You Should Already Be Drinking: Tequila Tromba

As is probably obvious from previous posts here and from my role in creating the Ontario Brewmaster’s Cup, I tend to try to support local businesses when it comes to my consumption of alcohol. This is getting increasingly easy thanks to the recent surge in amazing  Ontario craft brewers and, thanks to smaller distillers like Still Waters and 66 Gilead, is become a little easier when it comes to some spirits.

I like to drink and when I do I like knowing that the (considerable amount of) money I spend on alcohol is going toward helping a smaller, local business. I know, I’m weird like that.

Anyway, I had long ago resigned myself to the fact that, for certain alcohols, this would always be impossible. My old friend Scotch, for example, would by design of course never be made in Ontario, and so too was my friend tequila fated to never be crafted by any neighbour of mine.

Until…

An unsolicited email arrived in my inbox, excitedly telling me about a tasting for Tromba Tequila!

Now, it might sound crazy because I write about beer, but I actually get a fairly large amount of sort of vaguely alcohol-related exciting unsolicited email excited to tell me something exciting about new exciting alcohol.

For the most part, since I write about beer and because blogTO tends to prefer a sort of local, “non-corporate” variety of news, these emails aren’t much use to me; but I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for good tequila so I gave this one a read and noted: “While Tromba is produced in Jalisco, Mexico, its founder and CEO is 28 year old Torontonian Eric Brass.”

And so I was in.

Sure it was a bit of a stretch, but “founded by a guy from Toronto” is probably about as local as tequila will ever get for us in the great white north, really. Plus, even though the Ivey School of Business and the University of Western Ontario’s English department are about as far apart philosophically as Mitt Romney and the dog he strapped to his car, it turns out that Eric and I essentially both went to the same university (PURPLE AND PROUD!), so I thought the least I could do to support a fellow Mustang was to go and drink some free tequila.

And I’m glad I did.

The little event held at Cold Tea on Monday night not only included a selection of excellent cocktails prepared by Cold Tea’s talented staff and food by Playa Cabana, but, most importantly, an ample supply of Tequila Tromba, which, it turns out, is really good.

It also turns out that Eric and I have had similar revelations about tequila in our past. That is, we both discovered a love for real tequila while in Mexico, and we are both appalled at the concept of the 51% tequila, 49% sugar distilate, corn syrup, and caramel mixture that often passes for tequila here in Canada. However we differ in that, whereas I simply vowed only to drink the good stuff, he opted instead to track down the master distiller of Don Julio, begin production of his own tequila, then begin distributing it across Australia, Canada, and the US. So, you know…different strokes for different folks. Potato potahto.

Anyway, as you may expect from someone who clearly gives a shit about a quality beverage, Tromba tequila is pretty smooth. It’s got the advantage of having a comparable taste to top-shelf tequilas, so you can drink it neat, but it’s available at a decidedly more reasonable price point of $49.95 for a 26er. So you also don’t need to feel bad about “wasting” it by using it in a cocktail–just keep the fucking store-bought margarita mix the hell away from it.

Instead, try some of the iterations offered at the tasting Monday night, including the Tommy Margarita and La Paloma, the recipes for which I’ve included below. And, if you’re feeling really adventurous, try what was for my money the best beverage of the night: Tequila Tromba served neat with a phenomenal little alcohol-free chaser called Verdita. Sipping a little tequila with this blended mix of pineapple juice, fresh lime, mint, cilantro, and jalapeno will change the way you think about tequila. And you can rest easy knowing that you’re helping support a kind of sort of local business–if you give a shit about that sort of thing.