An Evening with Casa Herradura Tequila

I love a good cocktail. Lucky for me so do my best pals. We regularly get together for cocktail hour where we try out new recipes and ingredients. Lately, we’ve been expanding our mixology adventures by touring distilleries and taking cocktail classes. It’s been fun exploring the cocktail culture of LA and OC (while being responsible of course – no drunk drivers we.). Recently, I was invited to the LA stop of the Casa Herradura tour. What’s Casa Herradura? Only one of the oldest tequila producers in Mexico. So I grabbed one of my best buds and we headed out.

The Casa Herradura event took place at this historic Mack Sennett Studios. Now, I must admit this was a big part of my accepting the invite. Built in 1916 this space is one of the earliest Hollywood studios. A hub of silent era film-making it’s an important piece of Hollywood history. Recently, restored I’d been aching to check it out and finally had my chance at the event.  It’s a fascinating structure and I could practically feel the ghosts of old Hollywood as I wandered around.

But I couldn’t get too immersed in the structure because there was tequila to be had! Immediately upon entering we were surrounded by tequila fields and treated to a handmade cocktail.

We were also given headsets and embarked on an interactive journey to Casa Herradura in Mexico. We learned all about the tequila making process and the history of the hacienda. Established in 1870 Casa Herradura bottles 100% agave tequila and is, in fact, the last true tequila processing hacienda.

We then entered the bar area where we were given drink tickets and allowed to sample a variety of handmade cocktails. We pooled our resources and ordered the whole menu sampling the various recipes.

We enjoyed most of them but both agreed we could do without the one that contained sriracha. I’m not a fan of the spicy drink trend. Along with our drinks we enjoyed various bites including delicious paletas and nitrogen made ice cream. Before the night was over we had one final stop, the tasting room.

There we sampled four tequilas available from Casa Herradura – the blanco, reposado, añejo and selección suprema. The only difference between the tequilas is the aging process. The blanco ages for 45 days while the suprema ages for 49 months. It was fascinating to discover how the aging process affects the taste of the liquor. The suprema was fantastic but at $370 a bottle I’ll have to content myself with the small sample I received.

Between the historic studio and the delicious drinks it was fabulous night. Next time Casa Herradura rolls into town be sure to stop by.