As we all know, Valentine's Day is coming soon, which puts us in the mind for romance. As most of us know, chocolate is a traditional gift for said holiday. Many folks also know that tequila is a great way to inspire more...amorous feelings in themselves and their romantic partners.
Luckily for you, Patron has compiled these two last concepts into one bottle, also known as Patron XO Cafe Dark Cocoa. Using Patron silver as its base, this liqueur brings together two amazing products of Mexico - tequila and chocolate. Available for under $25 per bottle it clocks in at a pretty reasonable price, and initial reports indicate it's a pretty amazing combination of its two flavors.
Our review will be out soon; pass the time by checking out the Dark Cocoa page at Patron Tequila.
A while back, we did a couple Charbay whiskey reviews (Hopped and Doubled & Twisted), and we have to say - we liked what we drank. We've just gotten our hands on two more bottles - their rum and tequila to be exact - and we hope to get to tasting them ASAP. In our review of the hopped whiskey we advised you to rough up the elderly if it meant you could get a chance to taste it - we'll try to keep things a bit more peaceable with these reviews.
Learn more about what these folks are up to at Charbay.com.
It's a little late for the Day of the Dead (or maybe a little early for this year's - you be the judge) but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying KAH Day of the Dead Tequila. Available in Blanco, Reposado and Anejo, these tequilas retails for $50 to $60 and come in beautiful-looking hand painted bottles. Apparently they're certified organic and kosher too - something we always look for in a tequila!
The Reposado, shown here in the red, is described as 'ultra smooth' and 'ultra high-proof,' with hints of vanilla and caramel after being aged for 10 months in French limousine casks. The Blanco features sweet notes of cooked agave with a spicy white pepper finish, while the Anejo is all about coffee, chocolate, and tobacco flavors.
We realize this is a liquor site, not a music site, but we just stumbled across this new video from Korpiklaani, a fun band that loves to sing about drinking. So if you're in the mood to hear a Finnish folk metal band sing about a Mexican liquor, today's your day. [via Blabbermouth]
We don't know much about the rapper Twista. According to his Wikipedia page, he's from Chicago and there's a documentary being filmed about him. According to the video we just watched, he's "as good as Pelican Brief is." But our job isn't to know about hip hop - it's to know about booze.
Twista featured 1800 Tequila in the video for "The Heat," and he also has some pretty significant grillz in. That was cool, but what we were really into was the video of Scrooge McDuck swimming in his gold vault. Well played Twista - well played.
When we first heard about Given tequila liqueur, we weren't quite sure what to make of it. A Mexican spirit, fiddled with in France, and to top it all off, it's apparently not pronounced "given," it's pronounced "jee-vahn." Well, given that the folks from Given sent us a bottle, we decided to give in to the temptation and we're glad we did, since it's frickin' delicious.
The Look: The Given bottle is sleek and black with splashes of red, with a flat profile...all in all pretty good-looking.
The Nose: We got a lot more tequila than we expected when we sniffed Given, combined with a nice citrusy tang. It smells like a perfectly-mixed margarita, showcasing a bit of tequila's fire, tempered with tartness.
The Taste: Mostly citrus, with a faint tinge of tequila on the back end. We tasted a lot of lime juice, with very little sweetness. This isn't a heavy, syrupy liqueur, trying to overpower cheap booze with too much sweetness - it's nice and light on the palate with a nice long finish. If you're looking for a strong tequila flavor you're gut of luck, but this is a nice alternative.
The Verdict: Color us pleasantly surprised by Given. It's not going to replace tequila in our liquor cabinet, but it's got a nice citrusy flavor we can see working extremely well in a lot of cocktails.
We can also see ourselves sipping it on the rocks on a hot day, and seems like a good alternative when you want something margarita-esque with a lower alcohol content, or using it in citrus-based drinks to which we want to add some zing. We're seeing pricing around thirty dollars for a bottle, and you can check the Given website for tips on where to find a bottle.
We just found out about Given, a tequila-based liqueur produced in the Cognac region of France. According to the email we got, Given combines:
premium agave tequila from Jalisco, Mexico and once in France we incorporate some of the wine and cognac producing techniques to the tequila, even using grapes in the infusion process to create a smooth, refreshing liqueur that is not as sweet and thick as a typical liqueur and and as strong as a typical tequila.
Sounds interesting to us.
Even more interestingly, the email states that since it has properties of both a liqueur and a regular distilled spirit, they've coined the phrase "spi-queur." We're not sure how things are done in France, but to us that sounds more like a racial epithet than something we'd order in a bar. Hey - who are we to judge? Maybe that IS the way things are done in France.
Tequila: A Guide to Types, Flights, Cocktails, and Bites
Hola from Mexico, amigos. The Liquor Snob staff is on a much-needed vacation this week, drinking mucho tequila and murdering mucho Espanol. In other words, don't expect much from us this week, but we'll be back to our regularly-scheduled drunknness next week.
To tide you over, we found an excellent book about tequila so you can read about what we're drinking. Suckers.
We always love hearing about brands were weren't otherwise familiar with, and we recently got a package on our stoop that gave us just such a surprise. In the box was a bottle of paQui tequila. According to their website, paQui means "to be happy" in the original Aztec, and we can say its lived up to its name so far...who doesn't like seeing a bottle of tequila?
We haven't cracked it yet, though we plan to with a quickness because we're suckers for a blanco tequila. Until then, you'll have to satisfy yourself with the blurb from their site: "paQui Silvera expresses the essence of blue agave, with an inviting, flowery aroma and layers of complex flavor that include notes of fruit and spice."
Hornipolitan: Best Valentine's Cocktail Name Ever?
What's the best way to make someone feel randy romantic? Well, there are a couple ways, but one tried and true method is to ply them with tequila. We're not talking "Night in Tijuana With Your Buddies" amounts, but just enough. If you're looking for just the right drink for Valentine's Day, we submit to you: The Hornipolitan.
You might not want to mention it by name, though, because the object of your affection might see through your ploy. Unless you want them to, of course...
As you know, the Super Bowl is only a few days away, and it's time to start thinking about what you're going to drink. You could stick with your standard beers and whatnot, but you may want to class up your party, like if your grandma or your priest or your parole officer is going to be there. What better way to do that than with these 60 second cocktail recipes from Herradura?
Not only can you mix them up during a commercial break, you definitely need to drink rapid fire tequilas on a Sunday night. Trust us, it's always a good idea.
We got an email from the folks at Herradura Tequila with tips on how to talk - and think - about the illustrious beverage. No, you don't have to drink the whole bottle. No, you don't have to shoot it. And no, contrary to what some people seem to think, tequila is not a stimulant.
Good tips, and Rick over at Martini Groove did a nice job cleaning up some of the markety language, so we'll just give you his; the folks at Herradura obviously want you to choose their tequila and we'd actually have to agree since it's one of our favorites, but it's obviously not your only choice.
Our long-time readers (both of them - hi Mom and Dad) will remember our glee when we discovered Tommy Guns Vodka a couple years back. We loved the fact it came in a bottle shaped like an old-fashioned tommy gun, we loved the Al Capone-themed concept behind the company, and best of all we thought it was a damned fine liquor. Imagine our excitement when we found out the same folks also make a tequila, and they also put it in a gun-shaped bottle...but this time the bottle is red.
Will what's inside the bottle live up to our exacting standards? Will we give it a good review for fear of getting shot by Capone's cronies? Find out after the jump.
Anyone who's been reading this site for a while knows we really enjoyed Tommy Guns Vodka, and not just because you can get it in a bottle in the shape of its namesake. We've just gotten our hands on a bottle of the vodka's sibling, Tommy Guns Tequila, which is available in the same gun-shaped vessel. A reposado laid down for six months, we've heard good things about the smoothness and taste of this one and we're looking forward to trying it.
Another new item we just picked up is KU:L vodka, imported by the same folks and with a name that makes us think it's something Conan should have drunk from the skulls of his enemies. We don't have much information beyond that, but we're certainly going to give it a taste and let you know what we think.
Patron XO Cafe Dark Cocoa Arrives for Review
A while back, we did a couple Charbay whiskey reviews (
It's a little late for the Day of the Dead (or maybe a little early for this year's - you be the judge) but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying KAH Day of the Dead Tequila. Available in Blanco, Reposado and Anejo, these tequilas retails for $50 to $60 and come in beautiful-looking hand painted bottles. Apparently they're certified organic and kosher too - something we always look for in a tequila!
When we first heard about Given tequila liqueur, we weren't quite sure what to make of it. A Mexican spirit, fiddled with in France, and to top it all off, it's apparently not pronounced "given," it's pronounced "jee-vahn." Well, given that the folks from Given sent us a bottle, we decided to give in to the temptation and we're glad we did, since it's frickin' delicious.
Hola from Mexico, amigos. The Liquor Snob staff is on a much-needed vacation this week, drinking mucho tequila and murdering mucho Espanol. In other words, don't expect much from us this week, but we'll be back to our regularly-scheduled drunknness next week.
We always love hearing about brands were weren't otherwise familiar with, and we recently got a package on our stoop that gave us just such a surprise. In the box was a bottle of paQui tequila. According to their website, paQui means "to be happy" in the original Aztec, and we can say its lived up to its name so far...who doesn't like seeing a bottle of tequila?
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