
Read on for their expert-approved bottles, alongside a handpicked selection from our trusted ELLE editors. They were looking for bright, bold examples, with exceptional complexity. Each was tried neat, before being diluted with a touch of water, which allows the alcohol to soften, bringing out more flavour. Our panel of 10 WSET-certified experts and consumers sipped (no shots here!), 25 blanco, reposado and anejo tequilas. Broadly speaking then, blanco is for shots, anejo strictly for sipping (like you would with whisky), and reposado will happily take on either occasion. item 6 Still Spirits Top Shelf TEQUILA Essence 50ml Spirit Making Home Brew Still Spirits Top Shelf TEQUILA Essence 50ml Spirit Making Home Brew.

The juice of the piña is fermented, then aged in oak for various lengths of time, to become blanco (unaged), reposado (aged for two months up to a year) or anejo (one to three years).Įach has different characteristics, ranging from the fresh and citrusy (there’s a reason you shot with lime and salt), to the more complex styles which display caramel and oak. Dinner features 1 - 2oz Tequila Blanco cocktail followed by 3 top shelf tequilas to sip through as you enjoy your 3 course meal at El Beso. The blue agave starts life as one hell of a sexy succulent, but it’s the piña at the heart of the plant, which is needed to make tequila. El Beso invites you to share with us an intimate evening featuring a delicious chef-crafted meal paired with a premium Agave Experience provided by National Tequila Ambassador, James Bailey. This gives us visibility of the producer, so you can see just how many brands they’re responsible for - because can you really claim to be an artisanal tequila with hundreds of brands under the same roof? Not on our watch. The Top Shelf range of flavours are beautifully.

We’ve also included details of the NOM which is a four-digit number found on every bottle. Each flavour is designed to be added to a neutral spirit and adds the specific alcohol flavour you desire. Don’t worry, we’re not going to recommend any of those. One of the biggest tricks to tasting like quality alcohol is to avoid tasting like industrial alcohol. There are two types of tequila - those that are made with 100% agave, and the inferior “mixto” which only contains the legally required minimum 51 percent (with the rest made up of any other sugar, often corn). In order to determine what the true delicacies of the tequila world are, and to ensure maximum access to them, weve taken a look at some of the most popular tequila brands out there and ranked them from worst to best. But in order to pick the best tequila, you’ll need a bit more background on the various classifications (stay with us, it’s simple).
The best tequila and orange liqueur, the best from-scratch sour mix, and a pretty potent proportion of booze to sour. Legend has it that lightning struck an agave plant, cooking it and creating the first ever tequila. Today I’m telling you about our Beach Drink of Choice: a Top Shelf Margarita. However, with the spirit sometimes hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons, our expert is on hand to help you find the tastiest, most sustainable options out there. No bar cart is complete without an exceptional bottle of tequila.
