Madam Geneva Takes the Tequila Cocktail Challenge

Madam Geneva, on Bleecker Street just off the Bowery, looks inviting enough from the outside – until you realize there’s no entrance.  Thankfully, since speakeasy-type bars with secret or hidden entrances are all the rage in NYC, crafty imbibers should be smart enough to figure out how to penetrate the place… eventually.  Turns out you have to go in through its parent restaurant, Double Crown, where the helpful staff opens a secret door (naturally), and bingo!  You’re in.

A dark, cozy, not-too-noisy place, Madam Geneva specializes in gin cocktails.  However, it recently paired up with Nirvino and Tres Generaciones for a tasting of straight tequilas as well as Tres Generaciones-inspired cocktails, and inspired bar-bite pairings – spicy pork-stuffed lychees, anyone?  I went in fairly unfamiliar with Tres Generaciones’ reputation; I knew it was better than, say, Cuervo Gold, but I had no idea how it compared to Herradura, Chinaco, or other respected brands.  So I was blank slate, ready to be filled in with various shades of blue agave.

The opening salvo, the Plata Persica, featured Tres Generaciones Plata (silver), with fresh peach puree, muddled Thai basil and fresh lime.  The peach overwhelmed all the other ingredients – including, sadly, the agave notes of the unaged tequila.  Not a terrible cocktail, but not a great tequila cocktail.

The Aged Dulcis Buck fared better.  My favorite of the three, it featured Tres Generaciones Reposado, with fresh lemon, almond agave, egg white and aged bourbon barrel bitters (I’m guessing Fee Brothers).  The egg white gave the drink a lovely frothy texture, and the healthy dash of bitters on top inserted a nice bite into the foam.  But once again, I couldn’t figure out what the tequila – or the almond agave, for that matter – brought to the mix.

Last up was the Ginger Recoy, made with Tres Generaciones Añejo, molasses ginger syrup, fresh lemon, and Regan’s orange bitters.  I am a huge fan of Regan’s – I’d probably suck on a brick if it was doused with the stuff.  And sure enough, the complexity and spice of the bitters added a certain pizzazz to the proceedings.  But the kick of the ginger was dulled by the molasses, and once again the tequila got lost amidst the other flavors.

Again, I don’t think these were bad drinks, and perhaps if a full-flavored bourbon or rye had been used instead of tequila, I’d have been dazzled.  But although these were good cocktails, they weren’t good tequila cocktails.  Was it the tequila?  We soon found out, thanks to a tasting of the Tres Generaciones line unadorned by mixers.  All three (blanco, reposado, añejo) are lovely sipping tequilas.  My favorite is the reposado; aged for at least four months in white oak barrels, the wood softens the floral notes of the unaged blanco, imparting gorgeous caramel and toffee flavors with just a hint of the wood that’s much more dominant in the añejo, which is aged a minimum of 12 months.

While the blanco may be a bit too intense for some, the reposado and añejo have a lovely subtlety that should appeal to novices as well as seasoned tequila drinkers.  Which may explain why they got submerged in complex, flavorful cocktails.  I'm looking forward to sampling some Tres Generaciones margaritas, and I'm looking forward to sampling the gin cocktails for which Madam Geneva is known.  As for this well-intentioned cocktail misfire, I'm willing to give both a pass.  This time.