That’s kind of where my tequila expertise lies. Not in crap tequila, but in inexpensive mixing blanco tequilas.
I’m partial to Lunazul, El Jimador, Olmeca Altos, Cazadores, Espolon, and Milagro in that order. That’s a bang-for-your-buck list; Espolon and Milagro are right up there flavor-wise, but are on the expensive end of things for what you get, while Lunazul punches well above its weight class, as do Olmeca Altos and El Jimador.
In terms of actual quality, I’d rank them like this: Olmeca Altos, Espolon, Cazadores, Milagro, El Jimador, and Lunazul. That’s also the rough price ranking from high to low as well, although I’m not sure how Espolon, Cazadores, and Milagro shake out- they’re all within a few dollars of each other.
And here’s how I like to drink it:
Frozen Margarita (4 servings):
Ingredients:
- 6 oz tequila (I prefer mid-range blancos like El Jimador, or Olmeca Altos)
- 4 oz Cointreau (or other 80 proof orange liqueur. If you switch that up, make sure that if the proof differs, that you account for it)
- 2 oz 2:1 simple syrup (half is added at freezing time, half in the blender)
- 4 oz fresh lime juice
- 12.5 oz water (really 12.6 according to the calculations)
- A tiny pinch of salt- maybe 1/16 tsp.
Procedure
Measure out the tequila, salt, Cointreau, water and HALF the simple syrup, mix together, and put in a ziploc bag with excess air removed.
Place your bag of liquor, water and sugar syrup in the freezer overnight- the colder the better. Mine’s set at -6F, but it works at about 0F adequately. When it’s done, it should be solid, but not rock-hard like a lump of ice.
When you’re ready to serve, put the contents of the bag into your blender, along with the lime juice and the other half of the simple syrup. Blend for a couple of pulses until smooth. It really doesn’t take much.
The main problems you’ll encounter are mostly around not having a cold enough freezer or getting your measurements off, and the mixture doesn’t freeze correctly.
I’ve created a spreadsheet to scale it up or down- basically the yellow fields are the ones you may want to edit- the number of servings, the alcohol percentages of your spirits/liqueurs (if you use ones that aren’t 80 proof), and what you want the final ABV to be -14% seems to work well for my wife and I, but I realize others may want to switch that up. Be careful that you don’t go too low or too high- it’ll freeze too solid or not at all, because the water addition is calculated based on the proof of the alcoholic ingredients and sugar.
Yep, it was before the pandemic), I was using El Mayor to make them, which IMO is a very good tequila but still at a fairly reasonable price (at least, both were true at the time).