This season on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, we’ve seen drama over a burglary, racist comments, miscarriages, an eating disorder, and an alleged drinking problem, and quite frankly, all of those fights have been kind of a snooze. Eighteen episodes into the season, though, the show has finally gotten compelling thanks to an altercation over celebrity-owned tequila brands.
Last week, fans gleefully watched as Kathy Hilton stormed out of an Aspen store because Lisa Rinna pulled a stunt that landed her in the Real Housewives pettiness hall of fame, right up there with Teresa Giudice throwing Melissa Gorga’s sprinkle cookies in the garbage and the Kenya Moore Haircare drumline (whose catchy chant is on a constant loop in my brain).
After weeks of Hilton hocking a tequila brand called Casa Del Sol, in which she and her daughter Nicky and son-in-law James Rothschild all invested, Rinna slithered up to the bar that was inexplicably inside that cowboy hat store that Kyle Richards was way too excited about and loudly ordered a glass of 818 Tequila, a brand by Rinna’s 26-year-old “friend” Kendall Jenner. Hilton lost her mind and viewers everywhere felt drunk on this absolutely shining example of the type of trivial drama that makes Real Housewives the powerhouse series that it is.
Like every Bravo lover, I have a lot of thoughts about this whole situation. First of all, Rinna mocking Hilton for dropping the Casa Del Sol name on camera every chance she got for the last several months of filming is pretty rich coming from a Housewife whose whole brand is shamelessly selling everything from dusters to adult diapers. This season alone, Rinna’s castmates have had to attend an event for her new rosé, which she has apparently been working on since their very forgettable cast trip to Provence way back in Season 9, and a second launch party for Rinna Beauty, a makeup line for which she already had a celebration last season.
Speaking of Rinna’s makeup line, the hero products of the brand are lip kits, which I feel I must point out is a concept made popular by none other than Kyle Jenner, the younger sister of Rinna’s supposed BFF Kendall. Funny that the Housewife, who in fairness is known for her lips, is riding one Jenner sister’s coattails while propping up the other’s business venture. It’s tempting to wonder what the Jenners think of Lisa Rinna, but the obvious answer is they don’t think about her at all. I’m sure Kendall Jenner is on her laptop in a $23,000 hyperbaric chamber somewhere, blissfully unaware that she’s been dragged into the most entertaining conflict to unfold on this season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. She doesn’t need Rinna to promote her tequila brand on Bravo because she has her own reality show and 257 million followers on Instagram through which to do that herself.
With all that said, you’d think I’m staunchly #TeamKathy in this amusing feud. But, I actually don’t feel aligned with Hilton in this situation either.
Yes, Rinna was shady as hell, but Hilton is already a multi-millionaire, who also doesn’t really need help publicizing the celebrity-owned tequila brand in which she has invested. That’s right, in case you didn’t know, Casa Del Sol was co-founded by actress, producer, and director Eva Longoria, a point I’m shocked Hilton didn’t mention in the many clips of her showing off bottles of the stuff. The main reason this fight is so incredibly delicious is that both sides are simply absurd. When a former soap star and the wife of a hotel heir go head to head over which more famous person’s liquor brand their friends should order on TV, the only way to pick a side is to taste the tequilas in question. So, that’s what I did.
When it came to procuring the two tequila brands, I headed to my local liquor store and had no problem finding 818 in all its offered varieties. Casa Del Sol, however, wasn’t on the shelf, and when I looked up my location on the brand’s website, even though I live in a major city, the nearest distributor was almost 100 miles away in another state. So, I ordered a bottle of the Blanco—the variety Hilton was always offering on-screen— and waited six days for it to arrive. The availability wasn’t ideal, but in the grand scheme of Houswives-backed products, the wait wasn’t too bad (this felt especially true since She by Shereé was top of mind when I placed my order).
As I said, I was able to easily procure a bottle of 818’s blanco, but I must admit that I felt completely embarrassed bringing it up to the checkout counter. Buying a white lady’s tequila is never something I thought I’d do, especially during Hispanic Heritage Month. I could feel my poor Mestizo ancestors rolling in their graves. The fact that Casa Del Sol was founded by Eva Longoria, who is Mexican-American, is a major plus for the brand in my eyes. But what about how the two tequilas actually taste?
I conducted a very scientific blind taste test because I didn’t want any of my biases about Rinna’s unhinged and overly produced outbursts or Kathy’s hilarious oddities to influence my preference. I smelled and sipped both tequilas neat and then also made a traditional margarita with each, using Cointreau—my orange liqueur of choice— and freshly squeezed lime juice. My findings were interesting.
With unusual undertones, both tequilas are unlike like other brands I am used to drinking. Casa Del Sol advertises itself as a luxury sipping tequila and I can taste why. As you may remember from Kathy Hilton’s spiel, Casa Del Sol tequila is aged in Cognac barrels made from something called French Limousin Oak. This process gives the tequila an interesting weight. It’s creamy and coats the tongue. There’s also a strong and unexpected note of mint that comes through at the end of each sip. It’s pleasant to sip on straight or with a light spray of lime wedge—preferably carcass out, of course.
Jenner’s 818 brand, on the other hand, was tough for me to drink straight. As Rinna said over and over again in that damn hat store, it is in fact sweet. Personally, I do not want to sip sweet tequila. Plus, it has an astringent quality that pricks the sides of the tongue, which makes picking up on any complexity in flavor difficult. However, I cannot declare Jenner’s brand the obvious loser of what RHOBH fans are calling Tequilagate because it did make a pretty tasty margarita. 818’s sweetness was mellowed out and even complimented by the tart lime juice. To my astonishment, I preferred the 818 margaritas to the one made with the Hilton-backed brand. Casa Del Sol’s mintiness was a little odd mixed with other ingredients, but the marg was certainly still drinkable.
So, which tequila is truly better? I think I will give it to Casa Del Sol. On its own, it’s got a superior taste. Does it pair well with one of Hilton’s favorite meals, chicken salad and Ritz crackers eaten off a TV tray? Well, that I cannot say for sure. But with its complex flavor, I bet it goes great with that caviar she’s known to pile on top of her baked potatoes.
I can confirm that it’s very nice enjoyed with a frozen vegetarian pizza. But, if you’re someone like Kyle Richards, who orders a basic margarita everywhere she goes (including Italy, much to Dorit Kemsley’s chagrin), maybe 818 is the better choice for you. Or, you can just wait until the end of this season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills to make a decision on which tequila to drink. Based on what might be about to go down with Kathy Hilton, perhaps we’ll soon be opting for a different brand entirely when it comes to tequila.
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