Cuentacuentos Extra Añejo
Cuentacuentos · Destilería Leyendas del Agave (NOM 1579)
Cuentacuentos Extra Añejo is a meditation in a glass — a tequila that trades the bright exuberance of youth for the quiet, radiant warmth of time. Three years in oak have not buried the agave but rather wrapped it in a blanket of caramel, spice, and leather, creating something that glows rather than shouts. It is warmth before silence, distilled.
Nose
Opens with roasted agave draped in dark caramel and dried fig, followed by waves of toasted oak, cinnamon bark, and a faint wisp of pipe tobacco. Beneath it all, a delicate thread of orange blossom honey adds elegance to the warmth.
Palate
Rich and enveloping — baked agave sweetness gives way to butterscotch, dark chocolate, and roasted almond. A mid-palate surge of black pepper and clove spice is tempered by vanilla cream and a subtle earthiness that speaks to the terroir of the lowlands. The texture is velvety, almost syrupy, with each sip revealing another layer.
Finish
Exceptionally long and gently fading, like the last ember of a campfire. Toasted oak and leather linger alongside bittersweet cocoa and a faint echo of dried fruit, ending with a whisper of warm cinnamon and mineral earth that refuses to fully disappear.
- Region
- Jalisco, Mexico
- Additives Free
- No
Cocktail Suggestion
The Ember's Lullaby — 2 oz Cuentacuentos Extra Añejo · 0.75 oz dark chocolate and fig syrup · 0.25 oz orange blossom honey syrup · 2 dashes mole bitters · 1 dash black walnut bitters · Stir all ingredients with ice for 30 seconds until well-chilled and silky, then strain into the glass over a single large ice sphere. · Garnish: flamed orange peel expressed over the surface and laid across the rim with a cinnamon stick · Glass: double old fashioned
Food Pairing
The tequila's deep caramel and chocolate notes find their mirror in a complex Oaxacan mole negro, its thirty-ingredient depth of chiles, chocolate, and warm spice harmonizing with the barrel-aged richness. The slow-braised short rib provides unctuous, savory weight that anchors the pairing, while the mole's subtle bitterness draws out the tequila's lingering cocoa and leather finish. Together, they create a meal that radiates warmth from the inside out.
In the Jalisco lowlands, where the red volcanic soil holds heat long after the sun sets, the distillers at Destilería Leyendas del Agave practice a kind of patience that borders on philosophy. Their Cuentacuentos — meaning 'storytellers' — Extra Añejo spends a full three years resting in American oak barrels, far longer than the minimum required. The master distiller speaks of each barrel as holding a final conversation between the agave and the wood, a dialogue that can only happen in silence and stillness. The result is a tequila that carries the memory of desert warmth even as the glass empties — the grain's last ember, refusing to go cold.
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