Legend in Mexican cooking to teach at Sazón
By B. K. Lake

Class Sazón Cooking School Aug 23 & 24, 11am–(N)1pm Correo 22 US$85 154-7671 Sazón@Sazónsanmiguel.com

Diana Kennedy’s first cookbook, The Cuisines of Mexico, became a bestseller in 1972 and taught Americans that Mexican food meant more than tacos, nachos and chili con carne. Eight cookbooks later and two more in the works, Kennedy “has been the most influential authority in making the world more aware of the sophistication of Mexican cuisine,” said Kirsten West, director of the Sazón cooking school.

Kennedy will come to San Miguel to give classes Aug. 21-23 at Sazón, which has emphasized regional and contemporary Mexican food since it was acquired last year by Orient Express.

Luring Kennedy to San Miguel was one of West’s goals when she became the school’s director last year. “We’ve been friends for 20 years,” West noted.

Kennedy will be the second of the three best-known authors specializing in cookbooks about regional Mexican food to appear at Sazón this year. Patricia Quintana, a native of Veracruz and author of 10 cookbooks, gave two classes after preparing a benefit dinner for Feed the Hungry in July. That leaves Rick Bayless, the foremost US writer on Mexican food and host of a popular TV show. West said she hopes to persuade Bayless, her former boss, to appear within the next year. Before coming to Sazón, West assisted Bayless with his TV show and three cookbooks over an eight-year span in Chicago.

In America, Kennedy is a household name among foodies, and in Mexico she has been awarded the coveted Order of the Eagle for her promotion of Mexican food. She was virtually unknown in her native England, until Prince Charles came to her home for lunch in 2002 to award her the Member of the British Empire, MBE, for services to Mexican-British relations.

Home base for Kennedy is a rambling, solar-powered adobe house she built outside San Pancho, a hillside village three hours west of Mexico City. Kennedy moved to Mexico in 1957 to marry Paul Kennedy, a correspondent for the New York Times. As she accompanied her husband on assignments, she became fond of the distinct foods of each region and began collecting unwritten recipes in villages that had been passed down unique dishes centuries.

After her husband died in 1967, she began teaching Mexican cooking in New York and published her first cookbook in 1972. She returned to Mexico and has been traversing the country every since for the recipes and techniques that have filled her eight books.

One result is a fruit guacamole from Guanajuato that includes a paste of chopped peach, Muscat grapes and pomegranate seeds, resulting in a flavor and texture which is a combination of sweet and sour, crunchy and tangy.

Premium tequilas find spots on the top shelves of liquor cabinets 
By David Agren, in Tequila, Jalisco

Jose Hermosillo, owner of Casa Noble Tequila, poured shots of añejo tequila into snifter glasses sitting on a bar at his company's 24-hectare compound in Tequila, Mexico, a pueblo 30 miles west of Guadalajara where the legendary beverage was supposedly first distilled. None of the connoisseurs present that day, though, dared to drink the triple-distilled spirit quickly—(M)a 750-milliliter bottle of the spirit sells for 800 pesos. Smooth and complex, with an interesting aroma and an almost buttery texture, it’s sold in a hand-painted porcelain bottle adorned with 18-karat gold detailing. Bottles of blanco (white) and reposado (rested) tequilas sell for slightly less.

And while one of Hermosillo's luxury tequilas would no doubt make a great margarita, he emphatically said, “It’s not for mixing.”

Once a beverage associated with Mexican holidays, booze-fueled debauchery and nasty hangovers, Mexico's best-known export has increasingly moved upscale, finding a spot on the top shelves of liquor cabinets and commanding steep prices from discerning connoisseurs, who often sip ultra-premium tequilas like they would a fine scotch whisky or bourbon.

Still, despite its move into the premium spirits category, some raunchy tequila stereotypes persist.

“The biggest myth is that tequila is some low-end spirit to get drunk on,” Hermosillo explained, adding that most people erroneously believe a worm is dropped into every bottle. Mezcal, an earthy spirit similar to tequila, is bottled with a worm.

Now wildly popular in the United States, tequila is quickly finding similar enthusiasm in Europe and Asia. Casa Noble now exports to countries ranging from Japan to Russia, where Hermosillo says young people, flush with cash and an appetite for something other than vodka, are fuelling a premium spirits boom. “Young [Russians] generally are shying away from vodka,” he said. “They want to try something different...and they are specifically going for high-end tequila.”

While industry giants like Jose Cuervo and Sauza have long distilled premium products, their best offerings received little attention until recently, joining a slew of export-only tequilas from craft distillers. The enormous popularity of premium tequila has even drawn celebrities into the business. Van Halen front man Sammy Hagar launched the Cabo Wabo brand several years back and penned the hit song, “Mas tequila.” Actor Dan Aykroyd scooped up the Canadian rights to the Patron brand. The Ontario Liquor Control Board (LCBO) now sells Patron Silver for some $450 Canadian dollars a bottle. According to the Aykroyd’s company, Patron Silver is the Ontario booze monopoly’s second-best-selling premium spirit. 

Foreign liquor conglomerates are also buying Mexico’s most legendary tequila brands. London-based Diageo markets Jose Cuervo and Allied Domecq has Sauza. Bacardi owns the Cazadores brand and the maker of Jack Daniel’s just scooped up Casa Herradura.

Knock-offs have arrived on store shelves, too. A Southern California company now distills a tequila-like beverage, initially selling it under the name “Temequila,” a word play on the Riverside County city where the beverage is produced. (By law, tequila must be made from blue agave plants grown in designated municipalities in five Mexican states: Jalisco, Nayarit, Michoacan, Guanajuato and Tamaulipas.)

Agave beverages also are now being produced in South Africa and marketed as less-expensive tequila alternatives, although the Guadalajara-based Tequila Regulatory Board (CRT), which set the rules for producing and marketing tequila, said its tests showed the African product was not made from blue agave.

The spate of new product offerings, said David Ozgo, an economist with the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, reflected changing demographics and consumer tastes. “Tequila is taking advantage of the trend in the spirits industry that people want to drink better liquor,” he explained. Drinking better often means paying more, but consumers seem more than willing to spend big on tequila. Growth in the top end of the tequila market is expected to outpace sales for regular tequilas for the rest of the decade. Consumption in the United States jumped by 29 percent in 2004.

Prices recently reached dizzying levels in the luxury category. In 2006, distiller Tequila Ley .925 sold the world's most expensive alcoholic beverage, an añejo tequila that cost US$225,000 and came in a solid platinum bottle, shaped like a seashell.

“Ten years ago, the idea was hatched to distill the finest, most expensive tequila in the world,” said Fernando Altamirano, CEO of Tequila Ley .925.

For an encore, Altamirano planned to auction a bottle crafted from platinum and gold and studded with diamonds for at least US$1 million—(M) tequila included—(M)in 2007.

At both the luxury and mass-market level, Mexico's famed firewater is favorably competing against longtime cocktail standbys like rum and vodka, drinks Jose Hermosillo considered his biggest competition.

“The tequila industry isn't entirely moving away from its outlaw image or abandoning the low-end of the market either,” says Sarita Gaitan, an American sociologist, who has studied the tequila industry. “People’s perceptions about tequila have shifted, but I think that it’s naïve to assume that the tequila market doesn’t continue to capitalize from its original reputation as a rebellious drink,” she explains. “While it’s seen as a more legitimate product, it still has a risqué side to it.”

To conquer new markets, the industry regulator (CRT) approved the production of flavored tequilas—(M)Casa Herradura just launched orange and lime tequilas—(M)and created a new category for extra-aged tequila. Hermosillo plans on launching an extra-aged tequila. Essentially, tequila now fits the tastes of virtually every type of drinker.

“Tequila has it all—(M)something for your high-end connoisseur and something for your mixed-drink enthusiast,” Gaitan says.

For the high-end connoisseur, small but important details differentiate premium tequilas from the mass-market brands. Many premium distillers, like Casa Noble, grow their own agaves without the use of chemicals, steam roast the agave hearts in stone ovens and naturally ferment the agave juice. After being triple distilled, the final product rests in barrels made from new wood for just under five years. Some distillers use old whisky barrels for aging tequila.

While some whiskies spend more than 20 years in a barrel, Hermosillo figures five years is long enough. “After a certain period of time, you lose a lot of the properties of the agaves and the properties of the barrel take over.” Ultimately, Hermosillo says, “If you combine all these complexities, you'll get a great spirit—(M)not just a great tequila.”