Advent Spirits Day 23: Suerte Tequila

Lucky for us today’s spirit is tequila. And I say “lucky” because it’s from a company called Suerte, which, I’m told on good authority, means “luck” in Spanish.

Remember how a week ago or so I was discussing the trend of associating alcoholic spirits with a back story, whether or not it’s relevant (or even true)? Suerte Tequila is no exception. Here’s their spiel: “Centuries ago, legend has it, a farmers [sic] wife saw lots of rabbits (400 it is said). They were bouncing happily through her fields lapping up the juices from the fermented agave plants. She went out and collected some of the nectar in jars, brought it into the hacienda and, for the first time, everyone did tequila shots. Ultimately she was crowned Mayahuel, the Aztec Goddess of Tequila. And the rabbits, well, to us, they’re heroes.”

What we have here is an Añejo tequila, which, as we all learned in school, has been aged in oak barrels for one to three years. Thus we should expect this to be mellower and richer than the blanco and Reposado tequilas we tried earlier in this Advent project. (As I now think about it, it would have been helpful if the makers of this Advent calendar had assigned these three tequilas to three sequential days, thus allowing for more direct comparison of the different styles.) I do expect that this will be superior to the other two tequilas, as a result of longer aging. And consistent with that theory, this tequila is quite a bit more expensive; a 750 ml bottle will set you back almost $60 bucks.

Let’s see how “lucky” I am to have scored this sample!

Appearance: It’s a pale yellow, like gum turpentine.

Aroma: Notwithstanding the oak aging, this smells a lot like gum turpentine as well.

Taste: You can definitely taste the oak, accompanied by notes of pine resin, bitter grapefruit, and cumin seed. I’d say it tastes pretty good, for a tequila.

Finish: Quite smooth (again, for a tequila). The tastes resolves into wood sorrel (which my childhood friends and I called “sour grass”).

Bottom Line: I don’t know whether to recommend this or not. I’d say that you’ve gotta ask yourself a question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?