Way easier. I leave the mojito making to a friend of mine who is not only excellent at it, he loves to do it. It must be time to beg for an invitation to dinner…
The OP must have been drinking some special edition Patron if it was that expensive. Not even the anejo is $100.
Back to vodka- one you get to say Smirnoff (decent low-mid priced, in a glass bottle0 there is no significant difference after that. No reason to spend extra.
But tequila, scotch, and even rum can get better and better the more you spend, but there’s a point of diminishing returns. With Rum, that’s about $35. With Single malt it’s about $50.
I’m really partial to a brand called Shevkoff. Spec’s around here carries it. Very, very clean, smooth vodka, and not stupid expensive. IIRC, something like 45 USD per 1.75L. I see what you are saying about single malts, but I’d bump the price to 100. I haven’t seen even the regular 16 year Lagavulin for less than 75 lately, and it’s distinctive enough to search out, IMHO.
Glass bottle, somewhere in the neighborhood of $10/fifth and you are fine. In that category like Svedka, but at that level and above they’re pretty much all the same. Sometimes I’ll pay a little more for Stoli, not because I think it’s better, but for sentimental reasons.
That’s pretty expensive.
I used to think tequila made me sick. Then I tasted really good Patron. There is a difference and I will gladly pay a premium price to get it.
I didnt say it was worthless to spend more, just that you get less cluck for you buck after $50. A $100 single malt is not twice as good as a $50. Maybe, 10-20% better? A $200 bottle is only slightly better than a $100.
I’d say $25-$30 for a 1.75 L bottle of vodka. Blind tastes tests confirm there is no use to spending more.
Depends on the malt more than the price. I can find any number of $100 malts that truly are more than twice as good as any number of $50 malts.
This is the second reason I drink quality tequila. One, a really good well crafted tequila does have a complexity and smoothness worth savoring. You sip it warm, slowly, with nothing else added like salts or fruit or whatever. Two, you can (depending) enjoy several small glasses without experiencing any discomfort the next day, whereas something with a worm in it in equal measure will leave you feeling like hammered crap.
There’s one I especially enjoy but I’m blanking on the name now. It does have an agave-shaped impression inside the bottle though, looks hand-blown even.
For some odd reason I pegged you as a Grey Goose kinda guy!
The order for margaritas is usually tequila:triple sec:lime, so the common 3-2-1 margarita is 3 parts tequila, 2 parts triple sec, 1 part lime. (Don’t use the shitty generic $8 a bottle triple sec. Use something like Cointreau or Patron Citronage or similar.)
I tend to prefer 2:1:1 myself, but just play around with the ratios. 3:2:1 is probably most common. 2:1:1 brings out the sourness and liminess a bit more. 3:1:1 accentuates the tequila more. 1:1:1 is smooth and sour, but tequila is masked a bit. (This is actually where I started experimenting and found I liked 2:1:1 best, or even 2:1:2).
You can also play around with adding a little bit of simple syrup (or even Rose’s Lime, if you don’t mind its distinct flavor) if you want to take more of the sour edge off. The triple sec should provide enough sweetness, but folks who are used to margarita mix margaritas will probably prefer it to be a little more mellow.
As with most such drinks, fresh lime juice makes a huge difference…
Yes. Absolutely. The night before my wedding, I spend a half hour or so juicing limes for the margaritas. 
Is that what they’re calling it these days? 
You mean “Gin has [del]different[/del] aromatics”. Domestic American vodka is supposed to literally be ethanol and water, with no additional substances. Foreign vodka sometimes retains a little bit of other stuff. Vodka though, at it’s heart, is supposed to basically be flavorless 80-110 proof alcohol.
And the difference between cheap and expensive liquors is more interesting than you might think. In the case of Scotch Whisky, the cheap examples are blends, and what makes them cheap is the dilution of the single-malts in the blend with a LOT of grain whiskey (something akin to vodka). So they don’t really taste bad, but are rather kind of mild in flavor and intensity compared to the more expensive stuff.
In the case of bourbons, it’s even more curious. In many cases, it’s strictly the aging that makes the distinction. For example, Heaven Hill makes both the Evan Williams range of bourbons, as well as the Elijah Craig range. Here’s the odd secret- they’re ALL identical coming off the still. What makes one barrel Elijah Craig 23 yr, and another one black-label Evan Williams is strictly where, and how they’re aged- what rick-house, and where in the rick-house, and if it’s moved, and where, and how long, etc…
Rum is much the same way- there are precious few differences in unaged (i.e. white) rum that would make one command a premium over others, and often the less expensive brands (Cruzan, Flor de Cana, Brugal) are considered the same or higher quality than some more expensive ones like Bacardi, 10 Cane, etc… Aged rums tend to follow the same trajectory where longer = more expensive.
Cheap vodkas are probably just distilled less carefully and not charcoal-filtered as much (or at all) relative to the more expensive brands. (the Brita filter experiment kind of bears this out).
Cheap tequila… I suppose it depends on ‘cheap’. Something like Sauza or Cuervo’s inexpensive offerings aren’t ghastly, but they’re also not as intense or interesting as say… Herradura or Patron either.
Habeed, my recommendation is to see if you can find a place that will let you do a tasting of multiple products. There’s a whiskey bar near me that will let you do a flight of whiskeys; I think it’s five samples that come out to about two shots’ worth total. The idea is the same as wine tasting, but it hasn’t become quite as common with hard liquor.
As you go through the tasting, make notes about what you thought on each item. By comparing them head to head, you’ll probably notice flavor differences that could easily be forgotten if you tried them all on different days. If you keep those notes, you’ll be able to go into a store/bar and ask for recommendations in a way that will allow someone knowledgeable to make recommendations for you.
For myself… I actually prefer the cheaper tequilas. If I want tequila, I’m not looking for aged and smooth. I’m pretty much the same on vodka. Even expensive vodka doesn’t taste good to me, so if I’m using vodka, it’s because I need relatively flavorless alcohol in a mix of some sort. (For example, home-made limoncello.)
I do appreciate quality when it comes to bourbon and scotch. These are flavors I enjoy much more, and I’m willing to pay a little premium on those. But only a little premium. The difference between a $50 bottle and a $100 bottle is not worth the difference unless someone else is paying for it. I can taste the difference, yes, but it’s not a two-fold increase in quality to match the two-fold increase in price.
Thanks for the suggested improvements to my Margarita recipe. I’m looking forward to trying them out. Last time I tried it, and it was awhile ago, I thought it was too boozy, so swapping the orange spirit with the lime juice wouldn’t have occurred to me. Then again, I like the machine ones too, so I’ve probably a sweeter tooth than many.
I actually like Grey Goose, but I do think the Shevkoff is much smoother. I haven’t found a Weimaraner-related one AFAIK. Though there is a VA winery that fits. I don’t have anything to do with them, unfortunately.
Recently, I’ve been fond of either Smirnoff’s pink grapefruit flavored vodka, or one of the weird, tropical infusions in Sky’s line of vodkas. Inexpensive, and the pink grapefruit goes great in the blender with a bunch of mixed frozen fruit.
When I first read the OP’s title, I was like, “Wow, I didn’t know Patron was coming out with a vodka.”
If you like it sweeter, try 2 parts tequila, 2 parts lime, 1 part Cointreau or other triple sec, and 1 part simple syrup. Get the small key limes, which are not quite as acidic as the big Persian limes and also a bit sweeter, if you can.
I tend to go the other way with my margaritas - less sweet and more tequila taste, which I like. That means higher quality tequila and orange liqueur and lots of freshly squeezed lime juice. The bottled stuff just doesn’t cut it.
For mojitos try swapping the mint for thai basil, and curiously I always thought of rum brands like Flor de Cana as premium compared to Bacardi. My everyday is Gosling’s Black Seal.
I used to drink gold tequila (long time ago) until I found out it’s simply silver with caramel colouring, but silver Herradura or El Jimador is my normal Margarita preference, and key limes.
I’ve also used blue curacao instead of GM or triple sec, which makes them a really cool aqua colour.
I really like a good reposado or anejo neat and have in the past used a brandy snifter to pull the most aroma I can. It really makes a difference.