We checked out the Margarita Pour Off this past weekend. Margarita Pour Off is an event held in Sunken Gardens where various vendors showcase their margaritas for taste testing. It is sponsored by a local radio station, 99.5 Kiss and this year was the 25th anniversary. This was my first time attending and it will be my last time attending. This event was so ridiculously terrible that I would be embarrassed if any tourists were there.
We get there around 3pm and it is burning hot outside. Tickets were $20 to get in. Luckily, this guy was trying to get rid of some extra tickets he had and we got our tickets for $10. Before you enter the gate, you are given 10 tickets. Each ticket is used for a margarita test. Right when you walk in, you see a cover band playing on the right side where the outdoor auditorium is set up. I really don’t know who was playing and really didn’t care to know.
Behind the auditorium was where the line of booths were set up. I wasn’t aware that I was suppose to wear a string bikini top but apparently that was the dress code. So we walked down the row of booths and started tasting margaritas. First, the size of the taste was half the size of a bathroom cup. It was so small that the vendors could barely pour margarita in it without spilling it on the sides. Some of them were so warm because they had been sitting out in heat. All you hear are people yelling at you to come try their margarita. I started looking at which bars and restaurants were showcasing and it was mostly dance clubs and strip clubs. It felt more like they were trying to get you to go to their club. It was seriously annoying.
You could buy more tickets to get drinks and food. You weren’t able to buy margaritas from the vendors though. I mean if I liked the taste of one margarita, I wanted the option to buy a glass.
The only good thing about the whole event was that I discovered the avocado margarita from Aldaco’s. I know it does not sound appetizing, but oh my goodness, it was so good! It has a creamier texture somewhat like a smoothie. It was not too sweet and you serve it with a chili lime rim. I liked it so much, that I got 6 samples. It is better to taste it before you know what it is because you might not want to try it after knowing it has an avocado base.
So we stayed for less than an hour and walked to down to a local bar, the Bombay Bicycle Club, where there was air conditioning and had a few cold ones.
Margarita Pour Off was so awful and I would tell anyone not to go.
