This cookbook is STELLAR. I love the stunning photos and beautifully curated collection of recipes and pairings. This would be excellent for both cooks who are new to Mexican food and veterans, and it never makes you feel like it's dumbing things down while also making things feel very accessible. I have already identified two recipes I'll be cooking tonight and look very much forward to trying them. I suspect I will be cooking and drinking my way through this whole book by summer's end. Can't wait to see more cookbooks from Katherine Cobbs and Tiller Press.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tiller Press, and Katherine Cobbs for this advance copy of such a great book.

Thank you NetGalley for approving my request to read more about Tequila & Tacos by a Katherine Cobbs!

As I began reading through this cookbook, I was able to get way more information out of it than expected! This is not only a cookbook, but a learning foundation to Hispanic food. Cobbs starts the book by explaining different tequilas, cheese sauces known as “queso”, the many different tacos, and even shares authentic restaurants you can visit through the U.S. As I am a huge fan of Mexican food, there are many recipes I look forward to trying, such as Cauliflower Tacos with Fennel & Ramps!! Anything with cauliflower, you can count me in! With tequila being my favorite addition to ANY drink, I certainly cannot wait to have a fiesta with my friends and showcase the “Horny Juanita” as the signature drink.

Personally, there are recipes in the cookbook I won’t be able to try at home unfortunately (like the Grilled Cactus because I live in North Carolina). However, I highly recommend adding this cookbook to your collection if you’re an adventurous cook who loves to try different ethnic food that you won’t find on just any Mexican restaurant menu!

Tequila & Tacos by Katherine Cobbs is 4/5 stars!

Author has immersed herself in tequila and taco culture while connecting her life to the passionate art and science of crafting good tequila and tacos with meaningful pairings between them.

The photography seems self-generated and while delightful in its simplicity it would benefit from contextualization both in cultural context and social context. Reading this digitally brings forward many formatting issues as there are strange spacings within text and many blank photos lacking detail or texture randomly appear. Needs greater cohesion.

In terms of recipes, there’s lovely variety in flavor profiles and components of ingredients. I will definitely attempt to reconstruct some of these to see if they render as delicious on the palate as they read on the page.

Less is more. The passages and instructions tend toward pedantic and there’s a little too much meandering and back tracking during the instructional moments and the author/bartender/chef disappears too early so there’s sort of an anonymous quality to the exposition depleting the book of the potential fun that can be exacted from this work.

A couple of revisions and this would be worth the purchase.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for sharing this book with me. All opinions are my own.

This wants to be a food tourist review book but the focus is on copy cat recipes. Lots of ingredients I have never herd of.

I didn't know what to expect from this book. I thought it would be more of a cookbook, but it wasn't. I didn't love it. I was just looking for some fun new taco recipes. A little disappointing. Maybe this book is way more sophisticated than I am? I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Loved this! These tequila and taco recipes are split by regions in the US, from famous restaurants in each area. I loved the way it was formatted and the instructions are all clear. The graphics are also absolutely gorgeous and show how the drinks would pair with the tacos. I can't wait to try these!

I haven't been out to dinner since the Covid-19 pandemic started and one of the things I really, really miss is going out for tacos. Tequila & Tacos has given me some inspiration to have amazing tacos (of all kinds!) at home. The drinks are also standouts. It's a beautiful book that is fun to look through.

With summer finally here, I find myself craving tequila-based cocktails, and we eat tacos at least two nights a week here in my home near Seattle. I really wish “Tequila & Tacos” (via Amazon) was coming out before October 2020 so you could all enjoy making tequila and food pairings all summer long!

I want to start off this review by exclaiming over the gloriously beautiful cookbook cover.. So colorful, and I love the papel picado embellishments.

The cookbook begins with an introduction and a section educating us on tequila and its history, including what mezcal and agave are; and continues with a preface called “Tacos Without Borders.” There’s an informative section on kinds of cheeses used; and one on what to stock in your pantry.

I’m going to dive into the first chapter, West. I’m wondering if, like many cocktail pairing books, this recommends hard-to-find or obscure tequilas that I won’t actually be able to get ahold of. We’ll see!

This first chapter begins with a listing of the restaurants she’s gotten cocktail recipes and taco recipes from. The first restaurant is in my own city of Seattle: Barrio. I have great memories of brunches there, but haven’t been in a long time due to our bad traffic (and the current quarantine situation, of course). From Barrio, she shares an eight ingredient recipe for a tequila cocktail called “Jardin de Brujas.” (Garden of the Witches). I looked up the recommended Espadin Mezcal, which I’ve never heard of, and I can definitely buy it at the Total Wine store closest to me. The taco recipe paired with this is for a Pan-Seared Halibut Taco. I’m a vegetarian myself, but this sounds like exactly the sort of taco my boyfriend would be overjoyed to eat.

......

My overall impression is this cookbook is a keeper for taco and tequila pairings, recipes, ideas and inspiration, but I’m worried about my ability to source a lot of the more unusual liquor ingredients. Also, some of the tacos seem a bit.. fancy or time consuming to make for a weeknight or even on a busy weekend.

This might be a fabulous Tasting Club type cookbook club or cooperative cooking party, where a group of friends each makes a platter of tacos and a pitcher of cocktails from one of the recipes. Looking forward to being able to gather with our friends in person again to test out my party idea!

This book looked delicious from cover to cover. The taco recipes were inventive and inspired Taco Tuesdays to be more diverse. The cocktail recipes look amazing and will be made to enjoy during quarantine and social gatherings. I would recommend this book for social gathering and anyone who loves Taco Tuesday.

The food photography in this book is top notch and I love Tacolicious in SF so this was a really happy accident that I picked up this title! Recommend!

What a great cookbook. I broke this one out for Cinco De Mayo! I loved reading about the different taco traditions and also learning about the different between tequila and mezcal. I made the pan seared halibut tacos and they were AMAZING! the grilled lemon aioli and the cucumber pico de gallo were to die for! Thank you for letting me review this!

Mouthwatering recipes, from pastrami tacos to al pastor! I loved the variety of cocktails, salsas, and range of taco flavors represented throughout the book. This recipe set is split into regional sections, including enticing descriptions of the specialties of numerous Mexican restaurants that have now been added to my bucket list.

The beautiful pictures, simply well-written recipes, and range of ingredients make for a unique or comforting meal depending on your mood. This will become a staple for me, and I can think of many other taco enthusiasts who would love this book. Thank you #NetGalley for giving me a taste of this book!

Having seen this in the food category, I thought this would be a cookbook all about Tacos and Tequilas. I was wrong.

Rather than just get recipes, which you do get, you also get a background on how Tequila is made and the five types of Tequilas there are. I now know what reposado Tequila is. On top of that, the author goes into detail about tacos and the kinds of meat used.

It’s a rather interesting book because you get to learn a lot about two items not many seem to know much about except that they are good.

I also like how restaurants are listed, the photos of the food and the recipes.

Love this! As a Texas native and devoted Tex-Mex eater, I am completely on board with both tequila and tacos. This is a nice compilation of recipes from some of America's best spots for both of these things.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this cookbook; however, I hoped it would be chock full of easy - yet innovative - taco recipes, which were accompanied by tequila recommendations. I hoped that some of the taco recipes would be doable with grocery store ingredients, and that some of the recommended tequilas would be available in my local liquor store. I also hoped for the occasional full color photograph to bring the recipes to life.

This cookbook definitely did not disappoint! As it turned out, the cookbook featured recipes from about two dozen different restaurants across the United States, most of which were casual taquerias. The four chapters within the book - West, South, Midwest, East - each focused on half a dozen or so restaurants in that region. For each restaurant, there was a one-page profile of the restaurant, a signature drink recipe, and a signature taco recipe. There was also a full page color photograph of the service of the tacos with the drink. There were even some bonus recipes sprinkled in between the restaurant segments, like the Tequila Daisy and Ethiopian Injera bread. Both the drink recipes and the tacos recipes varied widely through out the book (although there were two recipes for cauliflower tacos, of all things!) so it truly felt like the author was representing the best of what each restaurant had to offer.

Although the vast majority of the recipes seemed easy to follow and simple to prepare, the vast majority of them also required a bit of unobtainium to pull off. At least in New England. For example, I’ve seen jackfruit in the produce section, but never in the 10-ounce cans that the recipe called for. Nor have I seen much goat, duck, or lamb in my butcher section. And even though my local package store will special order for me, I doubt they would be able to find me a bottle of unbranded hibiscus liqueur.

I do have to say that putting the glossaries of tequilas, taco terms, Mexican cheeses, and chiles in the Introduction was a stroke of genius. It made the recipes easier to read and understand than if the terms were explained in line or in glossaries at the end of the cookbook. I would have appreciated a few words in the Introduction to explain how the restaurants were chosen for the book. Some didn’t specialize in tacos, and one only had one taco on its menu. There seemed to be a heavy West Coast bias as some of the Midwest and East restaurant profiles seemed to pay an inordinate amount of attention to the restauranteurs’ West Coast roots. Which is a shame because some of the best taqueria/mezcaleria places that I know in my area didn’t make the cut (bartaco in Hartford, La Espita in Washington, DC).

Overall, this seemed like a good niche cookbook. If the current climate were different, I might be inspired to turn finding unobtainium into an adventure so that I could try some of the more interesting recipes. However, I can still grab a cauliflower (or two) from the local orchard store to attempt those recipes.

I received this book as a digital advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I have yet to prepare any of the recipes from this cookbook, but will update this review if I do.

The recipes come from a variety of restaurants around the country, so initially I expected the recipes to be too complicated for the average person, but they are very accessible and complimented by lovely photographs. I appreciate the drink/food combos provided too.

This would be an excellent edition for any public library cookbook collection!

This book breaks down tacos and Tequila. It gives the reader definitions for all of the different meats that can be placed in various tacos and how the meats are cooked. It then moves on to discuss the various tortillas and fillings that can be used to create taco masterpieces. You learn all about tequila and how it distilled and how to pair the two items together. The book is broken into four areas and the tacos that you can find in each. The recipes are broken down by restaurants in the areas and pair a taco with a tequila drink. Each recipe is easy to follow and delicious. This is a very fun cookbook!

Working my way through Tequila & Tacos has been such a delight. Everything is delicious, and I love that it functions as more of a cookbook/travel hybrid than just a traditional cookbook. I definitely want to seek out these restaurants in my travels! The imagery is gorgeous, the recipes are accessible (even if all of the ingredients are not), and the cocktails have been appreciated by everyone in our household. This will make a great gift for friends, and I can't wait to use it as the perfect housewarming treat!

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity!

While I can appreciate this cookbook for what it is, I do not think this cookbook would be enjoyed by most home cooks. Most of the recipes, for both cocktails and tacos, use a good amount of fairly unusually and hard to obtain ingredients. I would have appreciated a small note at the bottom of each recipe with more accessible substitutions for these obscure ingredients. I did really enjoy seeing taco recipes inspired by restaurants that I have eaten at many times. Overall, a solid cookbook for very experienced chefs but I wouldn't recommend this cookbook to your average home cook.

I love tacos! This is a fun and easy to fallow cookbook. This would make a great toss in if you were bringing a gift to a a BBQ.