Cocktail: Horseshoe

The best known tequila cocktails - the margarita and the tequila sunrise - employ basic blanco or "silver" tequila, or even a blended spirit which mixes distilled blue agave juice with other alcohol, rather than more expensive barrel-aged reposado or añejo tequilas.

At Sal Curioso in Wyndham Street, however, it was determined that a drink using a better quality spirit should be created to go with the restaurant's Latin-themed tapas-style dishes, hence the Horseshoe.

The name is a tribute to the brand of tequila employed - Herradura, a 100 per cent agave spirit from Jalisco, Mexico.

Bartender Ralph Abellanosa says Herradura Reposado was chosen because the spirit has a touch of sweetness, and he considers it smoother than other equivalently priced tequilas.

The Casa Herradura distillery, named best distiller in the world in 2007 by Wine Enthusiast Magazine, is known for sticking to traditional methods, although the company - now US owned - also makes the El Jimador mass-market blended spirit, using only 51 per cent agave, which is the best-selling "tequila-style" brand in Mexico.

Herradura Reposado is barrel-aged for 11 months and can be drunk as a sipping spirit, although it is less complex than the company's top of the range Extra Añejo Seleccion Suprema, which spends more than four years in the wood.