EXQUISITE AGAVE COCKTAILS
Cinco de Mayo is a good excuse to elevate your tequila. Here are five of our latest favorites. The first three are the BN team’s newly conjured cocktails, the fourth is a new sipping tequila, T1 Selecto Blanco, that is great straight. And the fifth is a new concoction that T1’s Maestro Tequilero likes to drink when he isn’t sipping.
1. Strawberry Rhubarb Margarita
(Photo: Shira)
Strawberry Rhubarb Margarita
1 cup 100% agave tequila
¼ cup rhubarb puree
¼ cup strawberry juice
¼ cup fresh lime juice
¾ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup agave nectar
¾ cup triple sec
Lime wedges, and strawberries to garnish
Coarse Hawaiian pink salt
Chill margarita glasses. Dampen their rims with lemon juice and dip into the pink salt.
Mix all the liquid ingredients and the agave nectar together in a blender. Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into glasses. Or blend with ice for a frozen margarita. Serves 4.
2. Tequila Sunset
(Photo: Shira)
Tequila Sunset
1 ½ ounces tequila
1 cup pink grapefruit juice
½ ounce pomegranate molasses
Boiling water
Pour enough boiling water into pomegranate molasses to make a thin syrup. Pour into glass. Fill glass with ice. Pour tequila and grapefruit juice into glass. Serves one.
3. Martiniño
(Photo: Caro Scuro)
Martiniño
4 ounces 100% agave tequila
½ ounce dry vermouth
Lemon and lime twists
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour tequila and vermouth in and shake. Strain into glass. Add twists. Serves one
4. T1 Tequila Uno Ultra Fino Blanco
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(Photo: T1 Tequila Uno)
T1 Tequila Uno
For a pure heaven sipping tequila experience, our latest tequila crush is T1 Tequila Uno’s T1 Selecto – Blanco 86 proof. It is distilled at a lower temperature so it yields a more full flavored agave taste. It is one of T1’s four varieties of handcrafted tequila, all made of 100% mature Agave Azul grown in the Mexican Highlands.
T1’s genius Maestro Tequilero, Gérman Gonzalez is the great grandson of General Manuel Gonzalez, president of Mexico from 1880 -1884. Gérman’s father, Guillermo Gonzalez Diaz Lombardo launched the first ultra-premium tequila in the US in the late 1970’s. And Gérman learned a lot from his father. But he dreamed of creating his own tequila vision, using both old style and new ideas, so he peeled off and started the T1 collection.
(Photo: Linda Hoover)
Gérman stays close to his product from start to finish. He plants and picks mature agaves, which have been grown from both black and red soils and blends like a vintner. He is scrutinizes the distillation process and selection of the woods to use for aging, to get the right balance.
“We love working with bartenders and chefs from around the country,” says Gérman. “They create their own secret recipes. Some of our favorite friends include Jay Silverman, from Agave in New York, Chuck Meyer from La Condessa in St Helena, California, Lucinda Hutson, author and tequila afficianado from Austin, and my friends from La Penca Azul in San Francisco, California.”
Gérman doesn’t always drink his artisanal tequilas neat. He shares a recipe with us for the cocktail he’s drinking now, made with T1 Reposado.
5. T1 Reposado Excepcional
(Photo: Marleigh)
T1 Reposado Excepcional
1.5 oz. T1 Reposado
0.5 oz. Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur
1 oz blood orange purée or juice
.25 oz. lime juice
.25 oz. agave nectar
Mix well. Garnish with the sage and slices of fresh blood orange and serve on the rocks .
