First up in this series is M at Miranova. Located downtown, on the first floor of the Miranova riverfront skyscraper, M is Cameron’s most modern, avant garde establishment. The menu offers sushi, steaks, and other delicate, delicious offerings. I call it hearty haute cuisine. Hear that, Seattle and New York? Come to Columbus, where even the finest food arrives table-side via forklift. (I kid my city, but only a little.)

The bar at M is the central feature of the restaurant, dominating the length of the restaurant with a huge, shifting color, backlit wall. They offer an extensive, well-balanced, and not terribly discounted wine list, as well as a reasonable beer selection, if you must. The cocktail menu actually has a number of original cocktails that are or look to be worth drinking, almost all featuring fresh squeezed or muddled ingredients. I have been eating and drinking at M regularly but infrequently since it opened (it’s a long way from my house). The bartenders have turned over in that time, but everyone behind the sleek plexiglass counter are consistently intelligent, educated, mixologists. Moreover, at M, unlike some of Cameron’s more frantic locations, they usually have time to for a little conversation about booze. This is a major plus for me, of course.
The minuses for the bar at M are the same as those I’ve found at most Mitchell’s joints. Aside from the emphasis on fresh fruits, the ingredients on offer are fairly pedestrian. There are no exotic gins, beyond Hendrick’s, on offer. No absinthe, or Lillet, or orgeat, or falernum peeked their necks out to entice me into a Vesper, Corpse Reviver, or Mai Tai. M’s inventory covers all the basics, and covers them very well. But for the adventurous cocktailian, there is still room for improvement. Of course, they may have a secret stash of Old Raj, Fernet Branca, and homemade cinnamon syrup that I simply didn’t ask the right questions about, but I doubt it.
This last Friday I was at loose ends. I had a babysitter, but I also had a wife in Georgia. Instead of choosing to go out and get into what little trouble Columbus has to offer, I opted for drinks and dinner at the bar at M to kick off this series of posts. My bartender this time was Cris, a mixologist by calling whom I had not encountered before. She and I, and the wine-drinking couple beside me whose date I kept interrupting, had a fine conversation about liquor, cocktails, wine snobbery, and of course the literary phenomenon that is sweeping the nation: The Pegu Blog.
The evening was marred only briefly when Cris revealed to me that she will be attending Tales, the lucky wench. My fellow cocktail bloggers know how much I cheerfully despise them for being able to go when I cannot find the time, so it’s only fair I hate Cris too. I did tell her who I expected her to go pester while there. Consider yourselves forewarned, dudes and dudettes. Oh, and I’ll be interested to see which exotic ingredients that I griped about being missing above show up at M once Cris gets back from Tales.
I went through the cocktail menu and chose a cocktail from the seasonal menu, one it turns out Cris authored herself, the Blood Orange Margarita. It was quite appealing, and although she happily gave me the recipe, I won’t post it here. I won’t because:

• I didn’t ask permission,
• I immediately saw how I wanted to tinker with it, resulting in a cocktail that may appeal more to both me and my regular readership, if not necessarily to M’s usual clientele.

Said tinkering has been accomplished, and it gave me the results I wanted. If you live in Columbus, I suggest you hightail it down to M and try the original, as well as mixing up mine. Let me know which you prefer.

A couple of notes here: I don’t like salted rims that much, as I feel like I either get too little or too much salt with each sip. The salt isn’t really necessary in this Margarita at all, but if you do want some, try mixing it in the drink for a change of pace.

Also, I find it a particularly good application for the Tequila Ocho Plata I specified. I intend to do a full review later on this bottle, but I’ll take the opportunity to talk a bit about it here and now. (It was not what M uses, for what it is worth. Tequila Ocho is not for sale in Ohio, more’s the pity.) The Ocho is very mild, even sweet, and pairs very well with the exotic nectar of the blood orange. In fact, I think this tequila might get a bit lost in a regular Margarita, it is so mild.
As a shot, it is lethally soft. It’s not unflavorfully smooth, mind you, but it is awfully easy to down, especially for an unaged bottle. Beware.
Frankly, for a tequila aficionado, which I am not, I suspect the Plata would be a little bland. For a guy like me who likes to tinker, and also likes the occasional brush with the signature funk of agave, it’s a damn fine bottle to play with. It’s perfect for the drink I just outlined, and I intend to try it very soon with the Mai Tai variant, the Pinky Gonzales, where I think it will shine.

Here’s a complete list of the posts so far in my Meandering Through Mitchell’s series:

• The Blood Orange Margarita: A “Meandering Through Mitchell’s” Find
• “Meandering Through Mitchell’s”: Mitchell’s Ocean Club
• The Vanilla Bean Old Fashioned: A Meandering Through Mitchell’s Find
• The Plasma Mary

Let’s try another recipe from Trader Vic’s Tiki Party, shall we?
Here we go:

This is a decent little low-ball cocktail. Given all the Mai Tai mania that has gripped the cocktailosphere lately, it should be apparent to many of you that this is essentially the Trader’s take on a Mai Tai with tequila. The Pinky Gonzales is certainly sweet, but it’s not sticky or cloying. There are a lot of flavors here and they open up in your mouth as you sip, with that tequila bite showing up on the back end. It is very clean on the mouth afterwards, which is an odd feature of a lot of tequila drinks. Tequila has that funk that announces itself in no uncertain terms, but that funk also seems to clear the decks behind it. Of course, tequila will clear the decks cognitively too, if you let it.

I’ll throw in a word or two here about the tequila I used, Inocente. This triple-distilled white tequila is one of the gentlest tequila’s I’ve ever encountered. If you like the funky background in Margaritas, but stay away from other tequila cocktails because of the severely in your face character of the spirit, Inocente is a damn good tequila to broaden your horizons with. If you intend to do some shots, and want to make sure your crowd will go for a second round, Inocente is a very smooth choice that should scare off the minimum number of drinkers. If the softness of the liquor is not sufficient incentive, you can tell them that the company claims that the triple distillation process reduces the hangover-inducing contaminants.
If you are a serious connoisseur of tequila, you may find Inocente a bit bland, or over-processed. That’s OK, no liquor should be all things to all people, or we’d have no need for all this wonderful variety we have.
As a final note, the bottle they use is gorgeous, and deserves a spot on your display shelf. When I finish this bottle, I’ll be reusing it in-house, either on the bar for infusions, or in the bath for homemade bath unguents. Reduce—Reuse—Recyle!

So how does the Pinky Gonzales compare to its progenitor? Is it better than a classic Mai Tai? Hush your mouth! It lacks the melded depth of the Mai Tai, probably because tequila lacks the depth of old or mixed rums. I considered that this might be put down to the Inocente’s purity, but I imagine that if you used a more full-flavored (more impurity-laden?) tequila, you would get less meld more than more depth. Overall, the drink is still a nice little diversion. I’ll probably make it again for myself at some point, and I’ll certainly keep its recipe on hand in the event a guest wants something with tequila and it’s a Tiki night.
And there are some other more general things to discuss about Tiki that the Pinky Gonzales illustrates.
I had never thought of the spent lime halves I produce so many of these days (shut up, Gabe!) as having any use beyond clogging the disposal. Yet, this was only the first of many drinks I’ve run across which employs the lime shell as a proposed garnish. It works surprisingly well. A lot of Tiki garnishes seem a bit of a waste of good ingredients, but this one is essentially free. Reduce—Reuse—Recycle! See? Wouldn’t Al Gore be proud? I’ll bet that Pinky Gonzaleses are all they serve at his house….
Finally, I gotta talk about the name: Pinky Gonzales. It’s… well, it’s a bit stupid really. And I’m sure it’s politically incorrect. (Maybe the staff doesn’t serve these at Chez Gore.) BOTI member Dr. Bamboo examined the whiff of blasphemous that appealed to stuffed-shirt WASPs of the old days. Perhaps the tinge of politically incorrect that pervades most of Tiki (not just the Pinky Gonzales) is part of the resurgent appeal of Tiki today. Political religions aside, the name is silly. And lots of Tiki Drinks have silly names, e.g. Doctor Funk of Tahiti, The Colonel’s Big Opu, and The Zombie. Before the month is out, I’m going to come up with one decent Tiki drink of my own and give it a completely ridiculous name….

Before Christmas, I suggested supplemening your Basement Bar’s glassware collection through liquor gift packs that include a glass or glasses. This year, one of the nicer looking sets was a large, painted, Old Fashioned glass with a bottle of Agavero (El Original Licor de Tequila). I would have been tempted to buy it, had I not just received a sample of Agavero to test drive. The drive ended up involving a cross-section of my family, making it a bit of an adventure.
First off, a few words about Agavero, and what it is, are in order. Agavero is a traditional Mexican tequila-based liqueur. It starts with a blend of Anjeo and Reposado tequilas, to which the featured, active ingredient is added: Damiana flower. The resulting liqueur is sweet and very smooth.

The traditional use for Agavero is as a replacement for the triple sec in a Margarita.
The traditional reason for this substitution is more entertaining. Damiana has quite the reputation as an aphrodisiac, being especially effective for women. Stock up, guys!
Now, the efficacy of Damiana has not been scientifically determined. This is the case with many aphrodisiacs, and I just for the life of me cannot figure out why. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars studying the mating habits of lightning bugs. Why don’t we spend our money on rigorous tests to see which of the various human aphrodisiacs out there actually work? Finding test subjects cannot be the problem! Someone write Barack Obama about this. It ought to be part of the… Stimulus Package.

Regardless of any potential side benefits, my own interest in Agavero is strictly centered on its mixological uses.

Meaning your wife doesn’t drink Tequila.

Exactly. She has a rule.

I have a buddy with that same rule.

Yeah, but he woke up naked in a jail in Oregon, missing three days. Maggi has no such excuse.
Fortunately, my brother-in-law Bill does drink tequila, um, on occasion. Since we were visiting the old country for the holidays this year, off the bottle went to Georgia. We sat down with the Agavero, his liquor cabinet, and my new traveling kit on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve to mix drinks.
Um, be careful when informing your brother-in-law that the liquor you have asked him to drink with you is renowned primarily for its aphrodisiac qualities. Be especially careful when you tell him you plan to write about the experience on the Internet. He may look at you like this:

(No one was harmed in the writing of this post.)
Bill and I sat down with my sister, their daughter who went to college with my wife, and said wife. The women all decided that being left out was not acceptable so they joined us, regardless of prior stated tequila drinking policies.

Women always do that. Guys are just too fascinating to them to resist.

Either that, or they knew that you were going to be drinking and cutting up limes. Someone has to be around to dial 911.

The first question was what, precisely, should we do with the stuff in this lovely bottle? Agavero’s website has a number of recipes to offer, which seemed a likely place to start.
We started with the Machismo, which is nothing more than a shot of Agavero. To my surprise, this was very good all by itself. The liqueur is fairly sweet, and there is a faint but pleasant floral background. I have never had Damiana before, so I can only assume that this was what we tasted. You can certainly tell it is a tequila-based drink, but even neat, and at room-temperature, Agavero is already smoother than an average Margarita. That characteristic muskiness of tequila is present, but without the in-your-face edge that even the best of the pure stuff provides.
Agavero suggests that you chase the shot with a wedge of lime and sugar, not salt. I do not. The sugar is a sweet step too far. Stick with a plain lime wedge, or lick some of the traditional salt. Even a light sprinkling of granulated sugar overloads the sweet of the liqueur and washes out virtually all the other flavors that give the liqueur its character.
If you are trying to get a woman to try Tequila shots, a Machismo would be an excellent way to start her out.
Of course, given the reputed nature of the Agavero, if you are trying to get her to try any number of things, this would be an excellent way to start her out….

We next tried the Mexican Cosmopolitan, but met with less success. Their recipe is 2 parts Vodka, 1 part Agavero, with splashes of cranberry and lime juices. We only had cranberry juice cocktail, but otherwise followed the recipe. The problem again was sweetness. The added sugar in the cranberry juice cocktail wipes out any interest the Agavero might add to the drink, and you are left with what tastes like a run-of-the-mill Cosmo from your neighborhood bar. When I got home and once again had access to the full, vast research capabilities of the Pegu Lounge, I tinkered.

I can fully recommend this cocktail. It is light and accessible, like a regular Cosmo, but possesses a richer feel in the mouth and some interesting character lurking in the depths. If your intended lady won’t go for the Agavero shots, this may be your way to get her to try it.
These first two drinks illustrate what I’ll call the First Law of Mixing with Agavero: Easy on the sugar! Even if you want a dessert drink, don’t sweeten Agavero any further.

By this time, I began to notice that a lot of their recipes were essentially based on replacing Cointreau with Agavero. Those of you who read me regularly know where this immediately led me: I had to make an Agavero Pegu. I mixed up one, subbing Agavero for Cointreau one to one, and handed it to Bill. If I may here extend a word of advice, do not replicate this experiment at home, or anywhere else. Bill didn’t like it. I didn’t like it. The women didn’t like it. Second Law of Mixing with Agavero: No gin. And other liquors besides vodka are likely out too. The tequila in Agavero may be subtle, but it will fight with others just the same. If you wouldn’t mix it with tequila, don’t mix it with Agavero. I’m not proud of this experiment, but it had to be done. You know, for science and stuff like that.

The last drink we tried was a Mexican Coffee. You make this, you guessed it, with Agavero in place of irish whiskey. I didn’t personally try any of this one, because I really do not drink coffee. But the women reported that the Agavero was practically absent from the taste. Agavero is a nice liqueur, but it is expensive, so they pronounced this preparation to be a waste. This irritated them, since they had gotten all cocktailian and made up fresh, unsweetened whipped cream for the experiment. We’ve since tried this one again as well, with fresher coffee, but it still seems to be one to avoid.

So what did we learn? Agavero is nice stuff. It is good enough to, and in fact may be at its best if you, drink it neat. It is a nice way to dip your toe into the waters of Tequila, if you’ve not tried them before. If you do drink tequila, the Agavero makes for an interesting exploration. My guess is that Agavero, like every other spirit on Earth, is not for everyone, especially those whose tastes run to the tart. But it is definitely worth a try, especially if you’re interested in what Damiana can do for you, or someone you love….