CleverRoot

w i n t e r 2 0 1 8 | 3 9 Like any great party, the festivities began as soon as guests walked in the door. After being greeted by Latin music and a welcome cocktail served from a punch bowl festooned with colorful miniature flowers, we mingled and sipped a libation made with El Tesoro and ginger. Shortly thereafter, Navarro beckoned us over for a sit-down tasting of El Tesoro tequilas paired with lime-laced guacamole, chips, and salsa. El Tesoro's award-winning lineup ranges from the completely transparent, unaged Blanco to the Paradiso, which gets its wet-straw color from five years spent aging in Cognac barrels. In between those two are the Reposado, aged up to 11 months in oak barrels, and the Añejo, which undergoes two to three years of barrel aging. All of the spirits are distinct in their own right, but they share a profile of balance and complexity. "All tequilas are not made the same—El Tesoro is one of the most authentic," Navarro stated emphatically. "The higher quality is a combi- nation of four things: estate-owned agave fields, a 100-per- cent tahona process, double distillation to proof, and open air fermentation using wooden vats." Those same character- istics also acted as the driving motivation behind El Tesoro's modest 7,000-case production. It was time for our cooking lesson after the tasting, so we donned our aprons and washed our hands before joining Chef Jordan Schacter and his crew in the kitchen. Forming teams at different stations, we chopped, peeled, flattened, steamed, puréed, and assembled an assortment of ingredi- ents from seafood to spices. The preparation of each dish encompassed some element meant to remind us of the handcrafted production meth- ods used at La Alteña. Most recipes required the use of a molcajete, a large—and heavy—mortar and pestle used to grind the spices common in traditional Mexican cuisine. The molcajete is reminiscent of the tahona, the two-ton stone wheel used at La Alteña to grind the agave (most other tequila producers have abandoned the tahona in favor of more modernized, efficient methods). Chef Schacter's cooking philosophy centers around how to prepare quality ingredients without compromising their natural attributes—not unlike El Tesoro's approach to te- quila production. The ceviche verde served at the anniver- sary party, for example, was prepared with seafood freshly caught that very morning, and Schacter advised us not to steam the mussels in white wine. "If you steam them in white wine, they taste like white wine," he advised. "They have enough to steam in their natural juices." We were sated and proud of ourselves after eating the delicious meal we'd prepared—ceviche, a Mexican-style coleslaw, pork carnitas with salsa de árbol, and handmade tortillas—but we had no idea the best was yet to come. The pièces de résistance were the Mexican chocolate brownies, made with ancho chili powder and ground cinnamon and accompanied by the 80th Anniversary Extra Añejo. If Don Felipe had been there to taste those two exquisite things together, he'd rest assured that no matter the scale of El Tesoro's production, its legacy is larger than life. ■cr The El Tesoro de Don Felipe ® commemorative 80th Anniversary Extra Añejo, center, flanked by the brand's award-winning lineup of tequilas. At left, Paradiso and Reposado; at right, Añejo and Blanco. Host Luis Navarro, Brand Ambassador for El Tesoro, welcomed the guests before everyone donned aprons for the cooking class. The fruits of our labor: handmade tortillas, pork carnitas, Mexican coleslaw, and salsa de chile de árbol served in a molcajete. Luis Navarro and Chef Jordan Schacter, Proprietor of Jordan's Kitchen in San Francisco. EL TESORO DE DON FELIPE® 100% AGAVE TEQUILAS, 40% ALC./VOL. ©2017 FIELDING & JONES, LTD., CHICAGO, IL.

• Cover