Tequila

Surely you’re thinking, “Come on! Nobody can survive 16 days of vacation on 11 beers!” You’re right. We were also drinking margaritas. I haven’t been much of a tequila drinker since I had a bad experience drinking shots about 30 years ago at the Fiesta de Santa Fe. I remember finding my clogs down the block from my house the next day... Not that I’m proud of it. Compared to beer, tequila takes up less room on a boat. And we do like the occasional margarita.

We started out from Bahia de los Angeles with a bottle of El Jimador 100% agave tequila and a bottle of margarita mix. Because tequila and margarita mix come packaged in glass, we have to store them in our aluminum dry box, our “kitchen” effectively. And when they’re gone, they still have to reside in the dry box until we get to someplace we can throw them away. Back in Bay of LA for our first resupply, I figured we’d better do limes instead of margarita mix. One less bottle to deal with. And the limes can go in the lazarette. At that point, we also had to economize. We had a limited supply of cash on hand, and the nearest ATM was a 6-hour round-trip drive. At the Mercado Xitlali, there are no price tags on anything, which makes it hard to keep track of your pending grocery bill. A whole long shelf in the market was dedicated to tequila, but I couldn’t tell how much any of them cost. I asked the guy at the counter if he could advise me about the tequila. He turned around and said, uncertainly, “Uh, yeah, sure,” as I realized he was about 14. I asked him what the best tequila was. He didn’t know but a lady at the register hollered, "Cazadores!" I asked the kid if he could scan some bottles and give me prices. Sure thing, lady. I started out with the well-known and popular El Patron Plata. 950 pesos ($82). Yikes! Our total cash reserve was only 1500 pesos ($129). Then I tried El Jimador. 220 pesos ($19). Hornitos. 240 pesos ($21). La Cantina (in a navy blue bottle with a picture of some bandidos on the label). 150 pesos ($13). Now we’re talking! I took a bottle of La Cantina and a bottle of Hornitos. And a ton of limes. And 32 beers (see above). At that point, we didn’t have enough money left to pay for our laundry, let alone a slush fund in case we found anyplace along the way to spend it. We resigned ourselves to the 6-hour round-trip drive to Guerrero Negro. But not before asking one more person, Kayaker John, if there was a closer ATM. 

John couldn’t help but spark some interest in us. Graham McIntosh, in his book “Marooned with Very Little Beer,” gave him a whole chapter. John is an American, who spends part of the year boating in California and part of the year boating in Baja. In California, he works as an instructor and guide for Current Adventures kayak school. He’s a former high school and college track star and a former member of the US Wildwater Team. He’s a talented paddler, a winner of many kayak races, a veteran of numerous solo crossings of the Sea of Cortes, and generous with his hard-won experience. We just happened to land, the day we arrived in Bahia de los Angeles, in the palapa in front of John’s at Daggett’s Camp. While we were digging around in the boat for our camping gear, he came over to compliment us on our choice of boat. He was familiar with Drascombes and knew exactly what we had and what we could do with it. We got into a long discussion, which continued through the next couple of days, about the wind and the waves and the risks, the satisfaction of traveling by boat, the sites to see, and the people we might meet. We talked about Graham MacIntosh and other kayakers and sailors he’d helped out along the way. And party-hardy kayakers who blew him off  and then got caught in a westerly and died. And how he had to go find the boats and the bodies. John gave us a lot of suggestions that we took seriously. He also lent us $300. That meant we didn’t have to go to Guerrero Negro for cash. Thanks, John.

After we got back  home, I decided to find out what quality tequila we were drinking. I knew I liked Hornitos a little better than El Jimador. Both made a dandy margarita. La Cantina was fine in a margarita, but it wasn’t much straight up. Heckuva throat burn. After we ran out of margarita mix, and left behind the Controy orange liquer (that would be Cointreau in French) for lack of space, we discovered we could make a fine Baja margie with tequila, lime juice, and Mexican mesquite honey.  Of course, we didn’t have any ice cubes so we drank them ambient temperature. When we ran out of honey, we mixed up Vermont margies, with maple syrup. Good enough to drink at home. We’ve even taken to using Agave Nectar for sweetening, which seems even more appropriate than mesquite honey.

 

I found a site online called tequila.net where the site editors and consumers rate tequilas. Before I could make sense of the ratings, I had to learn something about tequila, especially about the different kinds of tequila. First off, all genuine tequila comes from the province of Jalisco, principally, as well as some municipalities in Nayarit, Guanajuato, Michoacan, and Tamaulipas. The production of tequila is regulated, like wine, to protect the appellation of origin. On all bottles of genuine tequila, there is a number with the letters “NOM” in front of it. This number is a unique, government regulated distillery number. Tequila is made from blue agave. If the bottle does not say tequila 100% de agave or tequila 100% puro de agave, then it’s tequila mixto, and cane sugar has been substituted for up to 49% of the natural agave sugars. Tequila also comes in five different grades or classes: blanco (white, silver, or platinum); oro (gold); reposado (aged); añejo (well-aged); and extra añejo (ultra aged). Blanco is the blue agave spirit in its purest form. It's clear and typically aged for no more than a few months to smooth it out. Oro is typically mixto with colorants and flavorings added prior to bottling; it’s used for bar drinks (Jose Cuervo Gold). Reposado is aged in wood barrels or storage tanks from 2-11 months. The spirit takes on a golden color and the taste balance between agave and wood flavors. Some tequilas are aged in used bourbon whiskey, cognac, or wine barrels, and inherit unique flavors from the previous spirit. Añejo is aged for two years, which darkens the tequila to an amber color, and the flavor becomes smoother, richer, and more complex. Extra añejo is aged for three years and is richer, darker, smoother, and more complex.

How did our tequila choices stack up? Both El Jimador and Hornitos are considered by tequila drinkers to be good tequila, fine for margaritas. El Jimador scored an 87. Hornitos scored an 86. We brought back some bottles of Antiguo Reposado 100% de agave by Herradura. It’s rated a 90. La Cantina wasn’t rated, but I’d give it a 90 for the label alone. Actually, La Cantina must be a tequila mixto because nowhere does it say tequila 100% de agave. In fact, it doesn’t even carry a NOM number, although I do find the distillery in the NOM listing. I guess it’s just a cheap bottle of booze. Whuddya expect for 13 bucks? El Patron silver rates an 85, and consumers thought it was overhyped. Locally, a bottle costs $40-50. I think Mercado Xitlali was fishing for some dumb gringo to shell out $82.