Review: Tia Linda’s Ready-to-Drink Margaritas, Complete Lineup

Tia Linda’s — that’s Aunt Linda to you — is a new ready-to-drink margarita brand based in Sacramento, California. The tiny cans are the real deal (or close to it), made with a blend of tequila and grain neutral spirits, lime and lemon (sometimes Meyer lemon), agave and cane sugar, triple sec, and salt.

Each is 18% abv.

Tia Linda’s Classico Margarita – Just about perfectly balanced. Lime-focused but not blown out or chemical-laced, with a pinch of salt to balance out the mid-level sweetness evident. The bite of tequila is extremely mild, though a light earthiness becomes visible late into the finish. On the whole, there’s really nothing not to like here: It’s a classic, straightforward margarita that goes down far too easy and, indeed, feels exactly like it was freshly made to order. What a lovely surprise! A

Tia Linda’s POG Margarita – This is an interesting flavor idea, based on Hawaiian POG juice — pineapple, orange, and guava. The flavor profile is on point, with all three fruit elements well represented (especially the guava), plus a nice thread of agave underpinning it all. Mildly herbaceous and touched with salt, it’s very tropical and floral, just like a visit to the islands. If you poured this over ice and told me this was hand-crafted at a bar, I would totally believe you. A

Tia Linda’s Spicy Jalapeno Margarita – You can smell the fresh jalapeno notes the moment you crack open the can: Big, biting, and vegetal, it packs a spicy punch that you can’t ignore — at least at first. Within 5 or 10 minutes, everything starts to settle down, and while the nose still strikes as peppery and aggressively green, things are less overwhelming on the palate. The spice still lingers, but it’s balanced nicely by all the lime, lemon, and agave in the mix — and that pinch of salt helps to give the finish a cleansing quality. Sit with this one a bit. A-

Tia Linda’s Strawberry Margarita – I was nervous of this expression, as strawberry-flavored anything in the spirits world usually doesn’t turn out as well as the creator probably hoped. That’s not exactly apropos here, as the strawberry flavor in the mix comes across more natural than most beverages of this ilk — though it helps if you let the margarita mellow in the glass for a bit, along with some melting of the ice. The end result is definitely candylike but short of saccharine, and while the berry note dominates, it still leaves room for plenty of lime and a bit of herbal agave — though make no mistake, this one’s decidedly for sweet tooths. (The weird, orange color needs a rethink, however.) B

each $17 per four-pack of 200ml cans

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