Review: Leyenda del Milagro Silver Tequila   87.5/100
A review by Chip Dykstra (Aka Arctic Wolf)
Published June 11, 2018

Leyenda del Milagro Silver Tequila is produced from estate-grown 100% Blue Weber Agave harvested from the highlands of Jalisco. As a highland tequila,we can expect the Milagro Tequila to exhibit strong fruity citrus notes and to have a little hot pepper in the delivery and in the finish. (This is as opposed to lowland tequila which has stronger earthier flavours of agave and less hot pepper.)

The spirit is produced at Tequilera Milagro, S.A. de C.V. (Nom 1559) where the agave is roasted in brick ovens made from the same volcanic-rich soil where the highland agave fourishes in Jalisco. The roasted agave is shredded to extract the cooked juice which (unlike other tequila brands which are double distilled) is triple distilled in a Copper Pot Still. This makes Milagro a lighter spirit than we would typically expect a silver agave spirit to be.

Milagro Silver Tequila is bottled at 40 % alcohol by volume for the Canadian Market.

In the Bottle 4/5

The bottle presentation for the Milagro Silver Tequila is shown to the left.The top and bottom of the bottle is tinted an attractive blue colour which fades to clear in the middle. The labeling is much easier to read than is shown by the bottle shot, and the tall bottle is sealed with a wood topped natural cork stopper. The wide neck makes pouring easier as well.

Although I like the presentation, it doesn’t really fit my idea of what a tequila bottle should look like. It’s tall narrow shape makes it somewhat unstable (I like short squat tequila bottles), and the design seems more suited to a liqueur than a hard spirit. I have reservations about the corkage which on my bottle was spongy. I probably would not have commented on this, but my sample bottle of Milagro Anejo Mezcal which has the same design and corkage suffered an extreme failure of the cork when I tried to open it, The spongy cork pretty much disintegrated when the bottle was opened for the first time and I had to strain cork remnants out of the spirit and reseal it with one of my spare corks. A denser cork, or better yet, a synthetic cork would be better.

In the Glass 8.5/10

When I poured the Milagro Silver Tequila into my glencairn glass, I saw a clear spirit with no hint of age. I tilted my glass and gave it a twirl and saw a light oily sheen had been deposited on the inside of the glass, the crest of which held dropped small leglets which ran quickly down the inside of my glass.

The initial aroma is full of rich earthy agave which brings impressions of baked zucchini and boiled celery into focus. There are also hints of damp punky balsam wood. The typical notes of spicy black pepper and fruity citrus zest are muted somewhat which gives the agave more expression than I typically notice in highland tequila. As I allowed the glass to breathe, bright citrus notes began to gather and a little fresh mint and basil were apparent as well.

In the Mouth 53/60

When I took a sip I found the black pepper and citrus zest which were muted on the nose. The earthy agave however, was still taking center stage. Although dominant, there was an almost gentle quality to the fruity agave flavour which still reminds me of cooked celery and baked zucchini. My thought here is that the triple distillation has buffed out the flavour profile giving us a kinder gentler tequila. Soft tropical fruits such as avocados are hinted at are some herbal qualities such as mint and licorice. All of these flavours are sort of melded together so my flavour descriptors should be taken as suggestions rather than definitions.

Mixing cocktails with the silver tequila proved more difficult than I thought it would be. The softened flavour of the agave meant that it did not express itself as fully in mixed drinks as I thought t would. However, when I softened my Margarita by mixing a little less citrus while combining both lemon and lime juice in the cocktail the resulting flavour was outstanding. Mixing with grapefruit and lime was a wining combination as well. This caused me a bit of a quandary in scoring the spirit, as I normally will deduct a few points if the spirit gives me trouble when I mix cocktails, but the outstanding nature of the final results to me indicates that my initial difficulties were more about my inadequacies as a bartender than any problem with the Milagro Tequila.

In The Throat 13.5/15

The finish is soft and moderately smooth with no alcohol burn. There is that usual bit of roughness which comes from the agave spiciness Black pepper and citrus zest), but this is softened to a large extent by herbal impressions of menthol in the exit.

The Afterburn 8.5/10

Milagro Silver is an excellent Tequila. The earthy agave flavour is softened by the triple distillation, yet it remains the centerpiece of the spirit. I found I could easily sip the spirit, but my greatest enjoyment came from the modified cocktails I constructed (see my favourite recipe below).

You may read some of my other Tequila Reviews (click the link) if you wish to have some comparative reviews.

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Suggested Recipe

Lexi’s Cocktail

2 oz Milagro Silver Tequila
3/4 oz Bols Triple Sec
1/2 oz fresh Lime Juice
1/4 oz fresh Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Agave Syrup
ice
Lemon Peel

Place the Tequila, Lemon and Lime, Triple, and Sugar Syrup into a metal shaker with Ice
Shake until the outside of the shaker begins to frost
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass
Garnish with Lemon Peel

Enjoy Responsibly!

Note: If  you are interested in more cocktail recipes, please click this link (Cocktails and Recipes) for more of my mixed drink recipes!

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You may (loosely) interpret the scores as follows.

0-25     A spirit with a rating this low would actually kill you.
26-49   Depending upon your fortitude you might actually survive this.
50 -59  You are safe to drink this…but you shouldn’t.
60-69   Substandard swill which you may offer to people you do not want to see again.
70-74    Now we have a fair mixing Tequila.  Accept this but make sure it is mixed into a cocktail.
75-79    You may begin to serve this to friends, (we are probably still cocktail in territory).
80-84    We begin to enjoy this spirit neat or on the rocks. (I will still primarily mix cocktails)
85-89    Excellent for sipping or for mixing delicious cocktails!
90-94    Definitely a primary sipping spirit, in fact you may want to hoard this for yourself.
95-97.5 The Cream of the Crop
98+       I haven’t met this bottle yet…but I want to.

Very loosely we may put my scores into terms that you may be familiar with on a Gold, Silver, and  Bronze medal  scale as follows:

70 – 79.5    Bronze Medal (Recommended only as a mixer)
80 – 89.5     Silver Medal (Recommended for sipping and or a high quality mixer)
90 – 95         Gold Medal (Highly recommended for sipping and for sublime cocktails.)
95.5+            Platinum Award (Highest Recommendation)