Let No Expensive Liquor Go to Waste

Today's recipe is a non-alcoholic concoction with lots of fresh fruit. Since this goes against the very raison d'etre of this blog, we'll leave that to some summer Saturday when I have a hangover.

Instead, I decided to try a second experiment in mixology with my bright, new, shiny, expensive silver Patron tequila before I stick it in the liquor closet. With all the stuff I'm having to buy for this project, soon I won't have room for the clothes. I'd decided over the weekend to leave my bartender's guide out for occasions just like this when I feel the urge to explore Beyond the Calendar. Sounds sort of C. S. Lewisish, doesn't it?

There's any number of tequila drinks, but since I hadn't gotten much of a sense of the Patron from my pousse-cafe (which for some reason makes me think of "cat-synonym drink" - or maybe cat-synonym coffee; my boys are giving me the evil eye, if not the middle claw, since they're declawed), I wanted one that would show off the taste of the tequila and would prove I'm not a cat-synonym.

So I decided to go with a Tequila sour: tequila, lemon juice, and simple syrup. A margarita without the cointreau. I'd juiced my two surviving lemons earlier this week, so I have a supply of lemon juice to take up space in the fridge for at least a few more days along with my supplies of lime juice and simple syrup.

The sour didn't bowl me over. What else could I try? I'm not big on shots - those seem awfully frat boy to me, though if a bunch of frat boys my age started buying me rounds of shots, I probably wouldn't turn them down - so I didn't want to give a straight-up tequila shot a try.

I have a dusty bottle of Cuervo Especial that's had maybe two drinks made with it in the five or six years that it's been attracting dust mites - at least they've been enjoying it - so I decided to see what the difference would be, if any, if I mixed the sour with it.

Verdict: I liked this one better. It didn't seem as sharp and even a little sweeter, though I didn't use more simple syrup. In the future, if I'm in the mood for a sour, I think I'll stick with a whiskey one, though. Moral of today's exercise: cheaper is sometimes better, and you shouldn't let perfectly good liquor gather dust. See, I am learning something this year. Info on treatments for cirrhosis of the liver too.