You say Tequila, I say Mezcal

Mezcal Tour, Oaxaca State, Mexico

The people of Oaxaca are very proud of their traditions, many of which are unique within Mexico. Mole (there are 7 kinds), and mezcal are two of the better-known ones. We decided to take a full day tour of several palenques (the places where they make mezcal) with a local expert, a gringo who has lived in Oaxaca for a long time and devoted his “retirement” to spreading the mezcal gospel.

About Mezcal:

Mezcal is made in 9 specific regions of Mexico: Oaxaca, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, Michoacan, and Puebla.  Oaxaca is the center of the mezcal world, responsible for 85% of all mezcals.

First, a quick description. Mezcal is a distilled spirit made from a wide possible array of agaves. The predominant variety of agave used is espadín, in part because of its shorter growing period (~8 years vs. 15 years) and its higher carbohydrate content, so it takes 12-15 kg (~30 lbs) of espadín hearts to make 1 liter of mezcal, compared to maybe 30 kg (~60 lbs) of variety tobalá.

Long day of tasting...just starting!

SO – the more familiar tequila is a mezcal, but made only from 1 species of agave, agave tequilana, or Weber blue agave, and it takes only 7 kg to yield 1 liter. If you get mezcal in a US bar or store, it may say 100% maguey, rather than agave. As best we understand, maguey is just another, maybe Zapotec-based word for agave.

Our tour:

Horno earth oven

Our trip started at 8:30 am, when 19 of us piled into a large van and headed south, to the heart of mezcal production in Oaxaca. Our first stop was at the palenque of Felix Ángeles Arellanes, in Santa Catarina Minas. Señor Arellanes uses very traditional methods which comprise cooking the piñas (the agave heart which looks like a pineapple,) in a horno, (in-ground oven 6 feet deep by 10 feet wide) for five days to convert starches to sugars for fermentation, then after allowing it to “rest” (ferment / mold for a few days,) crushing the roasted piñas either by hand with a very large wooden bat, or using a horse to pull a large millstone, called a tahona, in a circular mill.

piñas, machete shown for scale

horse working a tahona

The crushed, roasted sweet piñas are then put in wooden vats, fiber and all, and water is added. This mash naturally ferments until the alcohol is about 7-10% ABV (alcohol by volume). The resulting liquid is then distilled over a hardwood fire, twice, in small batches, in large-ish clay pots to around 50-55% ABV –  mezcal! (Some use a 300-liter copper stills instead of clay.)

Our tasting begins...yes, gas cans

Agave plants are slow-growing taking 7-18 years to mature. Some are small and close to the ground, others several feet across and several feet tall, still others grow more yucca-like and have a tall longish trunk. On our tour, we tasted “single agave” products from 16 different varieties – cuixe , madrecuixe, espadin, carne, cerrudo, blanco, arroqueno, coyote, barril, tobasi, tobasiche, tobala, tripon, tepeztate, mexicano and jabali – plus several blends. That can cause palate fatigue!

We had no idea there were so many…and they propagate 3 different ways. #1: via a sprout coming from the roots of an existing plant, called a hijuelo (little son). These hijuelos are clones of the mother plant, so do not add to genetic diversity. This is how most agave tequiliana plants are developed, which puts tequila in the crosshairs of being a serious monoculture.

method #3

#2: seeds from a one-time-only stalk, which looks like a giant asparagus, and can be 20 feet tall. It will open and flower, which is pollinated by bats and birds, and will result in seeds.

 #3: the stalk will eventually have small sprouts that can be cut from the stalk and planted.

Generally, the stalk is not allowed to grow since it uses a lot of plant energy, resulting in less convertible starches in the piña.

Chicken breasts used in pechuga

One interesting twist – pechuga mezcal. Pechuga is the word for breast, as in chicken breast, and somewhere along the line, no one is sure when, a raw chicken breast was hung just inside the clay pot still where it was steamed by the distillation process. We sampled several pechugas, and they seemed to have a slightly softer mouth feel. But it doesn’t taste like chicken! In fact, warm spices and fruit are usually added that make it a bit "christmasy" tasting.

Sales & Marketing

An interesting difference with mezcal (and tequila) versus something like bourbon is that the time to market may be similar – ~7 years– but the reason is inverted. For mezcal, you are waiting for the plant to mature, whereas with bourbon, the inputs are readily available at any time but the aging process after distillation causes the wait.

Mezcal sales growth rate, ~40%, each of the past 6 or so years has led all distilled spirits – albeit starting from a small base. This demand has pushed prices for piña from maybe 400 pesos per tonne 10-12 years ago to 15,000 pesos, or more. It has also made theft a problem for growing areas. Our guide mentioned having 250 plants stolen in one night. Imagine the loss if you are a small farmer who has been waiting 7 years for a harvest, only to have it stolen!

mucho mezcal

It was a very interesting tour, and we returned bearing 2 bottles at “direct from the palenquero” prices!  This, believe it or not, is the “short version” of this story. For the “full geek” version, contact us.

If you are in Oaxaca and want to seriously taste mezcal...Alvin Starkman can be found at: https://www.mezcaleducationaltours.com/

(24 noviembre 2018)

Headed to Oaxaca

Oaxaca, Mexico

October, November 2018

Mole at the grocery store

We’re going to start out with an apology -- not usually a great move on a blog, but gotta ‘fess up. Our last post was in SEPTEMBER about our August trip back NOB. Geez. In our defense, we will blame (in this order) the terrible internet where we were staying at Lake Chapala; Linda being busy with work (yes, still); and packing everything up (again) to move on to our next spot…Oaxaca! (“wah-ha’-kah”) 

Yes, potato salad

We arrived just before the Dias de Muertos (because it’s really multiple days) to Oaxaca City. They really do it big here, lots of events, decorations, celebrations. And tourists!

We went on a tour of 3 cemeteries around the city that night (November 2) – it was really interesting to see the differences in each.  At all of them, though, families were “tailgating” at their family graves – eating, some laughing or playing music, some more somber.

Oaxaca is a hot (as in trendy, though it can also be spicy too) food destination and so we took both a street food introduction and a cooking class to learn about another of the 7 moles – Mole Amarillo. Just prior to our trip, a Mexicana friend taught us how to make a Mole Verde as well, though we had a debate with the cooking class teacher about whether or not pepitas should be included! (ah, regional differences…) We have since had more moles, so that only leaves Chichilo and Manchamantel to go. (The others are Negro, Rojo, and Coloradito for those of you keeping score at home.) 

grilled octopus!

famous chapulines (grasshoppers)

The food is GREAT here. We’ve found fantastic bread, cheese, restaurants and street food. And the Oaxacan hot chocolate -- who needs milk?

Amazing Pan de Madre

Not polynesian tikis! 

There are lots of museums here (historical, textile, modern art, pre-hispanic art, stamps – yes stamps) and we have tried to see them all during our month in this diverse city of 300,000.

Great Textile Museum

Looks Japanese, but it's not! It's Zapotec!

In the state of Oaxaca, more than a million people speak at least one indigenous language, with 48% having some indigenous blood. There are 16 formal indigenous peoples, with the largest being Zapotecs and Mixtecs, who have been here since 2000 BCE. We went to the amazing ruins at Monte Alban, which functioned from 500 BCE 750 ACE.

Sasquatch stalking Monte Alban

We also saw the symphony for free, (thank you, Mexico!) which was really only so we could get in to see the Teatro Macedonio Alcala!

the ceiling art...pin up girls?

For Thanksgiving! Pre-hispanic art

And make no mistake this is nothing like our “villages” by Lake Chapala. There are more tourists, traffic, and noise (the cohetes and bands go around the clock when there is a party here!) And people are just not as likely to say “hola” to you here. There are many fewer gringos here, so we ARE speaking more Spanish!

We are staying in a very budget-friendly apartment which is technically in Oaxaca central, but to get to the main attractions it is almost a mile walk. The good news is that we are getting more exercise this way. If we come back, we would stay closer in, or to the north of centro.

learning about mezcal

Next up: a mezcal tour going to the farms in the mountains, a day tour of small villages in the mountains where there are many artisans, (weaving, pottery, and alejibres, the hand-carved, brightly painted creatures most recently featured in Pixar’s Coco.) At the end of November, we will be moving to the Oaxaca coast for about a month, (Puerto Escondido and Hualtulco,). And we promise we’ll post in a more timely manner!  

(22 noviembre 2018) 

Back in the USSA - August 2018

NOB (North of Border), United States of America

Our youngest son, James (aka Sunny Jim) got married on August 10 to a lovely young lady he has known for 10 years. Her name was Mattie Cardenaz, and is now Mattie Magers (a surprise to us). So Mark will no longer be the only M-Squared in the family!

They had a civil ceremony at the San Luis Obispo County Courthouse, officiated by a nice lady who works for the County. The service was lovely, short and to the point, with a concise and helpful messages, rather than platitudes. The kids also read their own statements to each other, and they were awesome. Many Kleenex were passed about. They were full of sound reasons why they were friends, why they love each other and wanted to get married. And only $149! Wisely, they want to spend money not on flowers, site rentals, and rubber chicken, but instead on travel to broaden their perspectives, and their relationship. We all know that traveling with another person teaches you a lot, and builds memories and bonds that can be lasting. Well played, kids! 





We’ll be writing a separate post on the “doings” during the trip, as we wanted to concentrate on the topic of “compare and contrast.” 

We have now been in Mexico for 10 months, mas o menos, and as we were counting down to the trip, a number of our friends in Mexico were asking us to keep track of our reactions to being back in the USSA (aka NOB or North of Border) after almost a year away. So this is a recounting of those reactions and observations. Our brief peregrination included Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Mountain View, Oakland (all CA) then to Seattle and Othello, WA. 

An easy and obvious observation is that everything was in, duh… English. For the first few days we caught ourselves saying por favor and gracias to almost everyone! We both found that being able to exchange banter in English that was not two steps from the Berlitz “Travel Spanish” booklet was kind of refreshing. It’s not that we don’t speak a lot of English in Mexico, but a goal here is to learn Spanish. So, Mark says "At least speaking for myself...I have no good gift of gab to use there, and since bullsh*tting and bad puns are a key part of my personality, I notice it. Small thing, but there it is."

Now THAT'S a pastrami sandwich!

A bigger deal was food (and drink). We had a list for LA that included pastrami ruebens (is that redundant?), garlic noodles in San Gabriel at Jonathan Gold’s favorite spot (RIP, Jonathan), and visits to the Tiki-Ti and a refurbished tiki bar inside Clifton’s Seven Seas in downtown LA. We had 24 hours to do this, so the reubens (and Tiki-Ti of course) won out, and thank Yahweh for that. We went to the venerable Canter’s, and shared a reuben and a bowl of matzo ball soup. The matzo ball was slightly larger than a baseball, the broth appropriately schmaltzy. Then there was the pastrami. Mark called it a Shark Week experience, as at the first bite his eyes rolled back in his head. Later, on our trip north, we stopped in Ventura and had some excellent wine, clam chowder and sand dabs. Same thing, not much talking, just a lot of “OMG-this-is-awesome” muttering between bites. 

Tiki Ti on Sunset, LA

What else was a surprise? Homeless people were very conspicuous in the US, almost everywhere. Encampments under the highways, street and cardboard sign people at many, not just some, stoplight intersections. Mexico is in general much poorer than the US, of course, but we see much less overall of such situations here. There may be many reasons for this difference, but it was quite a contrast for us.

Morning commute, Highway 24

What else did we notice? Well, driving in 6 lanes each direction at 80 mph came back to Mark pretty easily, but he has “slowed his roll” a lot since moving south. We were just not (generally) in such a hurry. Roads NOB are universally in better condition, though learning to see and avoid potholes in Oakland for 20 years is still a skill rewarded daily in Mexico! The US streets were also cleaner, and little things like curbs, noticeable. Curbs put a crimp in the “Drive Like a Mexican” (sung to the tune of “Walk Like an Egyptian”),  since you can’t easily just pull over, reverse direction, pass on the right, change your mind, etc. People NOB are much more likely to obey signs and lights, stick with rules about when it is safe to pass, while in Mexico these things are considered suggestions. 

Oh, Boy! Oberto!

How about the selection of consumer goods in the retail environment? Geez. We walked into a Target store and were reminded of something daughter Susannah said at age 3, when Aunt Glenda came to visit for a few days and was unpacking – “whoa, look at all this stuff!” We are accustomed to an aisle where the mayo is stocked, even in a large Walmart, with 3 choices, all same brand, 2 plain mayo in 2 sizes plus one more “con limon,” as an example. There may be a couple of 8-foot shelves for it but there is still a limited selection. Not a problem, just different. And that said, we definitely filled our suitcases with stuff we can’t easily get down south, like: chocolate from Divine, Dilettante and Boehms, wine from Turley and New Zealand, meat products from Oberto..... 

The ubiquity of traffic snarls in both California & Washington was not a surprise, but quickly had us wondering how so many people can fit in one town. In Mexico, traffic problems are sometimes caused by too many cars, but as likely it’s a dead animal in the road (from dogs to horses,) or a road repair that will likely be repeated in the same area in another 6-9 months, in part due to budget and in part due to la ley de chamba. [Chamba is a slang term for paying work, and the phrase basically means if something is permanently fixed, there will be no paying work from it in the future. This link provides a great example,  one involving woodpeckers and telephone poles.  (Not intended to be cynical, it's Mexican slang, not ours!)]

Worth the price?

Not so much a surprise, more a reminder that one of our reasons to explore “geo-arbitrage”, was how much things cost in the USSA. Granted, we were generally in some of the most expensive places in the US, but prices felt astronomical after 10 months in Mexico. A martini NOB costs somewhere between $10-14 (we have several data points from this trip). At $12, that is roughly 220 pesos. At Lake Chapala, a martini is somewhere between 45-65 pesos. Granted, Plymouth Gin is superior to Oso Negro, but not 4X better. Exceptions, a McDonald’s cheeseburger (which we did miss, admittedly). At about 30 pesos, you can’t touch that in Mexico, but the alternative here is a couple of good al pastor tacos for under 20 pesos, a fair offset. And yes, when we bought almost anything in the US we converted the price to pesos and asked “is it really worth that many pesos?” 

Warm spirit of Mexico

Another contrast we noticed is the insularity of many Americans, which Mexicans read as being cold and/or unfriendly. This may be a generality or regional thing, but we are accustomed now to saying “hola, buenos dias” to almost everyone we encounter, known to us or not. In restaurants in Mexico when passing a table still eating we often say, and have said to us (though less likely as we are clearly gringos,) buen provecho! (aka bon appetit) Why can’t Americans be as friendly to everyone? 

Seeing family and friends made us both happy and sad, reminding us that it is more infrequent. Being away also reminded us why we chose Mexico, which felt like home when we got back. Viva Mexico!

(25 de agosto de 2018) (Sorry for the delay, tech and work conspired)

Fiesta de San Antonio

San Antonio Tlayacpan, Jalisco, Mexico

The town we live in here on Lake Chapala is called San Antonio Tlayacapan. As we’ve likely said before, many of the towns around here have a compound name – a Spanish / Catholic saint, and a indigenous Nahuatl name associated with the town. Tlayacapan means, more or less, “the limits of the earth” – a lot more interesting than Saint Anthony. There is another Tlayacapan in Morelos state (we are in Jalisco) that is known among other things for being the filming location of Two Mules for Sister Sara. Our town is more known for the Walmart here.

Our hometown Walmart

San Antonio’s saint day is June 13, and like all such days in Mexico, there is a novena (9 days of events) leading up to the main event. It was pretty low key here, marked mostly by the ubiquitous cohetes launched every morning around 6 am. 

Yay, cohetes!

 We decided to take in the events on the final day, and are very glad we did. Along with the cohetes, there was a parade that started about 6 pm. Local lore says that the rainy season starts with an initial shower on the evening of the saint’s day – this time, the shower came earlier in the afternoon, but not bad timing!

The parade started at the east edge of town, and came down the main highway (2 lanes) in town – aka the Carreterra. This road is the main artery between Chapala and Ajijic, and is usually quite busy. But this was a desfile (parade), dang it, and the cars could just wait! And wait they did. 

With baby Aztec Jesus

The parade started with a marching band from Chapala, followed close upon by indigenously-clad dancers. One of the men, in breechclout, gourd-based “bells” on his calves, and headdress with long pheasant feathers danced down the street, carrying – a Baby Jesus with a feather headdress! It was awesome.

Behind the dancers were several pickups with re-enacted scenes from the life of Saint Anthony. One included Nicodemus, which we have not really connected yet to the saint. We have confirmed, however, that he had no connection to Nicoderm, so that helps a little!

Portable Mass 

Rides

What are you looking at?

The parade ended in the town square (where else?), which was clogged with people. There was a big stage for musical acts, a dance stage below it, and the traveling carnival rides that run the saint fiesta circuit. 

One of the dance acts

Food tents closed the street

We bought some 7 peso tacos and 25 peso beers and sat and watched people (and heard lots of drums) for a while. 
 

Beautiful holiday bread

Eventually we toured the rest of the plaza, and got a cantarita for our US friend ("I ain’t no saint") Anthony Russo, the only St Anthony souvenir we could find. Not so bad though, it came full of tequila! (Sorry, Tony, it has been emptied.)

The Blue Door (but green inside) Bar

We visited a couple of new bars with one of our bartenders, Calvin (aka The Calvinator -- we explained later who Lord Kelvin was, and thus his name association with Sears refrigerators), and Dennis (aka Pato since he always wears a California Ducks Unlimited hat), and (Fountains of) Wayne from Canada. Stacey’s mom was not there, however.

Building the castillo (Note the A's jersey!)

The evening ended on the plaza in front of the church, with cohetes and then a very beautiful castillo fireworks tower. 

Viva Mexico!

 (13 de junio de 2018)