(Photo: Don Julio)
There comes a point in every spirits reviewer's life when they're obliged to try a dubious fast food collaboration.
This week, Don Julio Tequila teamed up with Popeyes to roll out a trio of menu items commemorating the Super Bowl. Inevitably, the main attraction is Don Julio's take on a chicken sandwich featuring a tequila-marinated fillet, tequila lime slaw and a barrel-cured pickle on a Mexican concha roll. Customers can also find garlic chicken wings bathed in a tequila-infused sauce alongside a spicy strawberry hibiscus mocktail.
Unless you live in New Orleans, these items are available for just one day at a total of five Popeyes locations dotted throughout Miami, New York, Philadelphia and Kansas City. By the time you're reading this, there's a good chance that the only remnant left is a handful of empty wrappers being resold on eBay.
We arrived at the Popeyes location in Times Square at 9:55 am, exactly five minutes before opening. The line was already stretched around the corner. I counted around 100 people queueing up for the meal and the mood was positively electric. Everyone in the crowd seemed to have a distant relative or co-worker who'd already tried the sandwich and given it a scathing or raving review (nothing in between). Some were worried about an order limit on the collectible cups. Others were preoccupied with filming TikToks.
After a few minutes, a bouncer walked down the line to check IDs and hand out Popeyes-orange wristbands. Though the location wasn't handing out bottles of booze, everyone who bought a meal had to be 21 or over. The crowd joked that these sandwiches were about to get us tipsy. Of course, this was but a dream, a vague justification for trudging out in 30-degree weather to the most congested and overlit intersection in New York City on a Friday morning. Passing tourists looked on with a mixture of confusion and awe.
The line was finally ushered inside. A gaggle of photographers wove through the pack as customers left one by one with branded Don Julio X Popeyes tote bags in hand. I ordered the combo meal — chicken sandwich, wings and spicy lemonade — and the total came out to $14.14.
Reposado-Flavored Concha Roll Chicken Sandwich
Full disclosure: I'll take a Popeyes sandwich over a KFC or Chick-fil-A sandwich any day of the week. It's my go-to fast food order if I'm pressed for time. The crunch on the chicken always hits just right, and those two pickles hidden underneath provide that perfect none-too-sour acidity. So yeah, I was going in with high expectations.
Expectations that would have been exceeded had this not been advertised as a Don Julio collaboration. The chicken and the slaw tasted a bit saltier than the brand's usual but were otherwise unremarkable. Don Julio Reposado is a decidedly sweet tequila, so I was at least expecting to get some of that sugary zing in the brine. But nothing about it screamed tequila after a few bites. The most noticeable difference was the bun, styled after a Mexican-style concha pastry with a thin butter crust on top. The bread was crumbly and a little caramelized, adding that sweet touch I was expecting from the main course.
Reposado-Flavored Louisiana Garlic Wings
When it came to the wings, cajun seasoning was the name of the game. Cayenne pepper, garlic and salt were the dominant flavors. The wings themselves were a little crispy and otherwise well-cooked. From the look of it, Popeyes opted for a dry rub rather than a wet rub, something I always appreciate unless I have a ream of napkins on standby.
Once again, however, the tequila influence was negligible. Anyone who’s ever made penne alla vodka will tell you that the dish hardly tastes like vodka, and the same certainly goes for everything on this Don Julio tequila menu. With that in mind, I'm inclined to believe the kitchen actually used tequila in the recipe. Better that than a dollop of artificial tequila sweetener.
Whether or not it qualifies as a "mocktail," the lemonade was delicious. Oodles of strawberry gave way to a subdued flavor of hibiscus, almost giving this the vibe of an iced tea. A spicy, ginger-like punch crept up on the finish, coating the back of the throat sip after sip.
Though it's hard to tell from the photo, each drink was served inside a metal-lined, Stanley cup-style tumbler that weighed about a pound. You could toss it inside a dishwasher and it'd come out looking exactly the same. If nothing else, these surprisingly premium bottles will be the enduring relic of the Don Julio X Popeyes collaboration.
The person ahead of me in line skipped the menu items entirely and instead opted to buy five of these tumblers, saying with a smile that he'd sell them at $20 a pop to his co-workers later that afternoon. Slurping by bubble gum-pink lemonade, I had a sneaky feeling that everything was working out precisely as Popeyes had intended.
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Full disclosure: I'll take a Popeyes sandwich over a KFC or Chick-fil-A sandwich any day of the week. It's my go-to fast food order if I'm pressed for time. The crunch on the chicken always hits just right, and those two pickles hidden underneath provide that perfect none-too-sour acidity. So yeah, I was going in with high expectations.
Expectations that would have been exceeded had this not been advertised as a Don Julio collaboration. The chicken and the slaw tasted a bit saltier than the brand's usual but were otherwise unremarkable. Don Julio Reposado is a decidedly sweet tequila, so I was at least expecting to get some of that sugary zing in the brine. But nothing about it screamed tequila after a few bites. The most noticeable difference was the bun, styled after a Mexican-style concha pastry with a thin butter crust on top. The bread was crumbly and a little caramelized, adding that sweet touch I was expecting from the main course.
When it came to the wings, cajun seasoning was the name of the game. Cayenne pepper, garlic and salt were the dominant flavors. The wings themselves were a little crispy and otherwise well-cooked. From the look of it, Popeyes opted for a dry rub rather than a wet rub, something I always appreciate unless I have a ream of napkins on standby.
Once again, however, the tequila influence was negligible. Anyone who’s ever made penne alla vodka will tell you that the dish hardly tastes like vodka, and the same certainly goes for everything on this Don Julio tequila menu. With that in mind, I'm inclined to believe the kitchen actually used tequila in the recipe. Better that than a dollop of artificial tequila sweetener.
Whether or not it qualifies as a "mocktail," the lemonade was delicious. Oodles of strawberry gave way to a subdued flavor of hibiscus, almost giving this the vibe of an iced tea. A spicy, ginger-like punch crept up on the finish, coating the back of the throat sip after sip.
Though it's hard to tell from the photo, each drink was served inside a metal-lined, Stanley cup-style tumbler that weighed about a pound. You could toss it inside a dishwasher and it'd come out looking exactly the same. If nothing else, these surprisingly premium bottles will be the enduring relic of the Don Julio X Popeyes collaboration.
The person ahead of me in line skipped the menu items entirely and instead opted to buy five of these tumblers, saying with a smile that he'd sell them at $20 a pop to his co-workers later that afternoon. Slurping by bubble gum-pink lemonade, I had a sneaky feeling that everything was working out precisely as Popeyes had intended.
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