Last night my beau & I went to a Herradura Tequila Mixology Master-class held by a local chain of boutique liquor stores. I was terribly excited & a little bit nervous, as I’ve always heard nasty things about drinking tequila. My experiences in the past have been the usual lip, sip & suck kind so I was interested in learning more about tequila, its origin & how to serve it. Plus, we were promised food & drink!

A friendly & experienced bar tender by the name of Shay led the presentation & told us all about Herradura tequila, where it is from & how it is made. He also told us what to look for on the label of the bottle when buying tequila & the differences in taste & quality between brands. We tried three types of tequila, Herradura Anejo, Herradura Reposado & Herradura Silver. My favourite is the Silver! At the end of the night we were given a little bottle of el Jimador tequila to take home with us as well. Awesome! We also tasted a new cocktail, created by Shay. It is a variation of The Bramble, which was created by Dick Brandsell in the eighties. The original bramble is made with Gin, lemon, sugar & double crème de mure garnished with berries. I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing the recipe!

Photo by nerdling

Shay’s Herradura Bramble

• 45ml Herradura Silver Tequila
• 20ml fresh lemon juice
• 20ml simple syrup
• dash of Chambord liqueur

Pour the tequila, lemon juice & sugar syrup into a cocktail shaker half filled with ice. Shake Shake Shake! Serve in a glass filled with ice & top with a dash of Chambord. Enjoy responsibly, & hopefully with friends!

In this cocktail the bitter cherry notes found in the Herradura Silver tequila apparently marry very nicely with the modest addition of Chambord. I think its rather tasty & has sparked my new-found appreciation for tequila.

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