A while back I wrote to Bartcop mentioning that I had sampled the exalted Chinaco Anejo
and found it delightful.  Over the years, we have sampled a number of fine spirits with
varying results, so we thought it might be interesting to do a taste test of the bottles that
were currently warming up the bar in our family room.

The first attempt was, ... well... not very successful.  I sat down alone on a Friday evening
to attempt this, and by the 4th shot I had completely forgotten which one was in each glass.
Clearly, although I was enjoying myself immensely, other methods were required.

The following weekend (allowing plenty of time for system cleansing) my husband Bob and I
sat down to make a second stab at it.  We started out by pretending we didn't even know the
bottle of Cuervo Gold in the refrigerator was even there.  (A friend of Bob's swears that
Cuervo is the only tequila there is...we've tried to kick him up a notch, but to no avail.
At least it makes entertaining him less of an investment!!)

The tequilas tested were:

Chinaco Anejo
Patron Anejo
Herradura Anejo
Sauza Commemorativo Anejo
Sauza Hornitos Reposado
El Tesoro Reposado
El Tesoro Silver
Patron Silver
 

In general, I find the Anejos to be the sipping tequilas...served at room temperature and straight up.
Reposados do not usually have the oomph for sipping, but will really jazz up the taste of a Margarita,
particularly if you replace the triple sec with Grand Marnier or Cointreau and use real lime juice
and simple syrup.  As a rule, the silvers are pretty much limited to Margaritas in our house.

For the purposes of this test, however, we sipped a small amount of each tequila, straight and
at room temperature.  We sampled the Anejos as a group, the Reposados as a group, and the
Silvers as a group.  The palate cleanser of choice between samplings was a rather unscientific
combination of a loaf of homemade Italian Bread, warm, with herbed goat cheese and roasted garlic.
Possibly not the best choice for Tequila, but it tasted great and kept us from getting too loopy.
(As you will see, this is a subjective assessment in Bob's case.)

On to the results:  As expected, the Anejos were the ones we liked best in this context, followed by
the Reposados and finally the Silvers.  I've listed them in the order we both agreed was best to worst.
The following are the comments I wrote down as we proceeded with the sampling.

Among the Anejos:

Chinaco:

(Pam)  Soft and clean, a taste that is reminiscent of velvety, rich chocolate, smoky and smooth.

(Bob)  Caresses your nipples
 

Patron:

(Pam)  Lots of smoke, a touch of pineapple and citrus, full flavored with a clean finish.

(Bob)  Like a cool breeze on a moist nipple
 

Herradura:

(Pam)  Good flavor, smoky with hints of lemon and cherry

(Bob)  Boy, that one grabs you by the tits!!

Commemorativo:

(Pam)  Smooth texture; some smokiness, slight cherry flavor.  Not as much character as the other 3.
(Bob)  This one doesn't grab me...tastes like earthworms.
 

Not quitting while I was ahead, we went on to the Reposados:

Sauza Hornitos:

(Pam)  Dry, with a vodka-like quality, smooth with a touch of lime.
My favorite Margarita tequila when I'm not willing to splurge on the more expensive Anejos.

(Bob)  Warm breath on an aureole.
 

El Tesoro Reposado:

(Pam)  Tastes like a cold spoon; some cherry flavor

(Bob)  Nothing but a little perkiness.

After a brief pause while I suggested maybe we suspend the boob behavior (as
usual, my suggestion was ignored), we moved on to the final round, the Silvers.

Patron Silver:

(Pam)  Expensive for a silver, the Patron really makes a margarita special.
It has an unusual olive flavor that reminds me of the margaritas we were served in Mexico
(which were not sweet and had olives in them like martinis) Actually, for Margs, I would
sometimes choose this one over the El Tesoro Reposado just for that unique taste.

(Bob)  They were pimiento-stuffed olives....they remind me of something....
 

El Tesoro Silver:

(Pam)  More harsh than any of the others, but slightly lemony and good for margaritas.

(Bob)  Whoa...that one really makes your nipples pucker!
 

All in all, it was a lot of fun; not very scientific because the choices were based strictly
on what I had on hand, but I thought we had a pretty wide range of choices.
I hope you enjoyed reading about our experiment and will give it a try yourself sometime!!
 

Pam great letter!
...and I can tell your husband is a Democrat :)