March 8, 2013

Casamigos Tequila Review (With Apologies to Mr. Clooney)

As you may already know, a certain Mr. George Clooney recently added his considerable star power to a new brand of tequila called Casamigos. In doing so Clooney joined a considerable trend of celeb-backed spirits - a few of our favorites are Ludacris (cognac), Dan Aykroyd (vodka) and Marilyn Manson (absinthe). But is Casamigos tequila worth buying - especially at a relatively hefty mid-$40s price tag - or is it the tequila equivalent of a box office flop?

Full Review - We pulled together our top interns for such a star-powered spirit, and we all sat down for some serious tasting.

Casamigos Blanco: We all agreed that the blanco had a surprisingly sweet nose, with hints of caramel and baby powder, with just a little herbaceous note at the end. It had a nice big mouth feel, and the sweetness definitely carried through right to the end, though some reviewers did get a touch of pepper at the finish. To paraphrase our favorite tasting note of the night, drinking the blanco was like "a kiss given by Mr. Clooney on his birthday after he ate his birthday cake," which then broke into discussions of how peppery the Clooney beard might be. So if that's what you're into, you'll probably dig this.

Casamigos Reposado: As we mentioned above, the reposado was aged 7 months in American oak barrels, but it didn't do much to change the character of the tequila. One reviewer said it tasted exactly the same as the blanco, with a little brown food coloring. One reviewer picked up star anise and banana bread, while another compared the nose to what their My Little Pony dolls smelled like when they were a kid.

Cocktails: This is where it got fun - we decided to make Casamigos cocktails using Mastering the Margarita as our guide - because the WSJ is always the first place we turn for cocktail recipes. As expected, the smoothness of Casamigos worked well in every cocktail we tried - we especially loved the grapefruity Siesta and the green chartreuse-based "Joey's Margarita" - but we can think of tequilas with much lower price tags if you're looking to mix a batch of drinks.

TL;DR Review - While Casamigos certainly isn't a bad tequila, we were a bit disappointed with its lack of depth and complexity, especially for the price. The Blanco was too sweet for our tastes, and 7 months in an oak barrel made the Reposado even more so. There are things to like about it, but the hefty price tag will most likely make it appeal mostly to Clooney uber-fans.