Outlaw Spirit
Stay wild but keep it clean with El Bandido Yankee Tequila
Deep in the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico is where you’ll usually find Karina Rojo. The master distiller manages a workforce (50 percent of which are women), who carefully cultivate the area’s 20,000-year-old volcanic soil, where agave lives its best life. The Blue Weber agave matures for at least 8 years before it is harvested, continuing on its long journey to the bottle.
El Viejito Distillery was founded in 1937 by Don Indalecio Nuñez Muro, and this is where El Bandido Yankee Tequila is born. The company—founded by former professional athletes Jim Morris and Chris Chelios—produces clean, 100 percent natural tequila that (as the company likes to say) is “so smooth, it’s criminal.” And really, it is.
It doesn’t get that way by chance. The company goes to great lengths to maintain the authenticity of the agave. Once it’s matured and harvested, it is hand-cut using by skilled jimadores using traditional coa tools. From there, the agave piñas are slow-roasted for 40 hours before being shredded and then naturally fermented into aqua miel (sugar water).
The journey continues under the watchful eye of Rojo—twice-distilled in copper pots, the gold standard for removing impurities. The alcohol goes through oxygenation and then quietly ages for 4 months to a year, depending on the type (reposado for 4 months, anejo for 12).
El Bandido produces four types of tequila, all 100 percent agave and each with its own specialty notes and finish. The Blanco, with hints of mint, black pepper, cinnamon, and citrus peel, is the purest expression of agave. The trendy Reposado has notes of citrus, cinnamon and subtle note of oak and vanilla. The long-aged Añejo comprises traces of caramelized butterscotch. And the Plata 47 is a high-proof Blanco, with a similar palette to the Blanco only bolder.
It’s not hard to find El Bandido locally, as it seems to be taking over shelves at bars all over South Florida. We recently had the chance to sample the spirit at a cocktail-making class the company hosted—check out some footage of our cowgirl party here!