Cinco de Mayo, which translates from Spanish to 5th of May, commemorates the historic Battle of Puebla, where the Mexican militia triumphed over French forces in 1862. The occasion is gathering pace in the UK, with many bars and restaurants capitalising on the UK’s appetite for Mexican culture.
Odyssey Bar Lounge is putting on a special Cinco de Mayo menu for the month of May, with popular El Mayor Tequila cocktails, such as Paloma, made with El Mayor Blanco and Odyssey grapefruit soda; Rodolpho Negroni, made with El Mayor Añejo, vermouth, bitter, salt and bay; and Snap Out of It, made with El Mayor Blanco, ginger syrup, pineapple, lime and salt.
Co-founder and director, Odyssey Bar Lounge, Tony Vega, says: “Tequila is definitely having a moment. Customers want cleaner drinks with provenance and El Mayor is a popular choice as it’s made with just three natural ingredients and comes from a family distillery. We’ve created a special Cinco de Mayo menu as people are wanting to try tequila in new ways.”
If you want to make cocktails at home, El Mayor Tequila is available at Master of Malt. It is made with 100% fresh mature agave, farmed sustainably in the valley area and the highlands of Jalisco, water and yeast. El Mayor Blanco (£42.28, 70cl), an unaged tequila voted The World’s Best Tequila 2024 in the World Tequila Awards, offers a crisp and light body to showcase the agave’s purity, with a subtle hint of pepper. A top ten ranked tequila in the International Wine and Spirits Competition’s 2024 Tequila of the Year, El Mayor Reposado (£47.25, 70cl) is rested in white oak barrels for a minimum of nine months, giving it an elegantly structured, balanced taste with a remarkably smooth finish, and El Mayor Añejo (£49.50, 70cl) is aged in white oak barrels for 18 to 36 months, offering a medium to full bodied tequila with notes of caramel, tropical fruit and spice.