I went from being mystified in the Tequila section of a store to an absolute snob just muttering to myself "crap, crap, additive filled swill, garbage, decent, ohh thats good...crap more crap!" hahaha Thanks Lui for all your knowledge on the World that is Tequila! Salud 🥃
While I was very new to buying good tequila we went to Cozumel and a very kind liquor shop owner told me that usually the fancy bottle tequilas are usually the lowest quality and worst tasting. He recommended a bottle to me, Los Abuelos and it was one of the best tequilas I've ever tasted. Now I know is that is the coveted Fortaleza Tequila. Going back to Cozumel this summer and I pray I can find more of these bottles since Fortaleza is pretty much non existent on the east coast.
I'm in SC and can confirm, it's impossible to buy. My buddy's bartender gf got him a bottle of Fortaleza anejo when her bar passed up on buying it. I was beyond jealous but he did share and gave me the dope Fortaleza baseball jersey that came with it!
Thanks Lui love your honesty about which Tequila's are rubbish and which are worth spending a few extra $ on. I'm in Australia and our choices are limited.
I've been following you for a while and learning about good tequila and what to avoid. You hit on some of my favorites, Fortaleza, G4, Cascahuin... sadly, they can all be hard to find, particularly since I have really grown to enjoy companies still-strength blancos.
I just found your channel and im rediscovering my love for tequila!! I haven't seen you say anything about Herradura, what do you think about that one?
Thanks to people like you Lui, never again will I drink Cuervo, and won't try the others you talked about. Love Lalo, G4, Fortaleza and Cimarron which I tried on your recommendation.
My biggest issues with these videos is that these additive free options are not in the same category as the bad tequilas. people who drink casamigos are not going to want ocho reposado, they want something sweeter like el tequileno, mijenta or even siete leguas. and a better choice for claze azul is going to be another nice bottle option like volcan de mi tierra XA or even cierto's anejo
Another confirmed additive free brand of tequila that could be an alternative to any of these overrated brands is Tapatio (the Tequila, not the hot sauce 😄😄😄). That one has a very crisp natural agave aroma and flavor with lots of good citrusy aromas and flavors as well. Their blanco is my go-to tequila for margaritas and palomas, and I haven’t tried their other expressions yet, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about them. It’s also made at the La Alteña distillery which is owned by Carlos Camarena, and the Tapatio brand dates back to 1940.
Any opinions on good orange liquers to pair with them in margaritas? Is a 750 mL of Grand Marnier at $41.99 really worth it over Gran Gala at $21.99. Or just go with Cointreau?
I have a cheap ass friend who buys a 750 ML of a Fireball whiskey meanwhile I get myself Green Spot Irish whiskey (70 USD), as I give him a shot he starts to pour himself another and another until I tell him "dude chill don't finish my bottle" as he starts saying "hey man you can have shots of my fireball too" I just look at him with disgust smh he does this with everyone and not just me and question why the hell is he getting that cheap and disgusting drink if he never drinks his drink and opts for others and tries to offer his shity drink as a tradeoff. BTW Lui I just started getting into Tequila because of you as my family is Mexican and never liked tequila because my family would also fall into the trap in buying don julio and thinking its good because it goes down smooth. As someone who prefers whiskey I never understood why I would want my drink to just go down with barely any taste or smokeyness as the end. I tried Lalo Tequila and its awesome !!!!!!!!
If you love whisky then Anejos and Extra Anejos would be your jam. Good (but pricey) recommend is El Tesoro Extra Anejo. Gunna run you about $110-140 (depending where you live) and I have found it to be a great tequila to pair with any cigar, especially the Full bodied ones I enjoy. The anejo by them is also very good albeit more sweet and usually found for $60-70. Another recommendation is Siete Leguas Anejo which can be found for about $60.
You are very right about which tequilas are good, but the tequilas you recommend are nowhere near the same prices in our Chicago big box liquor stores. I'm always ready to pay a little more for a better product, but when your recommendation is $15-$20 more for a fifth where I live, we're not in the same ballpark anymore.
I live in Italy now (i'm Mexican) i had some other Latinos over for a Mexican dinner at our house last week...people from Argentina, Colombia, Peru and a couple Italians. They loved the Palomas i was making, using Cimarron tequilla. After dinner one of them asked me for a sipping tequila, I busted our a bottle of Fortaleza Anejo, thinking they woulnd't drink much....well was I wrong. They were all so surprised at how smooth and delicious it was. THey had multiple shots to sip on. I was kinda devastated that they basically finished off a bottle of Fortaleza anejo, but they left thinking differenlty of tequila...so a win there. Luckily here in Italy i found a place online that has Fortaleza in stock, they even jsut added a limited amount of Fortaleza 2023 winter blend, so just ordered that today €150, which Id ont' think is bad as I have heard in US they run 300-600 a pop
I don’t even think the Clase Azul bottle looks nice. I won’t even give them that. Looks like a cheap trinket you could get at a Santa Fe Goodwill for five bucks.
Clase Azul would be an okay product if it weren't marketed as tequila and the price was brought back down to earth (say, $30 or something close to that). It could have marketed itself as a tequila-based liqueur or something similar and I wouldn't have a problem with it. It doesn't taste bad in a vacuum but it doesn't taste like tequila, so it shouldn't be marketed as such. A friendly reminder to drink what you like but know what you're drinking.
Just scrolling up and down the comment section watching Lui deflect all the haters is hilarious. If you don’t like great/additive free tequila, fine. The more for the rest of us.👍🏽
Thanks Lui - I suspect that the majority of the youth (that I see in the store) when buying tequila, are only interested in shots, and stuff like Casamigos (because their buddies told them). While I agree with you 100%, you are "pxxsing into the wind". These celebrity tequilas are going to keep making big bucks. They did go to Marketing school.
Maybe, but old guys like me appreciate the knowledge. Besides, I'm sure plenty of that college crowd will embrace the zero additive ethos just for the anti-celebrity/anti-megacorporation points.
Relative newcomer to your channel. I have learned a lot over the last 2 years, and I know I'm walking into a minefield when I do this, but I'd like to know the backstory behind a brand I drank for many years ... Sauza. I'm prepared for you to dump on it, but I would still be interested to know their role in the industry, past and present. Thanks for your consideration!
I just bought the Cascahuin Blanco but it's way too bright and vegetal, going back to Cimarron which I think is a lot better, more savoury and rounded with better agave flavors. Deserved more than a footnote in this video!
Anyone got some recommendations for good quality bottles available in germany/western europe? Regular stores usually only carry low quality products and online the known quality brands mostly go for twice the price mentioned here. Or is that just the way it is with imports?
Well shit....are all Herraduras bad? I recently got the double barrel, the reposado and the anejo ultra. The double barrel is open and I thought it was pretty damn good. The others will be opened this weekend.
I just moved to Mexico and ironically the selection is far worse than what I used to get in Oregon. The locals here seem to love Cuervo, Herradura, and Don Julio products. The only decent tequila I can find here is Siete Leguas, and I've looked everywhere!
Heradurra used to be really good...until Brown-Forman bought them up. They went through a period where they used diffuser to make tequila and it was super awful stuff. Now the distillery makes the brand without the diffuser but it's nowhere near what it used to be like. It's just okay now. It's barely good enough for mixing and rather expensive for what you're getting. You've explained tequila made with additives being bad but I haven't seen you go in depth on how bad diffuser tequilas are, both on how acid is used to extract sugars or how immature agave is used to make these products. Oh, did you hear about the former executives of Patron are making agave-based vodka? What a waste of agave!
I knew something happened to that tequila. Herradurra is my recent acquisition and has been on my list to drink for some time. Finally got a bottle and was disappointed. The spirit felt flat and one dimensional. Its smooth but not interesting as others have stated, since this buy out. Reposado is a solid 8, the blanco an 7.5. For the price I rather buy a handle of 1800 reposado which is a solid 7.5 for me.
My friend, I love your content more with every video you make. To use a biblical reference, you are a "voice crying out in the desert" of ignorance regarding authentic Mexican spirits production. Thank you for having the courage to be honest about what constitutes authentic Mezcal and Tequila production. Please know also that it is not lost on many of us, your viewers, that you are also running a full time restaurant and producing new drink recipes, managing staff schedules, supply ordering and delivery, customer service and paying rent & utilities while finding time to provide for and love your family and care for yourself. May God bless you and your family, friend, as you seek to answer your call in life to enhance the lives of so many of us who you do not know!
I would like to see a true blind taste test. You don’t know what bottle is presented to you and you don’t know what pool of bottles it comes from. Best way to see if you can tell the difference between good and bad tequila
I've done a whole video on a blind taste test if you want to watch it. But to expect me to pretend as if I don't know what certain brands of spirits taste like and why they are bad after 12 years in this industry is just nuts to me. Lol no one needs to listen to me btw. There's other content on RU-vid that may fit their narrative perspective.
Imma disagree on the Jose Cuervo: nobody who drinks it gives a crap about tequila or flavor whatsoever. That person is only trying to get wasted, most likely at a college frat party. Semantics matter not when you’re 6-8 drinks deep doing absolute dumb shit
You are from USA and a lot of booze you propose is only available in your place. But that’s not the reason I went to write a comment; nobody cares about the trivia, what counts is the taste, availability (price) and how it mixes with other ingredients when making cocktails. If someone’s grandpa made the drink or not is irrelevant. If someone does or does not respect whatever your idea of sustainable (let’s just not even go there) mass market industry rules doesn’t change the three criteria I stated before: taste, availability and .. margaritas
Well you know what's really cool? Maybe that stuff doesn't matter to you. But it matters to me. And since you found yourself on a video of Mine on My RU-vid channel where I share my opinion. That's what I'm gonna talk about. But the best part is you are free to write whatever comment that is your opinion! The beauty of the Internet
Honestly many of the newer tequilas you’ve recommended I’ve now tried and they sucked ass, not sure if you’re recommending these for reasons beyond taste. Perhaps they’re hooking you up, or you just like the company? This includes Lalo, Mijenta blanco, and G4 blanco. Mijenta did not even taste like tequila to me and you’ve kissed their ass in multiple videos lol. I’ve tasted many tequilas in my lifetime and prefer natural, additive free tequilas. Of course there are many more small batch tequilas like this available in MX than the US which it seems your channel is geared towards but there’s still good tequila in the US. And Tapatio blanco for example kicks all the above’s ass for much less $. Also, Fortaleza-a great tequila on a stable shelf for years-is now inaccessible because of RU-vid hacks. Silly.
Bro the only thing that sucks ass is your taste buds. If you hate those tequilas you listed, I'm sorry to say but your palate is a dumpster fire. Maybe tequila just isn't for you. Maybe try moonshine, might be more to your preference. HAHAHA
Jose Cuervo for many of us was our first taste of tequila coming up. I can’t disagree with anything you said. Don Julio I keep on hand. It may be overrated but I got to have it. I honestly I have yet to taste Clase Azul but I have been so tempted just for the bottle.
Hey lui! Nice video :) Wondering what you think of Casa Mexico. I've just been seeing it stock shelves around me in GA, and all my bartenders and I are obsessed. Thanks!
