On January 23rd, 10 Tequila companies from all over Texas congregated to Houston for a large public tasting and competition. Though it was mainly for bragging rights, each company wanted to take the title for the best Tequila in Texas. 30 people were randomly drawn to judge the Blanco and Reposado Tequila’s. I can imagine it was hard to try 10 samples of Tequila and make a clear judgment but they all took their time made their vote based on their preference of flavor. The results found Dulce Vida from Austin had the best Blanco and Pepe Z also from Austin had the best Reposado. I found while organizing this event every company felt very sure of their product and everyone expected to win in each category. For this reason alone I decided to surprise both the attendees and the Tequila companies by grabbing the representative from each company and put their taste buds to the test. To make it fair I event included a few Tequila lovers to the panel. By the looks of the representatives they seemed pretty sure that they were going to pick their own brand but I 
know this wasn’t going to be as easy as they thought. As the samples came out one by one the representatives took their time and made their vote. With 12 judges, four of them pick sample number 1 and made Riazul from Houston the best Anejo in Texas. The room seemed to light up with excitement as Riazul took the best in their own hometown. While Houston won the best Anejo, Austin seemed to dominate the competition. Every company did a great job representing Texas. This was a big win for everyone due to the amount of press the event received. People drove in from all over Texas and I even had the pleasure of meeting a couple from California and a gentleman from New York. The winner over all was Texas. With over 300 attendees, the Texas Tequila Throwdown was without a doubt a huge success. Attendees 
brought out tons of coats and blankets to donate to the Star of Hope Mission and had the boxes overflowing within the first hour. Houston has to be one of the most giving cities and without a doubt none of this would have been possible without the help of JR Cohen and the Coffee Groundz staff, Spec’s and Russell Guess of Your Bartender. I thank everyone for coming out and all of the support. Thanks again to everyone involved and I look forward to working with you all again in the future. Look out for the Texas Tequila Throwdown 2011 in Austin, TX?Blanco Judging Samples
1. Dulce Vida
2. Pepe Z
3. Republic
4. Solorzano
5. Don Valente
6. El Gran Jubileo
7. Riazul
8. Acumbaro
9. Dos Lunas
10. El Grado
Reposado Judging Samples
1. El Gran Jubileo
2. Pepe Z
3. Dulce Vida
4. Don Valente
5. Solorzano
6. Riazul
7. Republic
8. Acumbaro
9. El Grado
10. Dos Lunas
Anejo Judging Samples
1. Riazul
2. Republic
3. El Grado
4. Solorzano
5. Dulce Vida
6. El Gran Jubileo
7. Don Valente
8. Dos Lunas
9. Pepe Z
10. Acumbaro
Photos courtesy of Pauline Alderete
http://www.flickr.com/photos/miamorangel
*If you have photos we would love to see them. Please leave a link in the comments section.*
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