Four years ago last August, I went to Port Washington, New York, on Long Island, to visit the North Shore Animal League America's (NSALA's) adoption shelter. It was a memorable day: We brought home our beautiful and beloved Ella, aka Ella Wren (footnote 1). But this column is not about puppies. It's about tequila and blind testing.
The North Shore Animal League won't send a dog or cat home with just anyone. First, they make sure you can provide a good home for the animal. Once you've decided to adopt, you must give them a list of references—employers, landlords, friends—and they call every one of them, seeking insight into your lifestyle and character. While the folks at the shelter were calling our references, my wife and I took a walk.
As we strolled down Port Washington Boulevard, we passed a liquor store, and I remembered I needed tequila; maybe I was planning margaritas with dinner. I went into the store and, after wandering around for a bit, asked for a tequila recommendation—a reposado, since that's what I usually get. I left with a bottle of 818.
The tequila drinkers out there probably know what comes next: That tequila was awful. Hideous. It did not resemble tequila. It tasted like, I don't know, store-brand cake icing. Vanilla syrup. Tequila's characteristic vegetal quality—the agave flavor—was MIA.
I learned soon after that 818 is a celebrity project; specifically Kendall Jenner's. Tequila like this is a savvy play: Make a tequila that's safe for Gen Z or whichever new, young generation will be drinking it. Tequila for people who like the idea of tequila more than they like the taste.
The company insists that 818 is made from 100% blue agave and that it's additive-free, though the latter claim is widely disputed by experts who have tasted it. Apparently, additives are not hard to taste for people who know tequila.
Fast-forward four years. A few days ago, I was walking along Broadway and saw an ad for 818 in the window of a liquor store. "Winner of 43 medals and awards!" the ad proclaimed.
Major cognitive disconnect. How do I explain? Maybe the awards were for the blanco or the añejo, not the reposado I had tried.
I did some research. I verified the claim about competitions: 818 won 43 awards across 13 competitions, though that number probably includes all the styles—blanco, reposado, añejo—and some awards for the brand, not a particular tipple.
Probably some of those contests are trophy mills—contests you enter knowing you'll receive some kind of award, as happens with products submitted for review at certain hi-fi magazines. But some of the wins are truly impressive, at real high-end competitions: the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The 2020 World Tequila Awards, where 818 was proclaimed the World's Best Reposado. Their juice was entered anonymously in the latter contest under the name "K & Soda." That's a serious achievement, not easily dismissed.
The World Tequila Award judges wrote down their tasting notes: pecan pie, sweet potato, caramel, oak, vanilla. "More sweetness on the finish as cinnamon ice cream comes through," a judge wrote.
Sounds like a cake, not tequila, but if you're used to reading tasting notes for whiskey, wine, or coffee, it kind of makes sense: You expect those flavors to be subtle traces, detectable only by experts. But that's not what I tasted back in 2022. Those flavors are dominant, about as subtle as Cherry Coke.
In my research, I learned that 818 reposado is a moving target. It has been through at least three formulations and has been made at no fewer than two distilleries.
Enough about competition awards: What did the serious critics think? I'll provide just one example: Lou Agave, aka Long Island Lou, has a video podcast. He has been reviewing tequila for years, often with a panel of tequila-drinking pals (footnote 2). Mr. Agave assigned the original 818 reposado a score of 56 out of 100.
"It was horrible," he said in a 2022 video, as he prepared to review the new 818, which was reformulated in 2022. "I downgraded it after that. The more I drank it, the worse it got."
How did the reformulated 818 reposado fare? Lou's review was posted in March 2022—a few months before I bought my bottle, so the new juice is probably what I tried.
"This is disgusting!" said Lou Agave. The italics are mine, but the emphasis is his. "Don't buy it! I almost spit this out!"
Apparently, 818 reposado was reformulated again in 2024. Long Island Lou and his buddies tried that version, too. Their comments suggest that while it's similar to the original—lots of sweetness, vanilla, and caramel—this most recent formulation does at least have some agave flavor. They didn't love it—not remotely—but in their comments, I detected a grudging respect.
So maybe today's version isn't as bad—but that wasn't the version I tasted back in 2022.
Why the disconnect? How could 13 competitions give this stuff 43 awards, while the opinions of sighted critics are uniformly negative, to say the least? How could a tequila described as "horrible" be named World's Best Reposado at the World Tequila Awards?
There is one major difference—just one—between those competitions and the many subjective reviews found online. The competitions are based on blind tasting. Blind tasters awarded this spirit 43 times. Sighted tasters hated it.
Could it be that the blind tasters were right and the sighted tasters were wrong? I don't think so. Tequila isn't supposed to taste like this. About that there can be no serious argument.
I can think of no other explanation, but I don't love this one. Blind testing has problems, but I've never considered it this bad. I would not have expected blinding to cause knowledgeable, experienced tequila tasters to get it this wrong. I could have tasted it blind, deaf, and dumb with my taste buds tied behind my vocal cords, and I would still have said, "This is awful. It isn't even tequila." But maybe not?
Blind testing isn't that bad, is it? What am I missing? I welcome feedback.
Footnote 1: NSALA is the largest and oldest no-kill rescue and adoption organization in the United States; see animalleague.org/ways-to-give/. Click here to read my contemporaneous take.
Footnote 2: On YouTube, Long Island Lou is @longislandloutequila7208.
Footnote 1: NSALA is the largest and oldest no-kill rescue and adoption organization in the United States; see animalleague.org/ways-to-give/. Click here to read my contemporaneous take.
