I Never Drink Cuervo… But a Viewer Requested This Review

[00:00:00] Today's review is a little different. A viewer asked me to review a tequila that honestly, I would have never bought for myself. Not because I hate it, not because of anything that I have against this brand. But when I walk into a liquor store, Jose Cuervo Traditional Blanco is simply not a bottle that I'm reaching for. Now to be completely transparent, I did purchase this bottle of Total Wine after doing a tasting with some amazing tequilas. After I recently visited Tequila Mexico and the Jose Cuervo distillery. I was invited by Jose Cuervo for what they call the Transpar, where we got to walk through distillery and see the oldest active distillery in Latin America. I did see stone ovens. I seen roller mills, I seen temperature controlled fermentation tanks. I also seen copper stills. I drank the tequila straight off the still. I figured if there was ever going to be a time to give Cuervo a fair shot, now's the time. And after seeing how it's made with my own eyes, I'm just not sure. I didn't see where it was bottled. I seen where it was made. There was no diffuser on site. There was a column still they showed us they use it for. They use it with their heads and their tails and that goes into their flavored tequilas and their RTDs is what they said. One thing we didn't get to see though is the tequila being bottled and it's bottled at another facility that's in Guadalajara. And I would love to see that to see if the tequila that's in the bottle is the same tequila that I drank off of the Sil. So today we're going to do a review of the Cuervo Traditional Tequila Blanco. This is, like I said, a brand new bottle. Picked it up for, I believe it was $21 at Total Wine yesterday. So this is going to be a fresh pop. It is kind of funny because today I did watch a video of my friend Wayne with Drink With Wayne do the review of the La Rohena 1908, which I have had as well. And this is kind of fitting that I'm recording this on the same day. So I figured I would use the Drink with Wayne Glass, which I will show you here in a second. So there's a big old gush of Cuervo Traditional. When you go to the distillery where they make this, there's a few brands that are made at La Rohena 1 and 2, the Traditionelle, they make the double product and they also make the Familia Reserve. So they did openly tell us that the 1800 and the other Cuervo products are made at different distilleries that do have diffusers and column stills. So they did point out that this tequila is made with one of their 22 different stone ovens. And when you walk through them and you see them, they are all different sizes, from the very first ones made in the early 1900s to the ones that have been added on since. From there, they went into a normal roller mill. That roller mill then dumped into closed fermentation where they use a proprietary yeast. And from there it does go on to copper stills. Even in the big La Rohena, which is all ran by about five people, they're still unloading these giant ovens. They're still going through three shredders. And then a regular roller mill that also had a section that pulled agave back up into it and it spun it through this round drum that spins the agave around and then drops it back down into the third level of the roller mill. And then the stills and fermentation tanks they had in there were absolutely giant. I've never seen anything like that. They are copper stills that are wrapped inside of a stainless steel body. So it's all copper inside. And let's give this a try. Let's see what we're going to think today of Jose Cuervo traditional. On the nose. There's. There's a funkiness that I can't really put my finger on. There is cooked agave. There's a little bit of a citrus note. There's a little bit of a vegetal note. I'm not going to say that it's horribly off putting, but there is a funky note that I can't put my finger on what that is. There's a. [00:03:48] It's almost like the smell of wet cardboard, so, like a little bit of an earthy note that is not off putting, but not. Not super fantastic either. So let's. Let's dive into the taste of this one. Lord help me. Very light on the mouthfeel. A little bit of cooked agave, A little bit of a vegetable note. Really, it's kind of. It's kind of flat. I really thought there'd be a little more flavors. I thought there'd be more flavors that I didn't like, but instead there's just not a lot of flavor. There's the coat agave there. That's nice. [00:04:18] But it is surprisingly easy to drink, but not complex at all. It's. It's very non complex. I'm going to say that I don't pick up like a. I expected to pick up a fake sweetness. I expected to pick up something fake. Instead, I just don't pick up a whole lot at all. It's like I said, kind of void of flavor. It's got a little bit of cooked agave, a little bit of vegetableness. [00:04:37] Probably really super easy to chug that without having a lot of complexity with it. I don't know. To me, I don't need to support a giant brand like Cuervo. They do great on their own. And I'm really more about helping the smaller brands and the traditional brands get out there. But I do want to say this. If it wasn't for Jose Cuervo, I wouldn't probably drink tequila because they brought tequila to the world. And while I was there, Ted Genoese gave us a tour and we walked through the little town of Tequila. And when you read this book and you have this tequila in front of you and you're touring the distillery, you learn about the history of tequila and what it took to bring this bottle to market. So I'm thankful for everything that Cuervo does. I'm thankful for the trip they brought me down on. I am going to do a review in the future of the La Rogena 1908, which you only can get at the distillery, which is a throwback to what they believe Jose Cuervo tequila tasted back in the early 1900s. But for traditional, you know, I'm going to say this is a cocktail tequila. If you're going to batch, make some margaritas or palomas, and you're not looking for the agave to stand out, this is one that you could pick up. Thanks for the viewer who asked me to do Cuervo do. I appreciate you. [00:05:50] Thanks for watching. If you have a tequila that you'd like for me to review, drop it in the comments and I'll see if I can get it on the show. Cheers. Have a great night. Thanks.