Politics of agave
Please take 20 minutes of laying on the couch and give this a listen.
http://wunc.org/post/politics-producing-tequila#stream/0
and to clarify a bit what NOM199 is about watch
this:
Stay strong! Salud
Pre-Hispanic Distillation
Hello World!
Not long a ago this great documentary on distillation in Jalisco was released. It is really worth the watch if pre-hispanic distillation wet’s your pants! Support the agave community and download this one!
Salud!
New proposals for mezcal NOM
Amigos y Amigas!
Please take a moment to read this. It does not take long. But is of great importance!
http://www.tequilainterchangeproject.org/2015/03/09/mezcal-nom-070-petition/?hc_location=ufi
If you want to go deeper and read the whole nom, please se attached:
It’s been a long time..
It has again been a long time ago since I wrote something on my own blog. Been feeling a lot like that lately, I do so much for others and completely forget to have some own time, gather my thoughts in to something productive. We all have our ups and downs though, nothing strange. Something that is a bit strange though, is that I don’t really drink a lot of Tequila lately. For some reason it doesn’t seem to appeal to me the way it did a few years ago.
A few years ago I also just got back from Mexico, and I can really feel that I am lacking inspiration. It is hard to keep up to date with a ever-changing tequila industry from such a distance. All I see lately I pretty girls wearing next to nothing, representing yet another Tequila brand. How am I supposed to take that seriously? Or the story of a mythical donkey shining up in the mountain miles away, potentially carrying the best Tequila in the world, IN THE WORLD. I thought that taste was something personal and that it is quit big-headed to claim anything to be the best in the world. Somehow it feels easier to believe that though, than Barbie charmingly pouring tasters for a group of horny men.
On top of that Tequila keep changing distilleries, change owners and differ dramatically in taste from batch to batch. How am I supposed to believe anything that is happening in this industry now? When I can’t go there and see for myself? Can producers/owners not see that this is only confusing a huge market of potential new Tequila lovers? One week this Tequila is great, next week it is shit, third week different owner, fourth week a different distillery and back to being premium quality? Excuse my french, but WTF! is going on? It seems to be only about money, owners of a brand that one day are the proudest Mexicans in the world, next day change face and say something completely different. You are selling your national heritage to huge American companies, who will turn it into a 10 year goldmine and then what? Then its the salt and lemon all over again and the struggle continues.
Last time this happened, the producers were serious and could not understand why people would drink very well produced Tequila with salt and lemon, quality went up and people slowly learnt. But then what happened? Producers saw an opportunity to make a quick buck by lowering quality a bit and selling on the name they made for themselves, and after a while aficionados had enough. Come on who can honestly say that Don Julio is a great Tequila now days? even just a couple of years ago the juice was amazing! now it almost screaming for salt and lemon.
Of course there are much worse examples, but no need to drop them all. This is after all my opinion. It all just seems like such a mess right now I’m not sure where to turn. I still have a few brands I can trust, but for how long? When is enough not enough? I can’t come as a chock to you that when massive corporations get involved it is all about maximizing profit, they don’t care about the production as long as people buy it, and people will buy if the marketing is done correctly. Simple as.
Luckily for me I have amazing Mezcal around me at the moment, but I just keep thinking if I should start getting worried when I drink Mezcal, or suggest it to my guests, that if I drink too much it will get too popular and I won’t be able to get the good stuff any more? I think we shall all together stop supporting the commercial brands and do our best to get the real deal! It is the only fair thing for guest in our bars, friends and family. It is not very hard to demand better quality from our distributors, many a times they just need a kick in the butt and a bit of help.
Now I will pour myself some Los Abuelos Blanco, Lot 3. Because I can. Salud!
Guest Blogger
Hola!
A good friend of mine asked me if I had the time to write a little piece about the Tequila in my life and how it started. So instead of doing my next post here, I will refer this one to Casa Noble’s blog. So please pour yourself a nice glass of Tequila and enjoy!
Salud!
Repost Series #5
Jajajajaja!
So this will be the last of the reposts. Had a great cinco de mayo down at The Barking Dog, big hats, mariachi music and great Tequila. Big smiles all over. It felt needed with a night filled with Tequila. Banging out good cocktails, and yet again, converting quite a few people to drinking the good shit. We have set an official opening date for the bar now and it will be on sunday the 20th of May. Cant wait to have the place operating fully so I can put some attention back in to Tequila! Until then.. Salud! Read More..
Repost Series #4
Amigos Y Amigas!
Lately there have been a lot of Tequila in my life again, and I am getting in to service again after a long time building my bar (The Barking Dog). It is still not completely done, but quite close, at least we are up and running from thursday to saturday, and I am loving being back behind the bar. As I mentioned I finally starting to find time to focus a bit more on Tequila again. A couple of weeks ago I got a case of Ocho Curado delivered from London. I must be honest, I did not know very much about it, but I trust Tomas enough to get my hand on a few bottle. And what a treat it was! A great blanco infused with cooked agave. My tasting notes on this: It is an all-night’er! There are only 480 liters of this juice available for now, so get your hands on a great first batch of Ocho Curado!
This repost goes out to Don Javier of the great little bar, La Capilla. Enjoy.
Repost Series #3
Hey!
I am still alive. The unofficial opening of the bar have been done, and with a great success. I does however take a lot of my time, so right now my main agave focus goes in to my mouth. I have been enjoying some very fine agave spirits lately, but I must say, few, very few stands up to Real Minero Tobala. It is simply amazing! Which naturally leads us on to today’s repost. The mother of the blue agave, a little story about Mezcal. Enjoy and have a good weekend! Salud!
The Tequila Take Over
Bienvenidos mariachis of the world!
A lot has happened in the world of agave the last few weeks. I have for a very long time tried to get a serious Tequila session together for the Copenhagen bar community. Being so far from Mexico makes this a lot harder, though not to many producers of agave spirits hang out in Scandinavia. But sometimes it just clicks, and all the pieces fall in to place. I have been writing about Tomas Estes before, so you all know who he is. A man with a hectic schedule chasing his feet around the world, but this time there was a small gap, and on the way from Moscow bar show to business in Paris, there was time for a short stop in beautiful Denmark. The weather seemed to be on our side for ones, it was warm! In october. Sun shining really showes the city at its best.
Since a while back Ocho (8) Tequila has been available in Denmark, and it has been flying out the windows of that little favourite shop of mine, Juuls Vin & Spiritus. With Tomas in town for two days only we were in for some hard core ocho’ing. But as always, to everything good there is always a lot of preparation. Weeks before me and Max from Juuls got up on our bikes and cycled around town, handing out invites to every place with a mexican flag, name, you name it. The biggest success here was with the Mexican embassy, who gave us endless amounts of decorations, toys and support. This was going to be the biggest Tequila event in Scandinavia, ever. In all real’ness though, as we know, bigger is not always better, so we split it up in two days. As the programme was set, everything was talked through with Tomas, we got a great surprise, Sophie Decobecq, sent me an email saying that she somehow hade a couple of ”spare” days, and she would love to come and help Tomas out for the presentations, and of course, get a good look at what Copenhagen has to offer. Not knowing if we were in for more surprises we just left it to Tequila to show us the way.
Sitting in the lobby of the hotel where Tomas and Sophie were staying, it finally felt real. I could touch it, this was going to be an amazing two days. A few hugs and coffee’s later, we made our way to the first destination, Weltkuglen. A brand new bar in the heart of the city, and in my humble opinion, the best new opening for a good while.
We (Copenhagen Cocktail Club) got 25 of Copenhagen’s best bartenders together for what turned out to be a four hour long nerdy conversation. The standard of agave knowledge was high to start with, so rather than Sophie & Tomas talking through the basics of Tequila, we quite quickly got a very good forum started, and I belive that what ever level of Tequila knowledge one had, this was very educational. More than that we did some tasting exercises. I believe that a straight up tasting for a larger group of varied levels of tasting experiences are rather boring, and I do not tend to get very much out of it. Maybe boring is the wrong word, but many people aren’t used to taste straight spirits. And there is quite the difference between drinking and tasting. I have been to 40-50 something spirit tastings and are just starting to get the hang of it. I might be a bit slow, or maybe just as most people, did not pay enough attention in the younger days. One big problem in tastings I recon, is that no one really tells you how to taste, how to prepare your mouth and how to look for flavours. Therefore a little exercise is good, and from personal experience, I tend to remember much more about the whole tasting if it is a bit more interactive. The four hours quickly passed and after washing 300 something tasting glasses, we headed on for dinner. Where do you bring people of the world, that has most likely been to more restaurants, diners, bars than I ever will, well, home. So we went back to my place for a home cooked somewhat traditional Danish meal. It is something special to enter someones home, and homes in different countries are also always different. Give me more of a local feel and usually an experience I remember. There is only so many bars and restaurants one can remember. The food was bigger than hip hop, thanks for all the time and effort with that! This also ment picking Tomas & Sophie’s brains in to the late hours.
After some well deserved sleep I woke up and went to Juuls to meet up with the others. In the shop we went through that evenings product, tasted, made some notes and made a somewhat plan of how to structure the evening. We needed some fresh air and went for a good walk around the lakes of Copenhagen, and that was about as much tourism we got in to. A traditional Danish ”Ristet HotDog med alt” for a snack before hitting Restaurant Pilen for the evenings tasting. This time we turned up the volume a bit and got 136 people to attend, the largest tasting of its kind in Scandinavia. Setting up glasses, pouring eight different agave spirits (6 Tequilas, 2 Mezcals), decorating cinco the mayo style and struggling with the projector, again. This tasting was a bit more introduction to the process of making, different terroirs and as always with Tomas, the tasting goes in a few different directions before getting carefully knitted together. Sophie had to stop talking about fermentation I believe 5 times. The passion Tomas & Sophie have shines through so much, I did not see anyone leaving with out a smile. We almost had to kick people out, they simply stayed and drank what was left. How often does that happen?
If you were there for both of the days, I belive you have one of the most credible educations in tequila one can get in two days!
Last but not least, I want to thank everybody involved, this could not have happened without you! Raise a glass of Tequila for yourself. Salud!
Olmeca Got More Than Agave Cooking
The last year or two Olmeca has made a lot of noise in the Tequila world, especially working together with Tahona Society on a global Tequila training program. Basically they have been all over the world, sharing their passion for Tequila. International margarita competition was a part of that as well, where finalists were taken to Mexico to get to know the real culture and get a feel for what the Tequila life is all about. Unfortunately Pernod Ricard has not yet seen the potential of Olmeca Altos in Denmark.
But this we all knew, so what is it that is cooking. Olmeca Altos has just partnered up with Tequila ambassador Tomas Estes, and will become a priority brand in his restaurants, Pacifico & La Perla. According to the brand, Estes works closely with the Mexican National Tequila Chamber and has “contributed to the growing success of Tequila globally”, which I think we can all agree on. So what does it mean to be a priority brand, well in this case it means, customer awareness, new cocktail menu, staff uniforms and a mural in the restaurant. Olivier Fages, international vice president of Olmeca, said: “Olmeca Altos is already available in many top-end outlets in the UK, and this partnership will enable us to target new consumers in a cocktail environment, while feeding into our ambitious plans for continued growth in Europe.”
Estes said: “With the increased demand for high quality 100% agave Tequilas, the addition of Olmeca Altos to their [Olmeca] portfolio in 2009 was an exciting phase for the brand, and has established them as a preferred choice within the bartender community.
“Working closely with Olmeca’s cocktail experts Henry Besant, Matthias Lataille and Steffin Oghene, we look forward to creating a series of drinks for our menu that will perfectly compliment the wonderful qualities of Olmeca Altos as well as creating stimulating, educational activities around tequila.”
Which naturally leads us on to the next topic, Matthias Lataille who Pernod Ricard recently appointed UK brand ambassador for Olmeca Altos. (Congrats Brother!)
Lataille said: “Since joining The Tahona Society team, I have been raising awareness of the tequila category internationally and the unique qualities of Olmeca Altos.
“In this new role, I will focus on the vibrant UK cocktail scene and take Altos to the next level, through continued education of the category.
Hopefully this also raises awareness for Altos in Denmark. Our neighbours in Sweden are on it, so I guess it is a matter of time, bring it on! And until you do I guess I have to spend more time wanting to open the Altos Repo I have standing on my shelf at home, signed by master distiller Jesus Hernandez. One of the many treasures I got hold of this summer. This one was a gift from Matthias, gracias!
Salud!
And Another One Bites The Dust
There was a time, not long ago, that Don Julio Tequilas were revered as THE Tequila of Tequilas throughout most of Mexico’s upper-echelon consumers. The bottle, the image, the name, the tequila in itself were all one step above everyone else. I got invited back to the homes of a few families during my trips to Mexico, and if they wanted to impress, there was a bottle of Don Julio Reposado on the table.
Now, history has a tendency to repeat itself, and the Gonzalez family (now with their own brand, Reserva de los Gonzalez) walked out of a long time mission with Don Julio and sold the brand to foreign interests.
Don Julio Tequila is named after its founder, Don Julio González-Frausto Estrada, who began distilling tequila in 1942 at the age of 17. Acknowledging the benefits of vertical integration (In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or (market-specific) service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need.), Gonzalez-Frausto established his own distillery, La Primavera, and spent the next 40 years improving his craft. In 1985 Don Julio González-Frausto celebrated his 60th Birthday, and his sons gave him the greatest gift of all. A Tequila perfected over many years carrying his own name, Don Julio. Guests at the party asked if it would be available for sale. The word spread and before they knew it, the demand from Guadalajara and neighbouring cities became so big it made the choice very simple. Don Julio launched in 1987 and set the standard for all Tequilas in this category of style. It is considered to be the worlds first Luxury Tequila. Before this Tequila was considered a poor mans drink.
In 1999 the now defunct, The Seagram Company Ltd., had invested in Don Julio Tequila. The expanded agave plantations were a joint venture between the Gonzalez-Frausto, Funtanet, Andrade Rivera Torres, and Cuaik families. In 1999 Don Julio Gonzalez, delighted to forge a relationship with Seagram, stated, “I am proud that the Gonzalez-Frausto family joins with the Seagram family in a global effort behind Don Julio Tequila. I am committed to overseeing personally the agave plantations that are so vital to the superior and unique quality of the Tequila that bears my name.” Following the liquidation of The Seagram Company, Diageo PLC decided to acquire all the Don Julio brand in 2005 for 29,300 million Mexican Pesos or 2.2 million USD at time of sale and an undisclosed share swap to the Gonzalez-Frausto family for Diageo stock.
This brings us to Tales of the Cocktail that happened a couple of weeks ago, where Don Julio introduced their new product Don Julio 70 Anejo Claro. A revolutionary new technique called filtering is introduced, which basically takes all the color away from the Anejo, hence the “claro”. Why this is made is beyond my understanding. Filtering comes with a price, in this case, that price is flavour. The “70” stands for the 70 year anniversary of La Primavera distillery. So if I get this right, to celebrate 70 years of tradition, they make something very untraditional and completely without purpose. Well not completely without purpose, the price-tag went from around $40 to $70, so obviously someone is getting something out of it.
” Tequila Don Julio 70 originated from Master Distiller Enrique de Colsa’s special reserve and is being launched in honor of the 70th anniversary of the year Don Julio González began perfecting the art of tequila making. To create this unique masterpiece tequila, Tequila Don Julio hand selects the finest blue agave plants at the peak of their maturity. The agave is then hand harvested and twice distilled at La Primavera, the distillery founded by Don Julio González. Tequila Don Julio 70 is aged to perfection in reclaimed American white oak barrels for 18 months, then carefully filtered for extra smoothness and its unique clarity.” – Tequila.net
If you ask me, that is a load of bullshit. Salud Tequila Blanco!
Ocho Is here!
What better day to get a bottle of Ocho (spanish for eight) than on June 8th? Actually I got a sneak peek at the Ocho 2010 Los Mangos Blanco last night but from today Ocho will be available via my dear friends at Juuls Vinhandel. But let us get down to business, what is Ocho and what makes it special? Well, Ocho is a joint venture between Tomas Estes, the ambassador of Tequila in Europe and the Camarena family, who also produces Tapatio, El Tesoro and recently Excellia. What makes Tequila Ocho special is that they only harvest agaves from one field (rancho) at a time. Every field is different and have different characteristics, the french term for this as I am sure most of you know is Terroir. Terroir is used to describe the natural elements that have an effect on agriculture, notably grapes grown for wine production. These elements include, soil composition, altitude, temperatures day and night through the year, rain fall, humidity and exposition to sun and winds.
It is becoming more and more agreed upon that the concept of terroir also exists with the growing of agave and the Tequila made from it. In Jalisco, the largest Tequila producing state of Mexico there are two large regions of agave and Tequila production, the Tequila Valley and Los Altos (The Highlands). As a general guideline, it is said that Tequilas made from agaves from Tequila Valley are masculine, forward in flavour with an earthy, peppery, herbal taste profile. The Tequilas made from agaves grown in Los Altos are feminine, softer, rounder, more fruity and floral. Remember that this is a guideline, as in not always correct, and never a statement of quality. Tequila Ocho takes the exploration of ‘terroir’ in tequila one giant step beyond by producing batches of Tequila from single fields (ranchos) much the way fine Burgundy wine is produced.
The process of making Ocho is somewhat more similar to the concept of making Mezcal, in the sense that the process it not stressed in any way. There is simply no shortcuts to get the full flavor of the agave. This said there are quite a few Tequila producers out there doing the real deal. When I went to La Altena, the distillery of Tapatio and El Tesoro, we also took a tour down to what was to become La Esmeralda, the distillery of Ocho. When I was there it was pretty mych an empty shell, the holes were digged out for the two tahonas (stone mills). There is something very powerful about a distillery that is not functioning. I have only seen two, La Providencia in Arenal and La Esmeralda in Arandas, somehow it is very easy to imagine the history of what has been and what is to come when you stand there. Big gaps between walls, sand blowing around, the empty echoes and completely surrounded by agaves. Very peaceful.
The funny thing about the Tequila industry is that no matter what people tell you, there is always another story. La Esmeralda never started making Ocho, but was instead the phantom distillery for Ocho. Why? La Altena was on a contract not to make another Tequila that could compete with El Tesoro in the states. Ones the contract finished, the official story could slowly, very slowly make it out into the world. I have met many people in the Tequila industry involved with Ocho one way or another, and not many people seem to know that La Altena is the distillery producing Ocho. Theese are words from Tomas Estes himself, so let us put that in the pile or reliable sources. “I think La Esmeralda was the phantom distillery you were shown. It is now in operation making some of the best ever juice to come out of los altos. -Tomas”
I will make a short introduction to what Rancho Los Mangos is and why it gives such a special flavour. Rancho “Los Mangos” is close to Michoacan along the Rio Lerma. It is dry and very hot in summer and has brown soil similar to that in the Tequila Valley. The ranch is surrounded by mountains. The Camarena Family used to go from Arandas to Rancho Los Mangos for week-end holidays and Sunday lunches. The one and a half hour drive is beautiful going through mountains , quaint villages and agave fields planted on the hillsides. Just before arriving at “Los Mangos” the soil is absolutely black in colour. Before being planted in agave (for the first time with this harvest) this land grew mangos and cherries. Some of these trees are left but not many. The rancho belonged to Carlos and Felipe’s great grandfather, Refucio Curiel. Carlos planted agave on his uncle’s land in 2000 making the age of the agaves 9 years old at harvest. Average weight of the pinas was 47-48kilos with some being over 85kilos with an average sugar content of 29-30%, industry average being 26%. Altitude is 1600 meters and this ranch is the furthest away from Arandas of all of the Camarena’s ranches being in Ayotlan County which is part of the Los Altos de Jalisco.
To those of you who still are interested and want to know more about the production of Ocho, do not worrie, just keep on reading. If not, then you should have a very good base to stand on.
Cooking:
Piñas are cut in half on the ‘patio’ after arriving to distillery directly from the fields. The cogollos (center) are removed from the male plants as they will add a bitterness. The halved piñas are cooked at low heat (around 80-85 degress Celsius) for 48 hours and sit in the oven for an additional 24 hours (total 72 hours in oven). By cooking slowly at such low heat, the Camarena’s are insuring that the sugars do not get burned and thus caramelized. The juice that results from the first 12 hours cooking is called ‘bitter honey’ and is discarded (it contains dirt from the agaves’ exterior surfaces as well as some of the agaves waxy green coating, which would impart bitterness to the final product).
Milling:
The cooked agaves are then passed through a mill and sprayed with spring water to extract the remaining juices. The mill effectively mills or shreds the agave fiber and strips it of most remaining juice.
The resulting juice or nectar from the above two processes is known as ‘agua miel’.
Before going to the fermentation tanks, the agua miel will have spring water added to it in order to reduce the brix level so the yeast will be able to ferment properly. The ideal brix level for the agua miel to be reduced to for fermentation is about 9%.
Fermentation:
Fermentation takes place in small (around 3,000 liters capacity) wooden vats (most distilleries have large, stainless steel). Fermentation lasts between 4-5 days (96-120 hours), depending on the season. Fermentation is all natural, using no added accelerators, chemicals, enzymes, or even yeast. Fermentation is ‘wild’ using natural yeast in the air. The mosto is kept at a temperature of about 35° C, a good temperature for the yeast. At the end of fermentation the mosto muerto will be pumped into the still for the first distillation.
Distillation:
The first distillation takes place in a 3,300 liter stainless steel still. The still is heated very slowly (using steam running through a coil). The first distillation will be relatively quick (1-2 hours maybe), and the alcohol coming out of it will be about 25% abv. and is known as ordinario. To be called tequila it must be (at least) twice distilled (and be between 35-55% abv). The distillers cut the heads and tails from the distillate, which ends up being about 5% of the ordinario. The heads will be re-used for the second distillation, because they contain superior alcohols (very high abv. Content) and will thus evaporate and pass through the still first, acting as a cleaning for the still since the last thing to pass through would have been the tails of the last distillation, which contain harmful elements (ie. Methanol).
The second distillation takes place in a very small copper still (300 liters) and will take about 4 hours to complete. The still is quickly heated to 65°C and then the steam is nearly shut off, only being allowed to very slowly heat the still. The tequila will start coming out of the still when the still reaches the temp. of about 78°C and will contain a high level of alcohol (about 76%) AND FLAVOR. The first 5 liters (about) are removed (heads). Once the still’s heat gets up to 91-92°C, the liquid coming out of the still is barely alcoholic and has a somewhat unpleasant taste. At this point the liquid coming out the still is deemed to be tails and is cut.
By distilling Ocho so slowly, the Camarenas are insuring that no harmful elements end up in their tequila.
After the second distillation (at which point the tequila is about 48% abv.) the tequila will be brought down to proof (40% abv.) using demineralized spring water. Most other tequila brands distill to 55% abv. Tequila Ocho (blanco) is then stored in stainless steel vats until bottling.
The Ocho destined to become Reposado will put in barrels (ex-bourbon; either Jack Daniel’s, Jim Beam, or Wild Turkey) to age for 8 weeks 8 days (just four days over the minimum (60 days) by Mexican law).
The Añejo is aged for one year exactly (El Vergel Añejo was one year one day, because the CRT could not make it on the right day!).
So now you know. Salud Amigos!
It’s All About The Worm
Speaking of the backside to commercialisation of Mezcal, I guess in a way here is another one. When Sammy Hagar back in the day launched Cabo Wabo Tequila, it was for the right reason. To show people that Tequila does not need to one with a side of lime and salt. Cabo Wabo definitely changed a lot the way Americans drink Tequila today and is to my standards a very enjoyable Tequila. However, the drinks industry is a lot like ladies in a way, always comes with an ugly friend. This time that friend is Toby Keith who tells us about his love affair with Mezcal.
“I remember going across the border when I first started playing around Brownsville [Texas] and Las Cruces [New Mexico],” Toby tells The Boot. “When I crossed into those border towns of Laredo and Juarez, and walked into that first cantina, it was just fascinating to me. You remember in the movie ‘Urban Cowboy,’ when Scott Glenn’s character turned that bottle up and put his tongue in it and let the worm fall down and then got the worm out of there?” Toby continues. “That was very authentic Texas border stuff that went on. Outside of the border states you wouldn’t have seen much mezcal.”
The story goes on and Toby explains that he got inspired by his good friend Sammy Hagar, and now wants to do for Mezcal whay Sammy did for Tequila. The downside here is, if you do not know the background and tradition to where your product comes from, it is very easy to do it wrong. For starters, ask any Mezcal producer about the worm, and they will deny that it has anything to do with the real deal. Simply a marketing scam to try to sell the stuff Mexicans wont drink. So lime and salt becomes a worm. This time though, I think enthusiast around the world are one step ahead. We are already teaching people how to enjoy Mezcal the right way, and hopefully they wont have it when the one with the worm hits the bars. But bad things tend to happen very quickly and good things builds up slowly. Put your foot down and do not accept the one with the worm, no matter what Toby Keith sings or says about it.
Para todo mal, Mezcal y para todo bien tambien. Salud!
Cinco De mayo
Fifth of May or as we more commonly know it, Cinco de Mayo, is when Tequila heads around the world goes nuts. Bring out your best sombrero and all the other tacky mexican decorations we get in Europe and last but not least, a shit load of Tequila, the more the better. In Copenhagen this day has for the last few years been celebrated quite hard in the bar community. Most people don’t really know why, but it is a reason as good as any for getting hammered on Tequila. This year though, I could not be a part of the tradition in Copenhagen, but even better I got to spend it with some of my close friends in London. I knew that ment trouble from the moment we planned this trip. Not only was it Cinco de Mayo, but also holiday, you know what that means. Go all out!
I started that day with a bit of Tequila shopping, thought i would take advantage of the situation. No time to spill so we had the first Tequila at 2pm at Hawksmoor Seven Dials. A glass of Altos Reposado and a few beers later we went across the road to Cafe Pacifico where Matthias Lataille prepared for us to blind taste nine different Tequilas. Four blanco’s and five reposado’s. We were instructed to taste them one by one and write down the first three things that came to mind, and try to be as specific as possible. When we had tried all of them, we played a guessing game, what is highland and what is lowland, given general guide lines of highlands being more fruity and lowland being more earthy. Looking at what we wrote down, this made everything more confusing. And this whole exercise was much harder than is sounds, but much fun. I learnt some great things about my palate, mainly that after 2 days of hard-drinking, I shouldn’t trust it.
After a great session we hit the bar for some guacamole and beers and decided to hit La Perla for pitchers of margarita followed but great food at Wahaca in Soho. Plates of food kept coming and so did the Tequila, but there was something missing, a bottle of Del Maguey Mezcal for dessert and the party was on. We ended the night at El Camion, Dick Bradsels new Tequila joint. After a few drinks and some shady dance moves, I remember thinking, this is it, no more, so I bought a bottle of Altos Blanco, everything after that is blank.
So why do we celebrate Cinco de Mayo again? Well long story short, in 1861 Mexico stopped paying interest on loans the Mexican government had accepted from a bunch of European countries, they obviously got pissed off, and said, but why? And went across the Atlantic to claim their money back. The easiest way to claim money back is to threaten the poor Mexican with the biggest weapons available. But on the 5th of May 1862 the Mexicans stood up to the French troops and pushed them out of Puebla, and it was all good. Well, not really the troops joined forces and went to Mexico City instead and occupied the presidents throne, and just like that the emperor of Mexico was french. Until 1867 when Benito Juarez, the president of Mexico at the time, got tired of the french emperor, killed him and sent all the french home, so there you go, the story of Cinco de Mayo in my very own words.
Salud!
Winning Photograph!
And the winner is…
Merlin Jerebine from 1806/Melbourne Agave Society. This lovely picture simply symbolises the joy of being behind the stick in a true Tequila Bar. The bar on the picture for those who do not know is Green & Red (RIP), London. Well Merlin, send me your address and become the proud owner of a calendar filled with naked men!
Salud!
Tres Mariachis 