Coal Black Mattie – Cascahuín Añejo
I thought of moving ‘Agave Month’ to May to give me a bit more wiggle room, after Dry January and ‘Tropical Month’. Nevertheless, I will post a few agave-based recipes now and then some more in May. As a start, I am featuring the Cascahuín Añejo Tequila.
Cascahuín tequila is produced under the NOM 1123. For their Añejo the master distiller Salvador Rosales Trejo uses Lowland agaves cooked in a brick-oven. After crushing in a roll-mill the mash is fermented in open vats. The double distillation takes place first in stainless and copper stills and second in smaller 350 l copper stills. The Añejo ages in ex-bourbon barrels for around 16 months.
Complex agave with a touch of oak
Contrary, to a lot of Añejo tequilas out there, the oak leaves enough room for the fruity agave flavours. Apart from that, you can taste a lot of mineral notes reminding me of red earth, ash as well as clay. Afterwards, cooked agave shows itself in combination with black as well as Szechuan pepper. This leads towards an extremely long aftertaste.
For advanced Amaro drinkers
While my recent cocktail ‘Caustic Love‘ was something Amaro novices could enjoy, too, the ‘Coal Black Mattie‘ is a different beast. I cannot exactly tell you how I landed on the combination of Sfumato and Averna, but it was meant to be some kind of Black Manhattan variation, but with tequila. Next, I added two bitters, a spicy one and another which goes well with agave spirits. The port wine is only there to round everything off and add a bit of ‘wine’ taste.
2 Dashes Bob’s Bitter Coriander Bitters
3 Drops Bitter End Memphis Barbeque Bitters
1,5 cl Averna del Salvatore
1 cl Cappelletti Sfumato
0,75 cl Quinta de la Rosa Reserve Port
Garnish: Orange Twist;
Song: The Black Keys – Coal Black Mattie;
Sometimes two amaros kind of blend together and the bitter notes mellow each other. This is not the case here. Instead, the cocktail starts with a powerful bitterness you really have to get used to. However, if you do so, the drink offers a great complexity with hints of spices and a great agave fruit.
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. I received the tequila for free from Mezcaleria.de
