With the following statement:

“Alcohol is a misunderstood vitamin.”
- P. G. Wodehouse

To that end, I tasted tequila last night. To me, it’s also known as Te-Kill-Ya. I’ve had some unfortunate experiences with it, and I’d really like to fall in love all over again. Last night’s Gran Centenario Rosangel Cocktail Event gave me an opportunity to get back on that train. I got to try 6 different drinks made with Gran Centenario Rosangel Tequila, which is Gran Centenario tequila infused with Hibiscus. *note: I did not drink FULL glasses of any of them, except the first, so I was cool with driving, in case y’all were worried.* Anyway, the drinks that we were able to vote on were:

One from a woman with a wicked awesome name, Silameth, who made a drink with muddled pineapple & basil, shaken with ice, sweetened condensed milk, some rum (I think), tequila and simple syrup. It was so good, and was very complementary to the tequila. I appreciated that a lot, as someone who’s fallen off the tequila train.

One was from a bartender I have a great appreciation for from the Hungry Cat, who made a steamed milk drink with nutella. He steamed the milk + nutella, and then added tequila, stirred and poured it, and then shaved cinnamon & orange peel onto it. He called it a fitting name, The Lullaby, and yowsers, it was delicious.

The final one I really liked was muddled grapes, basil & pink grapefruit, all muddled, and then shaken with tequila and guava juice (I believe that was all). I would take out the guava juice to make it not as sweet, but it was pretty good. It didn’t win my vote, though.

The other two weren’t my favorites, and they were either too sweet, or had too much taste of tequila. I know that is a little redundant, but maybe you’ll get my drift.

The other one I had was made by a woman who has a blog called The Liquid Muse, or rather, she IS the Liquid Muse,  and she called it Flor de Maria. If you click on that blog, it’ll come up with the recipe. It was pretty fantastic too – it had orange blossom water spritzed on top and that gave it a pretty amazing smell.

Apparently, after reading Natalie’s blog, Silameth’s drink won the people’s choice award and Matty, from the Hungry Cat, won the judge’s award. Both were very deserving, I thought.

The event was held at Malo Restaurant, in Silverlake, and it was great. Oh, and free! I found out about it through another blogger I’ve started to read, Caroline on Crack, who blogs about the different goings on in LA. I’m now resolved to find something that has a lot of South Bay local happenings. Or, maybe to just start to get them collected on my own. Let’s try that one! Regardless, it was fun to see cocktailiers flauntin’ their trade. I need to start frequenting some of the downtown hot spots for old-fashioned cocktails! Or, to find some Westside / South Bay ones.

Give me more!!