Canned cocktails hit the market

Several distillers recently rolled out ready-to-go mixed drinks - made with real spirits and not malt - that are now available in cans. According to The Bar Blog, the drinks are selling well in test markets.

These beverages, while new in the U.S., are old news in other countries. I used to work in a promotions business that pushed these products in the late 90s, when seemingly every brewer and distiller was releasing coolers - and Mike's Hard Lemonade was the category leader. The appeal - mainly for women - was the sweet taste and seven-percent alcohol content. (And the virtue industry bristles at the appeal of lower-alcohol alcopops - a pejorative term for a legally available product that young people happen to enjoy.) Malt has a funny taste and why these new products took so long to hit the market is a mystery.

On an interesting side note: Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, the maker of Sol beer, introduced Sol Citric, a malt cooler, earlier this summer, which is sold in Mexico's ubiquitous Oxxo convenience stores. The new product mainly competes with tequila coolers - especially Herradura's New Mix.

For something completely different, I tried canned pulque a few months back. It still tasted rather unappealing - just like fresh pulque - but at least I avoided the seedy pulqueria atmosphere.

Money for agave farmers, but the glut continues

The federal agriculture secretariat (Sagarpa) recently mandated 59 million peso for farmers stuck hoarding low-value agave, which not all that long ago was dubbed "blue gold." The agave glut, which came about after a price spike in the late 1990s, has hit farmers in Western Mexico hard - especially in Jalisco. The high prices induced many to enter the industry and farmers in states like San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas - which are not part of the authorized agave-growing or tequila-producing regions - planted agave, as it grows in the some of the most steep and inhospitable terrain imaginable.

Even with the help from Segarpa, the glut should persist until 2009, according to the Jalisco Rural Development Secretariat. At that time, another shortage could come again - restarting the boom-bust cycle.

Tequila song author passes away

Thanks for this update goes to blogger Joe Gringo. Danny Flores, author of the hit (I don't know what other adjective to use) song Tequila, passed away recently.

The song, played by the Champs, only had only one lyric, "Tequila," but, damn, it sure got played a lot - although, I'm not sure it was ever all that popular here in Mexico. (Maybe Sammy Hagar's Mas tequila and Paulina Rubio's Dame otro tequila were given more airplay ... but they both lacked Flores' originality - he made the song in 1958, when tequila wasn't held in very high esteem. Hagar, of course, is pitching Cabo Wabo these days. Rubio ... she's a fresa trying to convince people she's a rebel.)