Our other top picks were the Select Barrel Reserve from Milagro, a similarly direct and complex tequila, which got about a month of barrel aging, and the powerful, elemental Astral.
But with each successive quaff, the flavors opened up, revealing a rich, complex tequila that stopped just short of overpowering the harmonious blend of the other ingredients.
Page D1 Food Stuff A Complex, New Tequila D2 Of Frostings and Cupcakes D2 A 2009 View From on High D2 The Minimalist Buckwheat From Italy D3 Feed Me The Business of Steakhouses And Two Drinks for the Road There's just something about a steakhouse: the portions, the warm wood interiors and the people that frequent them.
Partida, 35, avoids blue agave in his products, however, preferring to instead combine 14 types of agave – some "bitter", some "sweet" and some "wild", which mature for seven to 15 years – to create more complex flavors than the tequila industry.
The restaurant offers more than two dozen kinds of tequila and promotes complex, cutely tagged concoctions like the Tears of a Cloud, a kind of piña colada, and the self-explanatory Daiquiri in the Dark.
This one is complex and lovely -- the tequila hits you right up front but then segues quickly into the coffee/chocolate/cinnamon combo.
Allowed to "repose" or mature in two different types of oak casks, the reposado is far subtler, and more complex than its non-aged tequila relatives.
Tequila can be much more complex than that.
The Dippermouth (bourbon, crème de banana, coffee) and the Ginger Baker (ginger, tequila, jasmine) are sophisticated and complex, and eminently drinkable.
The menu lists 14 cocktails made by Nicolas de Soto, most of which are extremely complex, like the Curious Prescription, made with reposado tequila, pear eau de vie, manzanilla sherry, lime juice, habanero bitters and homemade salted caramel mezcal syrup.
Slowly, though, the restaurant is enlarging its repertory, and it now serves more complex dishes like sauteed shrimp with cactus pads and grilled chicken with tequila vinaigrette.
