Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Stop wasting your money on bad tequila. Chances are you've bought at least one of these tequilas and probably regretted it. Today I'm going to give you five swaps that will save you money and instantly upgrade your home bar with bottles made the right way. Traditional, additive free and loaded with real agave flavor. Look, most people don't buy tequila based on production. They buy it based on celebrity hype, fancy bottles, fancy marketing or whatever their buddies order at the bar. But here's the truth. Most expensive or most popular tequilas are actually the least traditional. Many use diffusers, additives, shortcuts and fast track production. Meanwhile, the best tequilas are the ones made with brick ovens, dohonas, slow fermentation, copper stills and most of the time cost less. So today I'm going to give you five swaps that'll save you money and give you a better tequila experience.
[00:00:57] Swap one class Azul. This bottle has thousands of Instagram posts, but G4 has the flavor of a thousand years of tequila tradition. Why G4 is better? Let's talk about it. Aged agave grown in the highlands. Only picked when they're ripe and ready. Brick ovens for cooking. The Frankenstein to Hona method for crack crushing. Copper stills and a blend between natural spring water and rainwater. It's additive free, it's balanced and it's got an agave forward flavor. Glass Azul. What do you get? We won't talk about the production method because they don't tell us. But it's really sweet, it's syrupy. It's dessert. Like when most people try it at my house after a tasting. They say it's medicinal. G4, what do you get? Cooked agave, pepper minerality, a light oak. A true tequila flavor. Swap number two. Casamigos built a massive brand, but it's known for being overly soft and overly sweet. Profile. Let's swap it out with Yellow Blanco. Made in the highlands. Arrondas Jalisco with highland agaves cooked in a stone oven, crushed with a roller mill. Open fermentation with some champagne yeast. With a little bit of Mozart music playing. The master's hand. Sergio Cruz making sure that the fermentation is perfect. Twice distilled in copper pots, this Yayo blanco gives you cooked agave crisp minerality. It's floral, it's clean, it's made the right way. Compare the flavor profile of Casamigos. It's vanilla and it's soft. Doesn't taste like cooked agave to me at all. This one you got cooked agave, pepper Fresh, clean. It's amazing. Awesome. Tequila. Swap them out. Next swap. Instead of Teramana, which I don't know how they make this stuff, let's switch it out to wild common blanco. Now, this is the still strength or the high proof. This one's coming in at 50% ABV, so it's not a great comparison against this 40% ABV. But the regular blanco is amazing as well. Teremana isn't terrible, but Wild Common is the real small batch, high quality experience people are searching for. Why Wild Common winds? Well, I'll tell you. Chava rosales and NAM 1123 casca ween. They make some of the best tequilas in all of the Valles coming out of Arena. This tequila is made with a tohona and a roller mill. It's made with stone ovens. They're using open fermentation with many different processes. And the agaves they use, they're from the Valles. They got a lot of minerality, a great taste. You can't miss a cascaline. 1123 Tequila and wild Common is one of the best ones coming out of there. The next swap. How about Don Julio? It is everywhere. El Tech Eleno Anejo Grand Reserve is one of the best kept secrets in tequila. You probably know the story. Don Julio's family doesn't even drink Don Julio anymore. But El Tecaleno, which has been made the Same way since 1959, ran today by master distiller Tony Saez. They're making a phenomenal tequila that for many people in America, overlook it. Copper distilled, natural fermentation matured in American and French oak. This thing is rich. It's amazing when you talk about the flavor and the contrast between Don Julio and El Tecaleno. Don Julio is smooth. It's one dimensional. This is agave forward with warm baking spices, caramel, oak depth. What tequila Anejo is supposed to taste like. Check it out.
[00:04:39] And the last swap I got for you, Patron Silver. It's a bar staple, but Atanasio is becoming a favorite among tequila lovers for a reason. And one of it shows right here in the bottle shops. Patron is a behemoth, massive company. Definitely making a clean tequila, but also a very neutral profile. Athanasio. They're crushing it. And here's why. They're using not only a low pressure autoclave, but they've recently installed a stone oven. I can't wait to try that tequila. They're using a roller mill. Beautiful fermentation. That's open, wild. And however long it takes. That's how long it takes. Master distiller Rene Carranza. He knows what he's doing. He's making fantastic tequila to taste, utilizing stainless steel pots and making a blanco that'll blow your mind. If you look at the flavor contrast, Patrona. It's sharp, it's thin, it's slightly britter, and it's very neutral. Atanasio. The nose will blow you away, but the taste, buttery agave, pepper, minerality, and some citrus. A tequila that'll leave you wanting more Athanasium. This is why traditional tequila wins every single time. Traditionally made smaller, batched, and made with the hand to try to make traditional tequila. They're not focused on how much can we make and how much profit is there. They're focused on how do I keep the traditional log of tequila and bring our favorite tequila drinkers a great flavor every time. So there you go. Five swaps instantly save you money and get you drinking real traditional tequila right away. Drop a comment and tell me your favorite tequila swap. I'll feature some of them in the next video. If you found this helpful hit, subscribe and I'll see you on the next floor.
