Story by Hayley Dixon – Spirits Specialist at Proximo
What better day to mark your calendar than World Tequila Day? The day we get to celebrate one of the most remarkable plants in the world, agave, and the most famous liquid it creates, Tequila!
To Celebrate World Tequila Day we have teamed up with some of the nation’s finest venues, to bring you those winning cocktails, made using 1800 Tequila.
It’s been a year of celebrations as we have seen lockdowns end, the reopening of our favourite bars, and celebrating with our loved ones again. That’s not to say that lockdowns didn’t bring us some small joys, including the genius cocktail-offs posted to the Facebook bartender exchanges each day. Bartenders from across Australia were able to have their say once and for all, that classic cocktails really are the best.
To Celebrate World Tequila Day we have teamed up with some of the nation’s finest venues, to bring you those winning cocktails, made using 1800 Tequila.
First up, a relatively new venue up in the North making some well-deserved waves this year is Hanky Panky Lounge in Darwin. They already offer Tequila as a twist in their Old Fashioned, so they were the perfect bar to take on the Old Fashioned using 1800 Anejo. With its prominent toffee, oak, and cacao notes, 1800 Anejo is the perfect replacement for whiskey in such a loved classic. Created by Riley Landini, this innovative recipe shows that you don’t need a whiskey to make the perfect Old Fashioned.
You will be hard-pressed to find a bartender that doesn’t love a Negroni. Countless long hours and late nights must leave us longing for the perfect balance of boozy, bitter, and rich goodness. When searching for a venue that knows its way around a Negroni, it was hard to go past Sasso Italiano in Woolloongabba. Playing off the lighter green apple and pepper notes in 1800 Silver, their pineapple-infused rendition will have you seeking tequila in all your Negronis from now on.
SASSITA Recipe: 30ml Pineapple infused 1800 Silver 30ml Rose Vermouth 15ml Bitter Orange Liqueur 15ml Italian Aperitif Garnish Charred Pineapple
Sing it, ‘If you like Pina Coladas!’ – This creamy concoction beat the gin martini in the cocktail-off, so like them, you must. To give this one the full tequila makeover we had to enlist one of Australia’s most loved tiki bars, Hula Bula in Perth. An obvious choice to create the perfect Pina Colada using tequila is 1800 Coconut. Bursting with notes of honey, citrus, and coconut which play beautifully in the famous cocktail classic. The Hula Bula team has bought us their creation that contains not uno, but dos tequilas!
LA COLADA Recipe: 40ml 1800 Coconut 20ml Jose Cuervo Traditional Silver 30ml Pineapple Syrup 30ml Coconut Cream 40ml Fresh Pineapple Pinch of salt Blended with ice Garnish with all your tiki favourites
Last, but certainly not least we have the winner of the ‘ultimate round.’ The drink that went on to beat the Margarita 431 votes to 91, the beer and a shot. There was only one venue equipped to take on such an important challenge, Hats and Tatts in Melbourne. Drinks creator and beer and shot enthusiast, Jimmy Burchett, has delivered the perfect tequila take on the bartender’s most loved drink using 1800 Reposado. The notes of orange oil, cinnamon, and caramel present in the tequila balance brilliantly with the tartness of a sour beer.
SAME OLD BLUES Recipe: 50ml 1800 Reposado 20ml Blueberry Puree Pastis Rinsed Glass Topped with Sour Beer Garnish Sour Gummy Lemon