Yesterday we celebrated my nephew’s first birthday! Once the cake and presents were out of the way, our gracious host Jim invited us down to his basement bar for a tequila tasting. Jim is a true tequila aficionado, and he has clearly built his bar with that in mind. We sampled a very fine Partida reposado tequila. It was delicious unadorned – smooth and a bit spicy. The Partida was great, but I was more excited about the other tequila we tried – Lunazul – if for no other reason than it falls more in line with my budget. Priced at under $20 for 750 ml, Lunazul is a steal! Lunazul tequila is grown, distilled and bottled at the Tierra de Agaves Distillery in Tequila, Mexico. To pursue his goal of producing the best small batch tequilas in the world, former co-owner of Jose Cuervo, Francisco Beckmann, founded Tierra de Agaves in 2002. Lunazul comes in two varieties: blanco and reposado. Jim told us about how he chose Lunazul as his house tequila after conducting a blind taste test among friends. He served us the blanco in margaritas which he makes using agave nectar for sweetener, a natural pairing considering that tequila is also made from the agave plant. After returning home from the party, I headed to the corner liquor store and picked up my own bottle of Lunazul. Since we had already tried the blanco at Jim’s, I decided to buy the reposado. We sipped it straight up and in margaritas. It proved to be buttery, smoky and a bit sweet. Who knew a budget tequila could be this good? I can see why it scored so highly in Jim’s taste test.

1 Comment »

  1. Yes, the Lunazul is great, especially at that price. But hold on to your hat, here’s some really big news: Tezon is an ultra-premium tequila which normally sells for $50/ $60/ $70 (for Blanco/ Reposado/ Anejo respectively). It is currently being sold in Washington State Liquor stores for the same $19 as Lunazul.

    Gotta go. I’m on my way to liquor store to stock up.
    (http://www.novusvinum.com/spirits/tequila/features/tequila_tezon.html)

    Comment by Tequila Jim — April 17, 2009 @ 2:13 pm

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