Coyoacán – Pasote Añejo

I really enjoy agave spirits, especially tequila. However, when it comes to how often I mix drinks with them, they tend to fall behind. To change that, I came up with a Tequila Manhattan variation with cherry eau de vie as the supporting role.

The tequila I chose for this drink was the Pasote Añejo. Similar to its reposado sibling, the spirit is distilled at the El Pandillo distillery. (At least the batch currently still available in Germany). In contrast to the Reposado, the Añejo spends 18 months in American oak barrels. Afterwards, the tequila is bottled at 40 % ABV.

Sutble oak influence

Mostly I prefer Reposado tequilas over Añejos, because they have a great balance between agave and oak flavour. Yet, the Pasote Añejo manages to strike a similar balance between those two flavours. Apart from that, I got some flint stone, black pepper and buffalo grass notes.

Basically a Tequila Manhattan

Well, the story behind the recipe is relatively simple. I just came up with the idea of switching the rye whiskey for tequila. Furthermore, I used the Bob’s Coriander Bitters in combination with the Scrappy’s Lime Bitters. Both work great with tequila.

The drink starts with clear tequila and vermouth notes, similar to a Manhattan. Yet, the cherry eau de vie brings more fruitiness to the mix. The coriander bitters work exceptionally well with agave spirits. Maybe, the drink could use a little touch of mezcal. However, apart from that I was very happy with the result.

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The tequila was provided by Bremer Spirituosen Contor.