What About The Worm
Remember the worm we talked about in the opening section? As it turns out, worms have nothing to do with tequila. The worm in the bottle trick is often used by mezcal producers as a gimmick of sorts to draw attention to their product. In fact, the law says that tequila may not contain a worm or scorpion.
If a bottle is con gusano , then it is likely a mezcal and not a very good one at that. The worm is actually the larva of a moth that infests agave plants. An infested plant is the sign of a bad agave product. Proceed with caution.
What Is Milagro Liquor
MilagroMilagro
Masterfully made with a unique taste, Milagro Silver Tequila is a great option for anyone looking to add to their liquor cabinet. Tequila is made from the blue agave plant and is distilled for varying amounts of time, depending on the type of tequila and the makers preference.
Similarly, is Milagro a good tequila? Milagros diverse range of 100 percent estate-grown blue agave tequilas includes options for big spenders and budget drinkers alike. In fact, its been on both best inexpensive tequila and best expensive tequila lists.
Likewise, how much is a bottle of Milagro?
Milagro Tequila Prices List
Best Overall: Casamigos Blanco Tequila
Casamigos Tequila is a perfect introduction to premium tequilas. The portfolio follows the basic grading system for tequilas, which is standard for most brands and includes a blanco, reposado, and añejo tequila.
The beautiful thing about Casamigos is that it doesnt have a bold tequila taste. Instead, these tequilas are smooth and subtle. They appeal to drinkers who typically prefer vodka or rum, though tequila lovers appreciate them as well. Any bottle is a fantastic option for shots and margaritas, and theyre reasonably priced. You might even recognize it as the brand co-founded by George Clooney. While you have a bottle, its only appropriate to mix up a Danny Ocean cocktail, a sort of grapefruit, cherry-kissed margarita. Its also quite nice in a spicy paloma and the fun crouching tiger shooter.
Bottle Size: 750 milliliters | Tasting Notes: Vanilla, citrus, cream | ABV: 40% | Region: Jalisco
Raúl Rizo, the bar supervisor at The Cape in Los Cabos, Mexico, notes, As soon as tequila blanco is distilled, it is stored in a bottle or rested in barrels of encino or oak for no more than two months. It is the teenager of tequilasyoung, impetuous, and fearless with hints of citrus, menthol, and herbal senses from agave Weber azul.
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How Is Tequila Made
While grapes, wheat, or corn can be harvested a few months to a few years later before being processed and distilled into alcohol, the blue agave plants used to make tequila are different. They take about 10 years to grow before theyre ready to be harvested for tequila.
The labor-intensive harvesting is done by hand by agave farmers known as jimadores. Here are the main steps for turning agave into tequila:
- Agave harvesting: When ready to be harvested, the spiny leaves and roots are cut off the main plant body, called the agave heart or piña, which goes to processing.
- Process the agave: The hearts are slowly baked, which can sometimes take days. The slow cooking reduces caramelization and prevents the juices from turning bitter, thus maintaining the flavor of the agave.
- Crush the agave: Afterwards, the cooked hearts are crushed to release their sugary juices. This can be done by a mechanical crusher and grinder, or by the traditional way using a volcanic stone wheel called a tahona. Historically, a mule pulled the tahona, but these days an electric motor does the job. In theory, this slower practice of extracting agave nectar that will be fermented and distilled creates a more robust and complex flavor.
- Ferment the agave into tequila: The extracted juices are then fermented and twice-distilled as dictated by regulations. The distilled alcohol can then be bottled straight away or aged in wooden containers.
Elise Bauer
The Agave Harvesting Process
In addition to increasingly limited supply, harvesting and preparing agave is still a very manual process. Many spirits have seen a mechanization and automation of this part of the process, with the advent of modern farming methods. Tequila making, specifically harvesting blue agave, continues to be a human-driven task.
The process of harvesting agave is still passed down generationally, rather than via a manual or online training modules. Tending to agave is arduous, as the plants require constant monitoring and pruning . Only those who work the agave fields know when it is ready to be harvested, as there are no obvious indicators for those lacking experience.
Harvesting agave is not as simple as observing that a plant looks mature and ready to be turned into a fermented product called wort. The jimadores are experts, with vast experience, in knowing when the agave plant has just enough carbohydrates and just enough sugar to ferment properly.
As you can imagine, with so much experience and manual labor required, a product like agave can be quite expensive. Thus, the labor intensive and specialized harvesting process alone can drive the cost of tequila.
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Luxury Latin America Blog
Milagro means miracle in Spanish and its a miracle if you havent run into this tequila brand while browsing the duty free store at nearly any airport in North America. Its also a minor miracle that a brand founded in just 1998 has become one of the most recognized, despite competing with the international conglomerates that own brands like Cuervo, Sauza, and Don Julio.
I first tried Milagro Tequila on one of my first trips to Mexico nearly 20 years ago, when the brand was just starting to pop up in airport shops throughout Latin America. I found it odd that I wouldnt see their bottles in a regular supermarket store in Mexico-just in the U.S. or in airports-and I hadnt seen an ad or read a review anywhere.
At the end of the 00s when I first covered the tequila here, Milagros Flash-built website maintained an air of mysteryall images and no explanation. The contact page listed only a single e-mail address, with no phone number or physical location. At the time I wondered, Is Dr. No running this enterprise, or is it the front business for a drug cartel? Now you can learn more about them on their much-improved site.
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William Grant & Sons Buys Tequila Distillery
Scottish spirits firm William Grant & Sons has acquired a distillery in Mexico to support the growth of Milagro Tequila and drive innovation.
The acquisition is part of William Grant & Sons multi-million-pound investment plan to build its brands globally and upgrade its infrastructure to support the companys growth ambitions.
The move will protect Milagros continued success, while opening up the opportunity for future innovation for the company, the family-owned firm said.
Jonathan Yusen, William Grant & Sons president and managing director, Americas, said: Milagro has always been an exciting brand within our award-winning portfolio, and with this distillery it is now a clear long-term priority for our global business, alongside such iconic premium brands as Glenfiddich single malt Scotch, Hendricks gin and Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey.
This acquisition allows us to manage our production more closely, ensuring the long-term quality and consistency of our silver, reposado and añejo offerings, while bringing our innovation expertise to agave-based spirits.
Founded in 1998 by Danny Schneeweiss and Moy Guindi, Milagro Tequila is made with 100% blue agave from the Jalisco highlands and is distilled using both pot and column stills. The Tequila undergoes a 36-hour slow roasting process in traditional brick ovens. The range consists of six expressions: silver, reposado and añejo bottlings across the Core collection and the Select Barrel Reserve lines.
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Milagro Tequila: How It Started
Like how traditional tequila is made, Milagro Tequila is also made from blue agave from Jalisco Highlands in Mexico, where you can find quality piña fruits. Friends Danny Schneeweiss and Moy Guindi wanted to create world-renowned quality drink bottles and imparted the idea to their master distiller, Pedro Juarez.
He believes in taking the process slow to get the best out of the fruits juices, and that is how this brand came to be. The companys new owners, William Grant & Sons, approve of how tequila Milagro is made thus, it is now marketed in the United States.
A Buying Guide To Tequilas
The tequilas recommended here are by no means a comprehensive list, but rather suggestions for widely available tequilas across many price points.
Some good buying guidelines are:
- Avoid anything that is packaged in plastic or that costs less than $15 as these are signs of cheap tequila thatll burn like hellfire down your throat and taste like lighter fluid.
- Buy only tequila that states 100% agave on the bottle.
- Its perfectly reasonable to find a smooth, flavorful tequila for $25-$30 thats great for shots, cocktails, or sipping. A high price does not always indicate high quality.
- If theres a worm or scorpion or, really, any animal in the bottle, then dont buy it. Its a marketing gimmick used to sell cheaply produced tequilas and its almost guaranteed to be dreck.
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The History Behind Milagro Tequila
Milagro Tequila was founded in 1998 by two college friends named Daniel Danny Schneeweiss and Moises Moy Guindi, and They were just college friends who wished to start and own some business. So they started a tequila brand and approached the renowned master distiller Pedro Juarez. They wished to gift the world different tequila and the brightest one. Pedro Juarez came up with traditional ways to create modern tequila. As soon as the founders tasted the tequila for the first time, they called it un milagro, which means a miracle! The tequila brand is now acquired by William Grant and Sons and is distributed in several markets of the world.
Tequila Leyenda Del Milagro Silver Select Barrel Reserve
Milagro Silver Select Barrel Reserve is a limited edition Tequila made from 100% estate-grown Blue Agave. Each Agave is hand-picked and hand-selected for quality based on the strictest criteria. Milagro Silver Select Barrel Reserve is aged no more than 59 days in new French oak barrels and comes in a unique hand-blown crystal bottle.
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Is Milagro Tequila Any Good
It is Vibrant & has Spicy taste Clear water herbal agave, white pepper and citrus aromas palate follows the nose with sweet green herbal flavor and long peppery finish. Awesome. Looking for a smooth sipping tequila? Milagro is a smooth, clean tequila you can sip, shoot or mix in your favorite cocktails.
Personal Scores & Reviews From Our Community
- 69Rating
Mexican 35% ABVNose: Some spiciness, dusty minerals, agave and a vegetable presence- celery?Flavors: Somewhat muddled flavors. Vanilla and sweetness, pepper heat with accompanying bitter note, cinnamon. Finish is much like the nose and flavors, not horrid, but not much to distinguish itself from a host of middle of the heap tequilas.
- 70Rating
Surprisingly hot and bumpy for a triple distilled Blanco, I was expecting less flavour and personality. I think this is great for making cocktails & margs, it will stay present with other flavours present.
Alcohol and agave mixed overpowers the flavor and finish
- 72Rating
Borderline watery in the mouth, this blanco has very little viscosity or oil. It does have some good basic flavor elements in roast agave and white pepper along with some alcohol. Finish is short and slightly sweet. I used about a liter of this and made an jalapeño infusion that is really good.
- 62Rating
Mild aroma of agave, alcohol and citrus. Strong alcohol flavor dominates the agave, black pepper and citrus zest. Alcohol , pepper and minerals are present in a weak finish.
- 76Rating
This has changed a lot over the years, and is inconsistent from batch-to-batch. I am getting cake batter and vanilla on the aroma and flavor. Theres also an off note to the aroma that is either too much tails in the distillation or theres some diffuser product mixed in. Some artificial sweetener on the finish.
Mild antiseptic smell, slight citrus taste, long dry finish.
- 62Rating
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Milagro Tequila Prices List
Patron
Milagro hasnt been in the tequila manufacturing game as long as Patron has, and the difference in quality between the two is quite noticeable. Patron is a premium tequila that offers a wide variety of products, varying in age and flavors. The older bottles of Patron, like the Patron Gran Burdeo, typically fetch prices as high as $$419.99 – $499.99. Milagros most expensive bottle by comparison, the Milagro Unico 2, averages between $269.99 – $299.99, half of what Patrons top bottle of tequila is worth.
Don Julio
A standard 750ml bottle of Don Julio Blanco Tequila can be bought for roughly $41.99-45.99, which is roughly the same amount that a bottle of Milagro Select Barrel Reserve Silver retails for on the market. One of the more expensive bottles of Don Julio, Don Julio Real Tequila, retails from between $399.99 – $419.99, which is a couple hundred dollars more expensive than Milagros Unico 2. Over all, Don Julio offers more reasonable prices for their tequila, but are still slightly more expensive than anything Milagro offers due to their premium status as tequila makers.
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Is It Cheaper To Buy Tequila In Mexico
In Mexico that includes good tequila for a good price. For a whole lot of brands, you can expect to pay half what you would in the USA. So prices are good, but some items are not as cheap as in poorer countries like Guatemala, Nicaragua, or Bolivia, for instance. Nobody beats the Mexican prices for tequila though.
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El Tesoro Aejo Tequila
BEST FOR SIPPING NEAT
If you want to discover an authentic Mexican tequila with a bold yet traditional flavor, then order a bottle of El Tesoro tequila. El Tesoro may be owned by Beam Suntory, the Japanese company responsible for Suntory Whisky, but this tequila is still made from traditional methods and Mexican agave plants. In fact, the grandson of founder Don Felipe Camarena oversees production today. El Tesoro Añejo is aged in American oak bourbon barrels for up to three years, which results in a perfect mix of agave and oak flavors. If you try this tequila neat, youll notice sweet notes of maple, vanilla, and caramel. Thanks to its historic legacy and delicious flavor, El Tesoro is one of the best tequila brands in the world today.
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Tequila: Where Does It Come From
Tequila owes its name to the area it originated: a city called Tequila. The volcanic, red clay that is found in the region provide the perfect conditions for growing the premium blue agave.
Mexican law indicates that tequila is only made from blue agave grown in the state of Jalisco, Mexico and certain other locales in various states throughout Mexico. Jalisco features an area called, Los Altos, which is a highlands area. Tequila taste can be impacted depending on which region the blue agave come from – some sweeter than others.
You may notice that there are a couple of tequila products on our list from outside of Mexico. The Tequila Rose is a blended tequila product, that utilizes tequila made in Mexico . Number Juan is a tequila distilled in Mexico that undergoes some parts of the aging process in the US. Rest assured, anything called tequila has at least 51% blue agave and is distilled in Mexico.
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How Has Milagro Tequila Changed Over Time
Milagro Tequila started up in 1998 because of two men named Danny Schneeweiss and Moy Guindi. The pair were inspired by the thriving cultural scene that could be found in Mexico City, which seemed like a stark contrast with what was happening in the tequila industry of those times. Supposedly, tequila-making had become either too hide-bound or too reliant on good marketing rather than good tequila-making, which came as a huge disappointment to Schneeweiss and Guindi because they wanted something that could be creative while still remaining respectful of traditions.
As a result, the two sought out Pedro Juarez, a tequila distiller who had become concerned about his craft because of the constant demand to cut costs by the multi-national distiller for which he was working at the time. Together, the three came up with a process for tequila-making that bears a fair amount of resemblance with what has been described above but incorporate a new step of distilling in two different kinds of stills. Combined with the aging that is done for all of Milagro Tequilas products, this goes a long way to explaining how it has managed to distinguish itself in a competitive field, so much so that it has managed to increase its selection of products at a respectable pace ever since it started up. As time continues to pass, it will be interesting to see how else the people at Milagro Tequila will continue to innovate while still remaining true to their roots.
The Blue Agave Problem
Tequila is a member of the larger family of spirits mezcal. Mezcal is produced from any agave plant, however, tequila has a strict ingredient requirement: it must be made from blue agave. Obviously, this limits the availability of ingredients, which in turn drives the cost.
The limited availability of blue agave combined with an increasing demand for the popular spirit has created a significant supply issue for tequila producers.This lack of supply has allowed the increase in cost of the plant, to the tune of six times what is cost just a couple of years ago. As you can imagine, this cost is passed on to the consumer down the line.
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