If your experience with tequila has been limited to the occasional shot or two or three on Cinco de Mayo, pay close attention, gentle readers. El Portal Mexican Restaurant features great tequilas as part of their menu.
Among the brands featured is the Asombrosa Silver Tequila, directly from Tequila, Mexico. (Yes, there is such a place.) We chatted with representative Samuel Garcia the other day, about the brand and what makes it so distinctive.
“We’ve been Around for about 10 years, said Garcia. “The owner, Ricardo Tomara, basically started it from nothing. He just just went to Mexico one day and wanted to open up a distillery in the town of Tequila and eventually came out with his own brand.
What distinguishes the company’s tequilas, says Garcia, is their use of blue agave, the best quality Agave available. For those not in the loop, Agave is the cactus ingredient from which Tequila is distilled.
The company’s reputation certainly precedes it, as well. Asombroso has already won awards at the San Francisco Spirit Awards—the highest competition that a liquor brand can enter—a couple of years in a row now, said Garcia.
The company’s shining star brand is their Silver Tequila, which Garcia describes as, “Just a nice, clean, great-tasting Tequila. We distill it three times. The more you distill it, the smoother it will be, so that it won’t give you a headache in the morning.
Like wine, tequilas are also aged in barrels, which play a huge role in the quality of the final product.
Explains Garcia, “We used a couple different types of barrels. For our Reposado, we use wine Bordeaux barrels and we rest that one for three months. And that gives a nice pink hue color to it. And it’s a very very distinctive taste. You actually get a black cherry, or fruity chocolate at the end.”
El Portal is at 695 E Green St, Pasadena. (626) 795-8553.
