Biofuel Blows Your Drinking Budget

A short piece by me in today's SF Chronicle:

Biofuel blows drink budget

Cleaner-burning biofuels made from agricultural crops may be a more environmentally sound way to deliver energy than fossil fuels, but they may also drive up the price of your favorite adult beverage.

In news stories released last week, we learned of two examples where raw materials for drinkable alcohol are being replaced by crops to produce non-potable ethanol.

The Associated Press reports that in Germany, farmers are abandoning barley in favor of subsidized crops for biofuels. Thus barley prices have doubled in the past two years, and the increased cost of the raw materials is now being passed along to beer drinkers.

In Mexico, Reuters reports a similar phenomenon. A current glut in the agave market has inspired some growers to burn their fields and plant corn to meet U.S. demand for ethanol instead. While it doesn't appear that current Tequila prices have been raised, agave can take up to eight years to mature, so the next decade could see a shortage.

As if you needed another reason to stock up.

Once in a Blue Moon...you get a cheap drink at Tres Agaves

If the alcoholic product you’re promoting doesn't have a built-in annual event associated with it like the Kentucky Derby or New Years Eve, you might consider pulling a Hallmark and inventing your own drinking holiday. And since we’re in San Francisco, why not make it a tie-in to the lunar cycle?

Tres Agaves is promoting a one-day special coinciding with the blue moon May 31, during which they’ll be offering their Luna Azul cocktail (“valued at $18”) for the bargain price of seven bucks. I think one-day-only promoted cocktails are awesome, though I'm not sure why I think that. Anyway, here is the press release.

Tres Agaves To Celebrate Blue Moon With Rare Cocktail
“Luna Azul” cocktail to be offered once in a blue moon

SAN FRANCISCO — May 22, 2007 — According to modern folklore, a Blue Moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. Usually months have only one full moon, but very rarely a second one sneaks in. In the spirit of this rare occasion comes a rare cocktail created by Tres Agaves Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Lounge, which sold more Tequila than any other single restaurant in the country in its first year of operation and will be offered only once in a blue moon – or Thursday, May 31st, 2007.

Tres Agaves, winner of Sante Magazine’s highest award (Grand Award) for the best spirits program in the country (2006), has created the “Luna Azul,” or the Blue Moon cocktail. The Luna Azul is made with Penca Azul Tequila, which is named for the blue leaves of the agave plant. Penca Azul is very unique; only one batch is made per year, and all bottles are labeled with the year of production, making it a vintage-dated distilled spirit. It comes in a hand-blown glass bottle with a blue glass agave plant in the bottom of each bottle.

The Luna Azul, valued at $18 will be sold at the house margarita price of only $7 for this special evening.

Luna Azul - $7
=======
1 1/2 oz. Penca Azul reposado
2 oz. blueberry nectar
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1/4 oz. agave nectar

Located at 130 Townsend Street (at 2nd St.) San Francisco, CA 94107 (one block from AT&T Ball Park), Tres Agaves serves lunch, dinner and Tequila daily. Brunch service is offered on the weekends. Ample street parking is available on non-game days, as well as a convenient garage right around the next store. All major credit cards accepted, and walk-ins are always appreciated. For reservations, call 415.227.0500 or http://www.tresagaves.com

Casho for Cabo

Sammy Hagar sold 80 percent interest in his Cabo Wabo tequila to Campari, which owns or is owned by Skyy Spirits out of SF (I've heard it either way), for $80 million.

I guess he wasn't exaggerating when he said he's made way more money in the liquor business than he ever did in rock and roll.

Neighborhood Tequila Guide to San Francisco

Sometimes on the Seis de Mayo our memories are not as clear as they should be. If you've misplaced your cell phone or wallet (or pants) somewhere in the night, you can try to retrace your steps to find them, but this isn't easy if you can't remember where those steps were. If you can't recall where you were drinking in San Francisco but do remember what you were drinking, this guide should help get you to the right neighborhood.

If you were drinking a	Then you were drinking in
Body shot off a stripper	North Beach
Mexican coffee	The Tenderloin
Patron shot with salt and lime	The Marina
Tequila sunrise	The Richmond
Partida anejo, neat	Downtown
Margarita by the pitcher	The Mission
Frozen margarita with a straw	The Castro

Tequilapalooza!

I would have mentioned it in the article I wrote about the Tommy's Mexican tequila club had I known... Master's degree and higher members of the club (with at least one exception for me) get invites to private Tequilapalooza parties a couple of times a year.

The one yesterday was a hoot because Tommy's seats only about 9 people at the bar, whereas a larger crowd can mingle together elsewhere. It's another bonus beyond bragging rights to "earning" your Master's at Tommy's.

(More pictures here.)

Now that's a spicy tequila!

Tommy's Mexican has a program where if you drink four shots of Julio's habanero-infused tequila and hold it for 15 minutes (without puking and only drinking beer or water) you get your name etched onto the bottle and a free membership into the tequila tasting club. Only 17 people have achieved this so far.

Here's a YouTube video of someone attempting that feat.

Tasting Tequila at Tommy's Mexican

Mastering Tequila, One Glass at a Time

Camper English, Special to The Chronicle

Friday, February 23, 2007

Tommy's Mexican Restaurant, with a mere 275 bottles squeezed onto its shelves, no longer has the largest selection of 100 percent blue agave Tequila outside of Mexico, but likely has the most Tequila-savvy clientele. The restaurant's Blue Agave tasting club is the nation's largest, with more than 6,000 members -- not too shabby considering the restaurant is located out in San Francisco's avenues and the bar has only nine stools.

The club began around 1989, according to beverage manager Julio Bermejo, who runs the family restaurant with his father Tommy, mother and two sisters. Bermejo got the idea for the tasting club while at UC Berkeley, when he frequented Raleigh's, a bar with a beer-drinking club.

He started the Blue Agave Club a bit later, but says that, at first, "it wasn't taken seriously at all."

The rest of the story is here.

My story in today's Chronicle talks about Tommy's famous tequila tasting club. Going into it I knew that there was no discount for being in the club, and in fact you have to pay to join, so I couldn't figure out why anyone would actually do it.

As the story hopefully shows, Julio Bermejo has created a warm environment conducive to learning about tequila from people who are also in the program above you. It's a mentoring community of tequila drinkers on Monday and Wednesday nights, where you pay for drinks but get the information for free. Now that I've been there I get it- and have my own tequila club card to prove it- but I sure wish it weren't so darn far away.

Update: The first line in the story said that Tommy's no longer carries the largest selection of 100% blue agave Tequila in the country, but I didn't have space to say why that is. This is from the Tommy's website by Julio Bermejo:

The article also mentioned that Tommy's no longer has the largest selection of 100% agave Tequila in the U.S. This is true. What I say is that we carry the best selection of legally imported 100% agave tequila in the U.S. How can this be? Well, first we refuse to play the game of carrying every single 100% agave Tequila available. We have seen many people try this approach and sooner than later they revert to carrying only the best products they can get. As most of you know, there are many distilleries that put out a plethora of Tequila labels. I refuse to carry seventy products from 1 producer whom I believe to only make mediocre products. Our list continues to have at least 30 selections that are no longer made that none of our competitors can get. Tommy's continues to be the premier Tequila bar on Earth. We are grateful the Tequila industry holds us in such high esteem and we are flattered that all of our competitors come to Tommy's to learn about Tequila!

Vanity Spirits update

This is getting a little out of control. Though celebrities have been buying up vineyards for years (I call them vainyards), more of them are getting into the spirits industry. One of the first was Sammy Hagar with Cabo Wabo tequila. Now we have Willie Nelson's Old Whiskey River bourbon, Trump Vodka, Jay-Z and Damon Dash's Armadale vodka, and I just read that Vince Neil bought a tequila Tres Rios.